Freya sighed as she opened the pod door and covering herself up before getting out of the respawn pod. She equipped her armor and weapons and she checked to make sure everything was on right. Her camo reverted back to the one when she had when she started the mission but she did have the enemy uniform camo stored now in her suit. She looked around and noticed that she was in respawn dropship. The door in the back of the ship was closed and a small crowd was waiting by the door. She walked over to joined them. As she was walking the ship tilted to the right and Freya stumbled a bit before she reached up and grabbed a hold of a pipe that was hanging from the ceiling.

“We’re flying!” Freya thought surprised.

She was just getting used to the movements of the ship when the ship started to vibrate a lot then there was a bump and everything settled down. Freya smiled as the door opened. She loved flying.

A new waypoint dropped on her HUD map. Mentally clicking it she was told to report to her platoon. She left the dropship and started walking to the river. As she left the soccer field she spotted several tanks pulling out at the same time. People were jumping on them getting a ride. Smiling Freya jumped onto a tank as it passed. A corporal who was already riding it gave her a hand helping her up onto the tank. She nodded her thanks and sat down on the side of the tank making room of the others who were climbing onto the tank.

The tank joined a line of tanks heading towards the river. Freya smiled as she noticed a lot of the tanks now supported marines on top of them getting a ride to the river. The line slowed down a bit by the last turn off for the street that led to the river. Freya spotted a temporary bridge already built over the river.

“How long was I dead?” Freya wondered frowning. She checked her logs and found that she had only been dead for a little less than thirty minutes. The mission had started only a little more than an hour and a half ago.

There was no one walking on the bridge but there was a lot of people riding tanks and other vehicles as they drove over the bridge. Freya looked off in the distance over the river and wondered if this sim world was a copy of a real world. It looked so real with so much detail that Freya couldn’t imagine that an AI could get all the details right when it designed the sim.

She was still wondering when the corporal who helped her onto the tank tapped her arm. “Last stop.” He said as she looked at him. Freya looked around in surprise as she realized that they had just got off the bridge and were now on the beach.

She jumped down and followed the rest of the marines up the beach towards the stairs. The tanks she noticed drove down the beach. She wondered where they were going. She walked past where Jesus and the rest of her platoon had died and looked out into deviation. Where the tourist trap had once stood were now just empty shells of the buildings. Command had bombed this part of the city.

As she passed what was left of the tourist trap she thought to herself, “Man I should have looted the place.” She knew that once she died all that stuff would have been left with her dead body but still. That made her think about finding her dead body. That made her feel uncomfortable. She was not sure what she would feel if she found her dead body.

The park was a crater filled wasteland and all the building around it were demolished. There were lines of burnt out tanks and other vehicles on either side of the park. The lieutenant must have used the recordings from her video feed to call in an artillery strike to take them out. There was not a lot left for several blocks around the park.

She found her platoon a few blocks deeper into the city. She waved as she spotted Jagger and Jesus.

“Glad you could make it,” Jagger said as she walked up to them. “Took your time respawning?”

“Sorry was sightseeing,” Freya replied as she walked up to her platoon. “You should have seen the place before the lieutenant bombed it. There was this nice tourist trap shop right by the beach and I was thinking of getting you guys something like a really nice looking snow globes of the city that I saw in the window.”

“What were you doing in a tourist trap?” Jesus asked.

“Hiding bodies,” Freya replied.

“That is a good place to hid bodies,” Jagger said sounding amused. "Among all those dead tourists."

“Now that Ms. Magic is back let’s get going. Our orders are to head into the city and capture police stations along the way. I’m sending you all the directions now to your maps. Jagger, take your squad and find a nest somewhere and play overwatch. I want the front and back covered. Jesus your squad has the front once Jagger has the building covered. Jax the back. Connie, you follow Jesus and Coleman you follow Jax in. My squad will be the reserve. Call out if you get in trouble.” The platoon leader told the squad.

Jagger set out leading the squad in a run towards the police station. He dropped two more waypoints onto everyone in the squads HUD maps. “Me and Ms. Magic have waypoint one. You guys have two. Make sure to keep an eye on the road and not just the building. If there are any reinforcements that we didn’t spot the rest of the platoon won’t be happy with us.”

Waypoint one turned out to be a roof on top of a five-story apartment building. Freya settled down on the far corner and zoomed out so she could see both the police building and the streets behind the police building. Jagger stood next to her scanning the area with his gun.

“We’re set.” The people who were sent to waypoint two called over the radio.

“Copy that,” Jagger replied.

