Freya raced above the atmosphere following her flight path. She could let it fly on autopilot but since it was her first real time using her ship outside the training facility she decided to fly it herself. The entrance to the flight bay was located behind the Monarch so she curved away under the ship. She paused to look behind her as the Monarch floated. It was the first time she had ever seen the Monarch outside of pictures and she felt that the pictures didn’t do the heavily armed massive ship justice. Even though it was just a sim mission she thought the massive she was awesome. It felt odd knowing that the ship was also her home.

She checked her tactical display and noted that she was clear of any defensive sensors or attack crafts. She pulled hard on the controls and entered the planet's atmosphere. Her monitors told her that her electronic defensives were working to keep her unnoticed. She boosted the power a little bit as the monitor told her she was slightly behind the schedule on her drop. At the five minute mark, she started the pods to spawn all five members of the first squad and the next highest ranking person in her squad's clones so that all six pods were in use.

The ship started to shake a little bit as it hit the upper atmosphere crosswinds. Her gaze passed over the gravity indicator and it was slowly going up. The gravity of the planet now had her. In a matter of a few seconds, she passed through the crosswinds to enter some high altitude storm clouds. She checked her monitor and noted that her electronic defensives were still coping well with the interference. The heat was rising but her ship could easily handle it. She had less than one minute until she landed. She checked her window but all she saw was dust and clouds. Ignoring the view she read her instruments again and kept going boosting the power a little bit more.

At the ten second mark, she started easing up on the power. At the five second mark, she threw the ship end over end so that the engines were facing downward. She boosted the power to half the max and slowed her ship down. At two second she dropped the nose of her ship. With a slight anticlimactic bump, she landed her ship right on top of the train car.

As soon as she landed the computer downloaded the first squad into their spawned clone bodies. Two second after she landed the first pod opened up. At four seconds since she landed she hit the button that opened the back door to the dropship. At six seconds the first squad exited the dropship and the rest of the platoon started to print in the pods. With five seconds left on the timer for her turn to spawn, Freya took one last look at her sensors and noted no threats detected before she logged out of the virtual cockpit.

“Hurry up and wait.” Freya thought to herself and snorted as she watched a large cargo shuttle land. After spawning, Freya and the rest of the platoon had secured the train and the depo it was parked in. Once the depo was secured they guarded the empty train for two days. It was the most boring job she had ever done so far in the marines. What was worse was that she had not downloaded any entertainment into her armor as Jesus suggested back in their first mission together.

What the corporal failed to mention during the mission briefing back on board the Monarch was that the delay was already factored into the mission. His only justification was that he was worried that the platoon wouldn’t stay sharp while they waited. He as said he was worried about someone infiltrating the depo and sabotaging the train. It hadn't happened so far.

Freya watched a shuttle fly into the train depot. The shuttle was from the Monarch and it contained a two new weapons printers for the planets defensive guard. The first was to be dropped off at the trains first stop. The platoon was assigned to guard the printers until it was set up. That meant waiting around for four days until the printer came online.

The math was simple. Two days waiting on the shuttle guarding an empty depo. Two days travel time to the first city. Four days after that guarding the printer as it came online then two days of travel to the last stop. Then another four days of guard duty before they could leave. In total that was ten days of guard duty with four days of travel time on the train. As the heavy-duty loaders loaded the printers on the train Freya didn’t understand why they didn’t just make two drops with the shuttle right to the destinations instead of dropping it off on an unrelated city and making them travel on a train to correct destinations and guard the printers as they were set up. It sounded really stupid and completely wasted their time. She wondered if this stuff happened in real life or was it just set up like that for the sim mission.

She shifted in her sandbag bunker as the wind blew sand across the depot. The wind was always blowing. Sometimes it blew hard and visibility dropped to about ten feet while other times it blew softly and the sun peeked through the clouds. Freya’s sensor cloud was completely useless here due to the wind and sand. From what she could tell the people here spent most of their days inside their sand buried buildings. It was an odd planet.

“Hey Magic, why the hell are we hear when they could have just dropped the printers on the correct cities?” A recruit in her squad asked her. It wasn’t the first time someone asked her the question.

“Because then we wouldn’t get to ride this awesome train and kill the natives when they shoot at us.” Freya said not even looking at him. She watched the loaders as they shuffled through the sandstorm. They looked like big robots with people in them. She had never seen anything like it before.

