You have completed the mission successfully. You are awarded two E-points. You are also awarded one skill point and one mod point. Credits: Completed mission 10 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 taking command of the First squad you are awarded two E-points. You are rewarded one skill point and one mod point. 5 Credits

Bonus 3: For completing a timed mission you are awarded two E-points. You are rewarded one skill point and one mod point. 10 Credits

Bonus 4: For completing a bonus objective you are awarded two E-points. You are rewarded one skill point and one mod point. 10 Credits

Bonus 5: Platoon bonus: For all squads successfully completing all objectives in under four hours without a single failure you are rewarded with one half off voucher for the starter template armor of your choice.

Congratulations you have leveled up.

Congratulations you have leveled up.

Status Screen

Name: Freya O’Malley

Rank: Recruit Level: 8

Template: None

Enlisted Points: 25

Credits: 93

Skill Points: 12

Mod Points: 12

Wetware Mods

Health:

Level:

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.

Freya took a deep breath when she stepped back into the forest where she had been training in Basic. She felt amazing. Smiling she checked her announcements. She laughed when she read that she got another coupon. This one was for her armor. “What an amazing reward.” She thought smiling.

“Everyone, gather around my chair!” The drill instructor bellowed. Freya turned to the drill instructor who was still sitting in her pink lawn chair. She hurried up to stand in the crowd that was forming in front of the drill instructor.

“Ok people take a knee.” The drill instructor said in her normal voice. “Everyone here please raise your hand if you’re at least level 2.” Freya looked around and saw that everyone in the company raised their hands.

“Everyone who has their hand raised, give me an oorah. You just passed Basic training!” The drill instructor yelled out smiling. Freya joined in the ancient warcry of the marine.

“Keep your hands up. I want to see my overachievers. Keep your hand up if you're at least level 3.” The drill instructor asked. About two-thirds of the company dropped their hands.

“That’s a pretty good turn out. Keep your hands up if you're at least level 4.” Only four people had their hands up beside Freya.

“Level 5?” The drill instructor asked. Only one other person had their hand up beside Freya.

“That’s actually pretty good. Ok, Level 6?” The Drill instructor asked once again. Freya was the only had still remaining. She could feel the gazes of the other recruits on her as she kept her hand in the air.

“Damn nice recruit. Level 7?” Freya kept her hand in the air.

“Level 8?” The drill instructor asked. Her tone of voice was raising.

“Level 9?” Freya dropped her hand and the drill instructor laughed.

“Damn good recruit. Damn good. And that, people, is someone who will go far in the Marines.” The drill instructor said smiling.

Event: Recruit Training Simulation Completed

Congratulations you have placed in the top ten percent of an event. Your final ranking is 38. You have received the highest reward offered for this event.

You have been awarded 1 Master Perk.

Warning all Perk assignments locked until seen by a counselor.

“Probably a Prep school baby. Someone muttered as Freya read the blue box that popped up.

“I’m no prep school baby. I’m from Earth.” Freya muttered trying to get the blue box to tell her what a Master Perk was.

“Yea, right. You’re an earthling.” The same woman who called her a prep school baby, scoffed.

“That’s enough.” The drill instructor said sitting up from her chair. “Recruit O’Malley’s home planet is listed as Earth. You tell me, would any war academy accept an Earthling?” No one replied to the drill instructor.

“Ma'am, what is a Master Perk?” Freya asked the drill instructor.

“Well, well. You placed in the top ten. You just won me a beer at Chiva’s. What was your rank?” The drill instructor asked.

The blue box had faded away and Freya didn’t remember the number. “I’m not sure Ma'am.”

“Think Event completion notification. It should come up there.” The drill instructor said smiling.

Freya did as the drill instructor asked and the blue box appeared again. “Thirty-eight Ma'am,” Freya told her drill instructor.