A few minutes later the rest of the squads in the platoon appeared. Freya watched as half the platoon broke into two groups. One headed towards the back while the first group lined up out front. Freya didn’t see the platoon leader’s group but assumed they were ready when Jesus led his group into the building.

“Leader, I'm seeing a group of friendly tanks coming down the street behind you.” One of the guys from waypoint two said over the radio.

“Jesus and Jaxs you guys need to hurry up. We just got orders to clear another police station down the road. The tanks are here to secure this area.” The platoon leader said over the radio.

“I’m clear here,” Jesus replied. “This place is empty. There is no one here.”

“Clear here too,” Jaxs said over the radio.

“I’m sending the next waypoint now. Jagger, take your squad and head out now. Jesus and Jaxs if there is an armory in there blow it then meet us out here.” The platoon leader ordered.

“Armory is back here. Setting demo charges now.” Jaxs said over the radio.

The next police station was looked just as empty as the first one was and Freya set up on the roof across the street from the police station that sat in the middle of a row of stores. Looking through her scope she frowned. “Where are all the people? Where are the police for that matter?” She wondered scanning the street.

Jesus stormed through the front door with his squad and from inside the building came the sound of Jesus’s heavy machine gun going off. Freya tensed and scanned the windowless building. Unable to see in she felt her anxiety rise. The gunfire faded away after a few seconds.

“Just some looters. It looks like they were trying to get into the armory. Were clear here. They are all dead.” Jesus said over the radio.

“Clear here as well.” Jaxs said.

“Command is getting impatient. Here is the next one.” Their platoon leader said and a new waypoint appeared on Freya’s map.”Blow the armory and let’s get going.”

Jagger had them set their waypoint on the top floor of a two-story building. Right away Freya saw that this police station was going to be different. There was a police squad car guarding the back of the building that Jagger wanted to use as a sniper nest.

“We got a lot of company here. I can’t get to waypoint one on my map heading to waypoint three. I have a police vehicle here blocking the entrance. I’m pretty sure the building is crawling with cops.” Jagger told the platoon leader over the radio.

“Copy. Wait-one.” The platoon leader told them. Jagger paused and waited by the wall. Freya scanned behind them looking for threats. She did not like how exposed she felt. All was quiet on the radio for a few minutes before the Platoon leader came back on over the radio. “Ok, command is sending in the tanks. We're going to skip this one and head to the next one. Dropping a waypoint now.”

The rest of the day went mostly the same as the platoon rushed deeper into the city. If they saw the police presence outside the police station the platoon leader called in the tanks and moved on. If it looked empty Jesus and Jaxs cleared the building and blew the armory. The one police station that stood out in her mind was the one in the early morning hours.

Freya was looking at the police station through her scope zoomed all the way out so that she could see some of the street that the police station was on. There was only one street and it ran from east to west. Jagger had them set up in an empty apartment building on the third building on the block. Freya had set up on a bed looking at the police station and the west side of the street. Jagger was laying on a long table that used to contain paint cans. He could see from his position the police station and the east side of the street.

Jesus had just entered the building when she noticed a police cruiser driving down the road to the police station. “Cop car coming up from the west side of the street,” Freya announced to Jagger.

“You have a shot at the driver?” He asked standing up and moving around the bed to stand behind her.

“I have a shot.” Freya said aiming at the driver’s window.

“Take it.” He told her.

Freya took a deep breath and pulled the trigger. Her kill count went up by one and the police car swerved to the right and crashed into another car on the street. A second police officer got out of the car and started to run away.

“You have a shot?” Jagger asked from behind her.

“Yup.” Freya replied.

“Take it.” Jagger told her. Freya pulled the trigger and the police officer drop to the ground. Her kill count went up again.

“Clear here.” Jagger said over the radio. “Had two Law enforcement officers (LEOs) in a vehicle. Took them both out.”

“Copy.” The platoon leader replied.

They worked right up to noon clearing the police stations, one after another when they were allowed to stop and rest for three hours. The platoon leader spilt the platoon up into two squads. The first squad had to stay awake while the second squad got to sleep for one and a half hours. Then she had them swap. The platoon settled down at Freya and Jagger’s sniper nest which was in a really nice apartment on the top floor of a really expensive looking apartment building.

Freya took the couch and curled up to sleep. It felt like she had just closed her eyes when Jagger woke her up to stand her watch. Switching off her external speakers so they would not hear her curse, she walked out the door to the apartment and went to the emergency hatch to the roof.