“Everyone listen up. The train leaves in ten. It’s automated and it will not stop for anything so if you fall off, shoot yourself for being an idiot and respawn. Stay where you’re supposed to stay and sound off if you see anything that could be considered a threat to your squad leaders. No shooting unless you receive orders from me. There were some crazy wireheads who wander the desert so don’t shoot them unless they are shooting at you. Squad leaders pass all intel to me. That is all.” The corporal said over the radio from inside the train.

Ten minutes slowly passed as Freya eagerly waited for the train to start. She tried to keep herself still but it was hard. She was glad for her face shield that hid her expression. She adjusted the plastic that covered the new rifle that sat next to her. She had found the plastic while she was on patrol the other night and decided it would probably a good idea to keep her gun covered to prevent sand from getting in.

The train jerked suddenly and violently. Grabbing her rifle from under the plastic she looked around. She only relaxed when she realized that it was the train getting started. The train jerked a few more times until it picked up speed then the ride smoothed out. Freya sat back and enjoyed the ride.

A little more than a day and a half later Freya was still in the bunker watching the scenery pass by. She was bored to death of the train ride now. It was fun for the first few hours but after that, it got old fast. The ever-present sandstorm didn’t help things either. In the last few hours, the storm had lessened enough that she could see a couple of hundred feet away.

Beside her, her squadmates were playing snaps with a set of holocards. Apparently, she was the only one who didn’t download anything for entertainment. Gambling was illegal in the marines. So they were betting .556 bullets. Since they were not putting a value on the bullets no one cared. The bullets were insanely cheap. If they ever put value to the bullets then the Monarch would flag them for discipline and fines.

Freya scanned the horizon with her eyes. She had stopped using her scope because of the lack of visibility. She wasn’t on watch but she just so was bored. She looked out at the horizon looking for anything that wasn’t sand dunes when she spotted it.

It was a dark speck that seemed to move in the ever-present sandstorm. More out of boredom than anything else she brought her rifle up and looked through the scope. She adjusted the focus until she could see the dark spec clearly. As she adjusting the zoom the dark spec became a truck with something on the back. As the truck crested over a dune she spotted more trucks following behind it.

“Platoon leader this is Magic, I got a contact at 81.” She called over the radio. She was using three-hundred degrees in a compass location. 90 degrees was true east of the train and 81 degrees was just a slice off of true east. “It appears to be five trucks coming towards the train.”

“Roger, wait one.” Came the reply on the radio. In front of her the card game came to a stop as everyone in the bunker picked up their rifles and looked in the direction of the trucks.

“I can’t see anything but dark flecks. You sure that they are trucks?” One of the recruits in her squad asked.

“Magic, I see them now. Does that look like a Deulax cannon on the back of the first truck?” The platoon leader asked.

The trucks had gotten a lot closer than they were before. Freya was not sure what a Deulax cannon way but she could easily see that it was some kind of weapon on the back of the truck with someone standing behind it.

“Don’t know what a Deulax cannon looks like but that is definitely a weapon and there is someone manning it,” Freya replied.

“I got a good visual now and it is. How much of your reputation is true?” He asked her.

“Not sure. I haven’t heard what they are saying about me but I have a shot.” Freya said sighting down the barrel of her new rifle.

“If you have a shot, take it. The cannon is short range but it has one hell of a punch to it.” The platoon leader replied.

Taking a deep breath she released it and gently pulled the trigger. The expected recoil never came but the rifle vibrated in her hands. In the distance, a hole the size of her first appeared in the window of the truck that was the closest to the train. The truck jerk to the right and started to slow down. The man in the back with the cannon was thrown off the truck and disappeared into the sand. The other trucks slowed down for a few seconds before speeding up again. The truck that Freya hit stopped and someone fell out. Then the truck started up again towards them.

Looking at her kill count in the corner of her field of vision she keyed up her mic. “I count two dead.” She told her platoon leader. She tried to line up another shot but the trucks were weaving in and out now.

“Nice shot. They’re getting closer you got another shot in you?” He asked.

Freya was quite for a few seconds trying to predict the movements. “No kill shots but what about taking out the engines?” She asked.

“Go for it.” The platoon leader replied over the radio.