“Ha, you landed right around roughly eight or nine percent. Good job recruit. There is no way anyone can say you squeaked by. Ok, people, that’s enough screwing around. I need to collect my beer. Once we are done here I’ll drop you Marines off by the barracks. You get a free barracks bunk as long as you are in the Marines. You can get an apartment if you want but those cost credits. I would suggest against it right now as you’ll need all the credits you can get to mod out your weapons and armor but it’s hard to get some alone time with about fifty to a hundred people sleeping all around you.” The drill instructor told the company.

“When I tell you to, head over to the console trees and …. When I tell you to Bedford, you mushroom, get back here.” The drill instructor said yelling at one of the recruits who got up to go to the console trees. The recruit quickly sat back down.

“As I was saying. When I tell you to go to the console trees and select counseling session with the Monarch. The Monarch will help you plan out your template and give you tips to help you with your career path. When your done come back here and we will form up and head out once everyone is ready. Questions? No? Good. Let's get it done people.” The drill instructor told them as she ignored the few raised hands.

Freya followed the crowd to the console trees. She waited her turn then clicked on the only mission available which was a counseling session with the Monarch. The mission had a simple information screen. It just said Counseling session with the Monarch for mod and skill assignments. She wondered if it would explain about the perk she got. She, of course, chose the wrong tree again and had to walk to the other side of the field to get to the right lobby. Opening the door she stepped into the light….

….And walked into a large office. It looked like any rich person’s office she saw on TV. It had a big old fashion desk with a bookshelf behind the desk. Under the desk and covering most of the office was a large and thick red and blue rug with odd geometric shapes on them. Behind the desk was the avatar of the FS Monarch's AI. The AI had chosen to appear as a woman dress in an officer's dress uniform but the uniform had no rank on it. It did have some ribbons on it though.

“Welcome recruit. I am the Monarch. Would you please have a seat and we will get started." The AI asked pointing to a large leather chair in front of the desk.

From her download, Freya knew that the ship's AI was both in and not in the chain of command. She could give commands only when instructed to by someone with a higher rank than the person who was receiving the command. In other words, the command could only go downstream in rank. For Freya, as a recruit, if the ship gave an order then she would have to obey it, as long as someone gave the Monarch an order. There was no one under her yet to give orders to.

Back in the day, mankind had used AI’s for everything even exploration. It turned out to be a stupid idea. Mankind's AI’s were not up to the standards of the universe's AI and the ships returned to wage war on the humans who had sent them to the stars. Nowadays, mankind still used AI’s but only with some severe restrictions. There always had to be a human in charge of the AI and mankind had to have living backups in case of something going wrong. Everything that the Monarch controlled had to have someone who knew how to turn that something off or repair it if there was an emergency.

“Ma'am.” Feya acknowledged and sat down.

“We will get to your Master Perk at the end so please hold all your questions until then. First let me congratulate you being in the top tier winners bracket in the Event: Recruit Training Simulation. For someone of you ecosocial background that is a major accomplishment.”

“Thank you, Ma'am,” Freya said.

“Let me ask you recruit. What do you want to do in the Marines? What is your end goal? Are you here just to get citizenship to a paradise world or are you here to make the marines your career?” The Monarch asked.

“I want to be a fighter pilot, Ma'am,” Freya told the AI.

Ever since she was a young girl and watched ship lift off and fly away and she had always wanted to pilot those ships. The desire had changed though. She had seen an Earth show on TV about a group of fighter pilots who fought to protect a massive carrier ship. It was a very campy show that was not based in fact at all. The show was produced on Earth so no one really paid any attention to it. Freya found it online and since it was free to stream she watched it. Ever since that stupid show, she wanted to be a fighter pilot.

“That is a very ambitious goal, recruit The closest thing to a fighter pilot is the marine close-in support ship. The pilots fight in both in the planet’s atmosphere and space around it. You are a long way away from the goal but it is with your grasp in a few years. First, you have to be a Warrant Officer before you can pilot a close-in support ship. There is a lot of prerequisites you need to have that will take up a lot of skills points and there is a lot of restrictions as well. The good news is that there are a few career paths to your goal.” The Monarch said leaning back in its chair.