She made herself a nest and laid down on the roof. Sipping on her nutrient drink she scanned the surrounding area. Off in the distance behind her, there was some thick black smoke rising upwards to the sky. She tried to get a look at what was on fire but there was a building in the way. She checked her HUD map but it didn’t show her what was on fire. She zoomed the map out to get a better picture but even then she still had no idea on what was on fire. The map only showed box outlines of buildings. There were no names or even how tall the building was on her map.

Giving up on trying to see what was on fire, she turned back around to scan the surrounding streets and buildings. The place was deserted. “I wonder where all the civilians are?” She thought to herself as she looked into the stores that were closed and locked up tight.

“If anything there should be looters or just random people running around.” Freya thought to herself. “I wonder if its a problem with the sim? Maybe they forgot to program people in?”

She was turning around slowly scanning behind her when the explosions started to go off one after off in the distance. Her suit immediately warned her that it had dropped her external hearing feed to sixty percent due to the noise level was exceeding safety margins. Looking up she spotted huge explosions rocking the city reducing buildings to rubble.

It took her a few seconds staring in awe at the destruction to notice that the explosions were getting closer. Cursing she keyed up her radio. “We have incoming rounds. They are taking out the buildings and they are getting closer.” She called over the radio.

“Roger.” Her platoon leader replied. “Get off the roof. We're leaving.”

“Roger that,” Freya said jumping up and running towards the hatch. She ripped the hatch open and jumped down. Her platoon was already leaving the room as she dropped down. She followed them down the stairs and out of the building.

She was trying to figure out a good way to ask where they were going when Jesus ran to a storm drain and pulled the heavy metal grate up.

“Get in.” The platoon leader yelled motion for Freya’s squad to jump in the small opening. Freya didn’t hesitate and jumped into the sewer once everyone had gone before her. Above her, Jesus replaced the grate leaving the rest of the platoon out on the street.

“The hole is too small for us.” The platoon leader yelled over the radio. “This is going to take out much of our troops and I expect that a counter-offensive following soon. You’re going to be behind enemy lines. Use that opportunity to get some good kills. We will meet up after we respawn but it might take a while. Jagger if you see an opportunity, call in an artillery strike on my channel. I’ll pass the word up. Find a place to hold up and don't get dead.”

“Roger that,” Jagger replied. He started crawling down the sew away from the opening.

Freya took one last look up at the storm drain before she chased after her squad. The Sewer pipe was small and dark. In the movies that Freya had seen the sewer pipes were always bigger and somewhat cleaner than the ones she was crawling through. She wished that this sim mission was more movie-like as she crawled on her hands and knees. There was some water running down the center like a stream but there were trash and other things in the water and piled up on the sides. The water itself was black and Freya didn’t want to think about what it was made up from. There was also something squishy under the water that she felt every time she put her hand down in the water. She even felt it through her armor.

Freya had crawled about thirty feet or so when the world went crazy. The sewer pipe shook and the disgusting water splashed everywhere. She got another warning from her armor saying that it had turned down the external microphones to ten percent. The explosions went off right above her and she could feel her chest shake as the shock waves passed through her body blunted slightly by her armor.

“O’Malley, get your butt in gear.” Jagger yelled at her through her radio.

Freya looked behind her to see the light from the storm grate was gone and there was only darkness. She turned on her night vision and all she saw were piles of stone and dirt not far behind her. Not wanting to be buried if the rest of the pipe collapsed, she crawled faster after her squad.

They traveled another ten or so feet down the sewer pipe when Jagger called a stop. The next storm drain was gone, caved in. He called for breaching explosives and set them by the ceiling. He had them move back down the pipe and blew a hole in the ceiling big enough for them to crawl through.

Freya crawled through the hole and found herself in a dust cloud so thick she couldn’t see anything further than her outstretched arm. The ground was covered with broken blocks of cement and thin grey dirt. She looked around for her squad and didn’t see them. She looked at her map and was glad she had her sensor cloud. It showed several green dots surrounding her. she had just taken her eyes off the HUD map when Jagger’s voice came over the radio.

“Call out by rank so I know you’re alive,” Jagger said and Freya called her name out last. To Freya’s relief, everyone was still alive. “Unlock you HUD maps and go to the waypoint. We will meet up and figure out what we are going to do.”

Freya unlocked her HUD map and the map spun around so that the top part was facing north. The waypoint was southwest from her position. She turned until she was facing the waypoint and got to her feel. Trying to keep her balance on the loose rocks Freya stumbled forward into the dust blindly. Even with the HUD map assisting her, it was still really hard to find her way in the dark dust cloud.