Freya lined up the much easier shot and pulled the trigger. A hole appeared in the hood of the truck but it kept on going so she pulled the trigger again and again until the truck suddenly nose-dived into the sand dune and stopped violently. Her kill count did not rise though. The other trucks kept moving towards them.

“Five at will.” The platoon leader commanded over the radio as Freya lined up another shot. On either side of her and above her the recruits unloaded on the trucks. Freya lined up a shot and watched her second round do something to the truck and it slowed down and veered into another truck. It didn’t do much damage as it bounced off and slowed to a stop. The other trucks left it behind as they chased after the train.

There was a loud crack and something hit the train by the rear bunker. It made a jagged hole through the last car. One of the recruits got lucky and the third truck slowly drifted to the left. It came back under control a few seconds later but it was not weaving anymore. Looking through her scope Freya saw the windshield was peppered with bullet holes. One of them was right where the drivers head would have been.

“If I was the passenger and the driver suddenly die. Where would my head be?” Freya asked herself lining up a shot. She gently pulled the trigger and her shot went a bit low but it didn’t matter as it passed through the edge of the hood by the window. The truck jerked to the left again and this time there was no one to correct it as it went down a dune sideways. The truck flipped and spun.

The last two truck started to slow down but there was a flash from the train and one of the trucks exploded. The front part of the truck bounced into the air before coming back down. Most of the hood of the truck was gone. Huge clouds of smoke poured out of the front cab as the train left it behind. The last truck jerked sideways and tried to make a run for it but there was another flash and it was knocked sideways off its wheels before flipping onto its hood. Like the other truck huge clouds of some poured from the burning truck.

“And that’s how you take care of garbage, kids.” The platoon leader joked over the radio.

The mountains slowly rose up from the horizon as the train made its way towards the first city. The train followed its tracks through a pass in the mountains and a couple of hours later they arrived at a small city. The train made its way past most of the city to a walled-off depot where it stopped. While the printer was being offloaded the platoon was setting up sensors and lights all around the depo. Freya was impressed with how well her platoon leader knew about setting up the sensors. She couldn’t find a hole in them when she went looking.

The four days slowly passed. She and the platoon leader took twelve-hour shifts at a shack that they called a command center while the rest of the platoon did one to two-hour rotations on watch around the depo. They called the shack the command center because they set up a bunch of the monitors in it so they could keep track of all the camera's that the platoon leader had his squad set up.

The only excitement came about the third day when Freya was asleep. She woke up to gunfire. She raced out of the tent she was staying in only to find that the battle was over. A few people had tried to climb the walls but were spotted by a roving patrol. Instead of running they decided to get into a gun battle. The recruits might have crappy guns but with enough bullets heading in the right direction the people who climbed the wall died. The patrol discovered explosives on the enemy. It was unclear whether they were going after the printer or the train.

Once the printer was complete they loaded everything back up into the train and they left. The next bit of action was about half a days out from the city they had just left. The ever-present sandstorm had kicked up into high gear and visibility had dropped to about twenty feet. Freya was hunkered down hiding from the wind when her radio went off.

“We got people on the train. They ….” The radio suddenly went quiet. Freya got a notification that someone was using her respawn pods.

“Frankius that’s you. Prepare for boarders from the rear of the train. Magic send one of yours down to Frankius ’s squad. The rest of you hold your positions. Magic, make sure no one gets to that ship. We lose the ship we lose the mission. And someone find out how they got on board the train.” The platoon leader said over the radio.

Freya looked up at her squad who were all raising their hands like school children eager to answer a question. Freya smiled and pointed towards the tallest recruit because he was nearly jumping up and down in the bunker. He pumped his fist and made his way towards the hatch they had cut into the roof under the ship.

Freya pointed towards two more members of her squad. “Check the side of the train for boarders.” She ordered them. “Whatever you do, do not fall off the train.”

Freya switched her new gun for her old one. The big gun was awesome at distance but it had really expensive round. She really didn't want to spend that much credits on buying new ammo rods. Once she had switched guns she watched the recruits crawl against the wind and sand to the edge of the train. When they came back they both shook their heads. Shrugging Freya had them take up positions in the bunker and watch the surrounding area.

The first warning that the battle was not going well was the notification that there was another pod activated. “They’re behind us.” Someone yelled over the radio in a panicky voice.