“First is the respec option. With that option, you can choose any template you wish and use any hardware mods you like. Once you get close to your goal you can respec or reset your clones back to your original body. This will take out all the hardware mods you have and remove all the wetware mods as well. From there you can build yourself back up in compliance with the prerequisites that are needed to be a pilot of a close-in support ship.” The Monarch told her.

“There is a big flaw with this option though. Once you respec back to your original body you will lose all the skill and mod points that you have spent. On top of that, it costs mod points to reset to the original. You can still do this but it will take a rather long time to build your body back up to be eligible to be a pilot. With this option, you will rise in rank faster than the other options but you will be surpassed eventually in rank by those who chose the other options.” The Monarch explained.

“Another option is to choose a tank crew template. Many of the tank crew template requirements are the same as those who wish to be a pilot. The problem with this template is that there is a low percentage of a real-world mission. Most missions do not require or need a tank battalion so if you chose this template you will have to spend a lot of time doing sim missions struggling to get enough E-points to stay in the Marines.” The Monarch explained.

“The last option that is suited to your personality is that of a scout template. As with a tank template, the scout template uses many of the same skills and mods that a pilot needs. You will rise faster with this template than that of a tank crew template. There is also a much greater chance for a real-world mission than a tank crew would ever have. Scouts are needed on almost all missions both in the sims and the real world.” The Monarch told Freya.

“The reason why most people do not use this template is the high mortality this template has. The position of scout has the highest mortality rate in any of the ground combat templates. There is also a very high chance of being left behind by your platoon if a retreat is called for. The Marines also require all scouts to have a suicide device implanted in case of capture once they reach the Company scout position. The type of suicide device is up to the scout. The device has to have an anti-tamper device, as well as an auto-destruct if it detects that you have been compromised either by a psion or a metal control device.” The Monarch said.

“What are the requirements to be a fighter pilot,” Freya asked the Monarch.

“The requirements to be a marine close-in support ship is rather long but I will summarize the most imports ones to you right now. First, you cannot mod your body for anything but light armor. That means no sim muscle. There is not a lot of room inside a small ship and a weight issue. The template requirement requires a very high perception, dexterity, and processing speed mods. There are many other requirements that you can read yourself later but these are the ones you can affect the most with your current rank.” The Monarch told her.

“Can you explain more about what a scout does? I know they go out and look around but is there anything else that they do? Like maybe plant explosives or something like that?” Freya asked.

“There are seven levels of a scout. 2nd Platoon scout is the lowest position of a scout. At this level, the scout takes the point position of a squad or platoon. You have already taken this position many times during the recruit simulations. At this level, perception is the most import mod that a scout can have. You will not have the armor or health to survive if you are attacked. At this level. It is best to spot an attack then to trigger it. To be able to list yourself as a platoon scout two on the mission boards you must have twenty points invested into perception.” The Monarch explained.

“1st Platoon scout has the same missions as 2nd Platoon scout does but they may be required to patrol slightly ahead of the platoon. The mod requirements are thirty points in perception, ten points in agility, and ten points in processing speed.” The monarch explained.

“2nd Company Scout has all the requirements of a platoon scout but they may be asked to patrol up to day’s march away from the main force. The mod requirements are greatly increased. 1st Company scout has the same requirements as the company scout two does plus they may be asked to patrol away from the main force for several days.”

“2nd Scout’s main job is to be the protection of 1st scout and the highest level of a scout is the Scout sniper. 1st Scout may be sent on a detailed mission to monitor or kill a high ranking enemy. A scout sniper's job is to plan their own mission to eliminate many high ranking enemies as they can.” The Monarch summarized

“I would recommend, if you choose this template, to put all your mod points into perception until you reach the minimum to apply for a scouting position on sims which is 20. For your skills, I would suggest OTIDS or one-time infantry Dropship. It costs a skill point. This skill allows you to use the autopiloting drop ship for missions that do not have a spawn location on the ground. I would also suggest you get Enhanced sensing. This is a skill, not a mod. It trains you to use your senses to their maximum effectiveness. This will greatly aid your perception, agility, and dexterity. The cost is 6 skill points. My next recommendation is Tracking. This skill will aid you at identifying and help track beings in the physical world over many different environments this still costs 2 skill point. My last recommendation for skills in this template is acrobatics to help aid in avoid gunfire. This skill costs a single skill point. Do you wish for me to list the tank crew template requirements and recommendations at this time?” The Monarch asked.