By the time she got to the waypoint the dust had started to settle and she could see sunlight streaming through the large dust cloud. Freya found it oddly beautiful as she sat down by the rest of her squad. There were only four people in her platoon still alive. She wondered how long until the rest of the platoon respawned considering that an awful lot of people had to have died it that barrage.

Jagger found them an almost intact building that had one of the walls blow off. It was also missing a roof. They used that as a base as the enemy soldiers advanced past their position. They hid until nightfall and Jagger led them out. He had some kind of mod that let him see the enemy soldier’s ranks and he had them bypass most of the enemy as being too low level to give away their position to just take out foot soldiers.

Finally, he spotted someone he wanted dead. He ordered the other two members of her squad to guard Freya and himself. He told Freya that she was the trigger puller as he settled down next to her.

“Why is she the trigger puller?” The taller of the two other squad members asked.

“Do you have the Golden E award? I sure as hell don’t.” Jagger replied. When the tall guy didn’t reply Jagger ordered him to find a good position to guard their rear.

Freya zoomed in on the soldier that Jagger had marked. He didn’t look any different than anyone else around him. He wore the same uniform with no markings telling anyone he was someone important. He even carried the same gun like everyone else around him. Freya could not see what Jagger had seen to make him a target. She wondered what mod he had used. She lined up the shot and waited on Jagger to give the order. When he did Freya pulled the trigger and the soldier dropped to the ground with a hole in his chest.

The enemy platoon immediately started firing in all directions. Jagger had them wait until the firing slowed down before they pulled back and left the enemy platoon with one less officer. Over the next few days, the scenario repeated itself several times. Jagger would find a higher enlisted leader or some high ranking officer for them to target. Every time he had a target Freya was the shooter. She never let him down. She even killed an officer that was riding in the passenger seat in an armored vehicle. She shot him as he passed by through the open side window. She impressed herself with the shot. It was a lot harder than shooting a running elk back on Earth.

On the third day, behind enemy lines, the squad stumbled onto a large enemy camp. Jagger had them back up. He called Command for an artillery strike. A little more than five hundred meters away Freya watched the camp get hit. There was no warning one second the people in the camp were going about their everyday lives the next they were gone. The artillery strike completely destroyed the camp. They circled around what was left of the camp looking for survivors but didn’t find anyone. They left, looking for more targets.

On the seventh day since the mission started they got a surprise order asking them to reroute to help a friendly platoon out. The platoon was surrounded and was held up in a large building. Their job was to wait for the tanks to come in and protect the tanks from enemy anti-tank weapons. The friendly platoon would leave their position and aid the tanks on a counter attack.

Jagger split the squad up with half the squad finding a good spot on one side of the enemy while he led Freya to one on the other side of the enemy. It took twenty minutes to find the battle before they had split up and another five to find good cover to shoot from afterward. Freya found a spot inside a mostly destroyed building near the top of a pile of stones. Jagger found a spot thirty feet away standing up by the wall. He used a rebar that was sticking out of the wall to steady his gun.

Freya shifted on the pile of stones. It gave her a really good advantage on the enemy but the rocks were not comfortable laying. She had to lay on the pile with her head pointed down the rock pile. She used a broken cylinder block to stabilize her gun.

“Wait for the tanks to attack before shooting. Shoot anyone with a heavy ordnance weapon point at our people. Watch your rear and stay safe.” Jagger ordered over the radio to the entire squad.

Freya looked down at the battle in front of her. The marines were pinned down in a long two-story building that was still mostly standing. Standing in what was left of the buildings across the street from the marines was the enemy. From the advantage point, Jagger had found for them, Freya could look right down on the enemy from the left side of them. The other part of the squad was on the other side of the enemy looking down at them as well.

“Here come the tanks,” Jagger said over the radio. “Prepare to fire.”

Freya lined up her shot at a soldier that was shooting holes in the building that the marines were hiding behind. Freya watched as he crouched down to reloaded his weapon before he stood up to shoot again.

“Fire.” Jagger ordered over the radio. Freya pulled the trigger and the man with the huge gun dropped. She quickly shifted her gun and found another soldier with a skinny long weapon that he was bracing against the ground. She dropped him and move one.

The tanks came around the building on both sides. They started to fire as soon as they were cleared of the long building punching holes in the ruins that the enemy had taken cover in. To Freya’s surprise, the enemy didn’t run when faced with the tanks. Instead, they held firm and kept attacking.

Freya kept aiming at anyone who picked up a big gun that looked dangerous enough to hurt a tank. She spotted a large heavy armored soldier with a large shoulder fired weapon. She fired at him as he aimed the weapon at a tank. The round bounced off his heavy armor and he fired his shoulder-fired cannon. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched a tank get hit. The whole front part of the tank exploded outwards as the round penetrated the tank. Cursing Freya lined up another shot and pulled the trigger three times before the heavily armored soldier dropped.

“I need a better gun.” She thought to herself angrily as she lined up another shot and pulled the trigger again.

“Magic, we got company about sixty feet behind us,” Jagger told her. “You keep doing what you’re doing and I’ll take care of them.”

“Roger,” Freya replied and pulled the trigger again dropping a soldier who was putting together some kind of cannon that looked dangerous. When he fell two more soldiers took his place and Freya put them both down with well-placed shots.

She paused to aim her sensor cloud behind her and her HUD map lit up with a bunch of black and red dots. She sursed herself as she realized that she should have done that from the beginning. The green dot that was Jagger stopped moving and another red dot turned black. Freya counted the red dots and came up with four leaving four black dots. Even as she watched another red dot turned black. Satisfied that Jagger could handle the enemy behind her she turned back to the battle in front of her and lined up another shot. Her kill count rose again.

It wasn’t long before the enemy finally broke in the face of the tanks. Jagger came back soon afterward. The red dots behind them were all gone. They were ordered to follow the enemy with the tanks. Jagger had them stay mostly to the sides of the enemy and take a shot or two before running to keep up with the fleeing enemy while the tanks kept up the pursuit from directly behind the feeling enemy.

The tanks were slowed down by the ruins even as they plowed right through them. They were still moving faster than the enemy though. Soon the enemy started to surrender. First it was just one soldier here or there. Soon the became entire squads giving up and before long entire companies were dropping their weapons and surrendering.

Freya’s squad were told to stop and rest while the rest of their platoon caught up with them. An hour later the platoon caught up with Freya's squad and they were ordered to join the forces with another platoon and to continue on towards the center of the city. The next two days, they rushed forward after the enemy overrunning many enemy troops who were forced to surrender.

They hit a wall of determined enemy troops by the center of the city. Jagger was killed by a grenade that was tossed behind the wall he was hiding behind. Freya was about four feet away from him and when she stood up and brushed the dirt off her face shield. She spotted his body face down on the ground. The platoon leader yelled at her to move as the platoon rushed out of the building towards the enemy’s position. Most of the enemy ran but a few stayed behind to shoot at the charging marines. Freya got her revenge as she leaped over a small wall and killed one of the gunners still inside the machine gun nest.

Jesus died next. He led a team into a building where there was a suspected enemy forward operation command center located. The door was boobytrapped with an anti-personnel mine. The mine was designed to penetrate even heavy armor. He died cursing and apologizing for his own stupidity at not checking for traps.

The platoon kept pressing forward towards the center of the city with the rest of the marines. Freya felt the end of the mission coming. She was tired and really hungry but she felt an odd excitement as she rushed forward battle after battle. She could feel the mission coming to a close and it excited her. Even with the death of her platoon mates, she felt that odd hunger to win that made her want to go faster and harder towards the city center. They were over running the enemies positions too fast for them to get reinforcements but it didn't matter. She could almost see the finish line. More and more soldiers were surrendering but the fighting was intensifying the closer they got to the center of the city.

The end came for Freya when she was running out of a building with what was left of her squad trying to flank the enemy position that had slowed the marine advancement down. She was crossing a narrow street when she heard gunfire from the far end of the street. She had just enough time to look to her right then something hot tore into her side and she fell.

She blinked in confusion as she tried to stand but her legs would not respond. Looking down at her legs she could see that they looked fine but there was a hold in her armor by her hips. She looked up towards where the doorway that the rest of the squad had passed through. It was only five feet away.

She lifted herself by her arms and started to drag herself forward. She heard the sound of gunfire and something really hot hit her arm. She dropped down and screamed in pain. Looking down she was horrified to see that her arm was gone from just below her elbow. She looked down the street where the gunfire was coming from and spotted a female soldier aiming a gun at her. Freya took a deep breath... and blinked at her reflections in the pod window.

You have died. Respawn queue canceled. Mission complete. Cost of respawn: Refunded

Your platoon completed the last objective, capture the city center. Mission successfully completed.

All rewards locked until advancement counseling session with the FS Monarch is complete.

You have been ordered to meet with FS Monarch as soon as possible for advancement counseling.