“No thank you, Ma'am,” Freya replied.

“The Master Perk that you received can be turned in for many different rewards. You may turn it in for twenty skill points and twenty mod points. If you have your mind on set on being a pilot then I suggest that you turn it in for a very specific mod that while it is not a requirement for a pilot many pilots get it. It is a wetware personal AI mod. The mod is designed to interact with electronic equipment and give you information from electronic sources faster. It normally costs five hundred mod points. Pilots usually wait to get the mod last because of the cost even though it is recommended to get it at a much lower level so that it grows with the host. There is a way to get around this recommendation and that is spending mod and skill points to grow it artificially faster. To do it that way, the pilot must choose to modify the wetware mod so that it acts like a normal AI instead of a body skill like it is designed to. This will slow the information exchange down and there is a possibility for the mod used to modify the wetware mod to be hacked by an enemy.”

“With the Master Perk, you may choose to get the mod and let it grow with you. It will need at least a month to grow large enough so that it can start to work even in the digital world. As the mod grows, you will gain more skills in interacting and reading electronic equipment. Do you have any more questions?” The Monarch asked.

“No Ma'am,” Freya replied. “I think I will go with the scout template and the wetware mod..”

“That is a good decision based on your personality. When your drill instructor releases you to the Marine Concourse you will be able to go to the training facilities and select your skills and mods. I will reiterate that you should research your skills before choosing them. I have given you some good options but there are many that you can choose from. You can do that at the training facility. After that, you can head to one of the shops on the concourse and use your coupons and get your armor and weapons. From my observations, you seem to be more than capable of choosing your weapons without my input. Unless there are any more questions that will be all recruit.”

“Thank you, Ma’am,” Freya said standing up and saluting the ship's AI. It saluted back and Freya turned and opened the door then walked into the light.

Freya found herself walking out of the door to the lobby. She frowned when she realized that she didn’t get that amazing feeling she got when she returned from a mission. She wondered why. Looking around she spotted her drill instructor sitting with a few people from the company. She walked towards them.

“Hey, O’Malley. We’re playing the ‘what did you get’ game. So spill, what are you going with.” The drill instructor asked.

“Scout, Ma’am,” Freya replied.

The drill instructor whistled. “You must be a glutton for punishment then. You do know that most scouts spend a lot of time respawning, right?”

“Yes, Ma’am. The Monarch made me well aware.” Freya replied.

“The good news is that all scouts get a twenty-five percent discount on respawns. It’s one of the perks of being the one most likely to be killed.” The drill instructor said laughing. When she calmed down the drill instructor continued. “The big platoons are always snatching up good scouts. It won’t be long until they start sniffing around you. Just be careful on who you choose to join. Some of the bigger guys will chew you up and spit you out. Find one you like and stay with them.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Freya responded.

“What are you going with, for the Master Perk?” The drill instructor asked curiously.

“The Monarch suggested I get the Wetware mod personal AI,” Freya told her.

“Damn, I didn’t think you could use the Master Perk for that. The Monarch must really like you.” The drill instructor said shaking her head in amazement.

“If you say so, Ma’am,” Freya said as another recruit walked up from the lobby.

“Hey, recruit we are playing the ‘what you get’ game. So what did you get.” The drill instructor asked the recruit as she walked up to the company.

It didn’t take all the long for the rest of the company to complete their counseling session with the Monarch. The drill instructor played the ‘What did you get’ game with every recruit as they were released by the Monarch. After everyone played the drill instructors game she had everyone get into formation then marched them past the console trees and the lobby buildings. Just past the lobby buildings by the tree line was a huge door that opened as the company marched up to it. The company marched its way into the light.