“Magic, send me a squad member. Stix, Oswald check your areas. They are getting on the train somehow.” The platoon leader said over the radio.

Freya sent another squad member out. She was down to three including herself. The timer of the first respawn was a little more than four minutes to complete the respawn. She scanned the area but couldn’t see much because of the storm.

There was a muffled boom towards the rear of the train and two more pods activated. “Watch your grenades.” Someone yelled over the radio. Freya frowned.

“Are we losing?” She wanted to go down into the train in the worst way but she was given her orders. She stayed where she was.

“They have this cart thing on the tracks!” A voice that Freya recognized as Oswald came over the radio. “It's empty now. What should I do with it.”

“Get rid of it.” The platoon leader replied.

“Roger,” Oswald replied.

“I got one too. In the process of destroying it.” Stix called over the radio.

“Oswald once you’re done send reinforcements down to Frankie's squad. Keep an eye out for more carts.” The platoon leader called out on the radio. “And I don’t want to hear anyone using any more grenades. You people are more dangerous to yourselves than the enemy,”

There was a loud explosion and Freya got an announcement that all her pod on her ship were full with one in the Queue. “What did I say about grenades!” The platoon leader shouted over the radio.

“Everyone is dead! The carts are not empty. There is someone down there with a bazooka or something.” Someone said over the radio.

“What do you mean everyone’s dead. Who’s dead?” The platoon leader asked furiously.

“Oswald and the others, sir.” The recruit responded over the radio. “I’m the only one left.”

“Magic, get your butt over there and find out what the hell is happening.” The platoon leader said tiredly. “I’m pinned down here. Do what you can. Stix, be really careful. Don’t get dead.”

“On why way,” Magic said. Grabbing her old rifle she rolled over the sandbag and headed towards the last train car. She kept herself low as she was knocked around by the wind a little bit.

When she reached the last car she spotted the last member of Oswald’s squad. He was hiding behind the sandbag bunker with his rifle pointed towards the back of the car. Freya jumped over the sandbag wall and slid next to him.

“What’s happening hot stuff?” Freya asked him smiling. It was a quote from a really dumb movie her mother loved to watch.

“Magic, thank god.” The recruit said panicky.

“Let's see what's going on.” She told him and crawled out of the bunker and towards the edge of the train car. She dipped her head just enough over the edge of the roof for less than a blink of an eye to see what was hiding below. “Whoa, that is new. Must be the mods. I love being a Marine.” She thought to herself as she looked at the image that was in her head. It was like a picture from a camera was in her mind captured the entire scene below for her.

The quick look showed Freya a guy in heavy armor sitting on an odd looking cart. The guy was pointing a heavy machine gun at the edge of the roof. As she was going over the memory the edge of the roof exploded in a hail of bullets. Freya pushed herself back as shrapnel from the edge of the roof landed on her.

She crawled back to the sandbag bunker. “Let me have your grenade.” She told recruit.

“The Corporal said we can’t use them.” The recruit said in a sad small voice.

“Give me your grenade, now.” She commanded looking back towards the edge of the roof. The rain of bullets had stopped.

He handed her the grenade. It was a small black and green ball of metal. A command prompt appeared on her HUD asking her if she wanted to arm the grenade. She armed it and set the timer for five seconds tossing it over the edge of the roof. There was a loud bang and the back of the train shuddered.

“Who the hell is using grenades?” Yelled the platoon leader.

Freya dipped her head over the edge of the roof again before she responded. “Carts destroyed.” She told him over the radio. Then she got another crazy and stupid idea. “Permission to enter the train and do some cleaning.”

“By Mary’s toes, Magic. You do know that you’ll be down range from a bunch of fresh from boot recruits right?” He asked.

“Have them keep their aim above the waist and I’ll be fine.” Freya quipped smiling.

“Fine have it your way. Frankius keep your people’s fire high. I like Magic more than I like you. You feel me?” The platoon leader asked.

Freya looked over the edge of the roof again. The cart was gone but so was the back platform of the train. The door to the train was broken open but she didn’t think it was that way before. She wondered if the grenade had done the damage when she took out the cart. Leaning over the edge she dipped her head in and out of the doorway in an oddly modified push-up. Again her mind captured what was inside the car.

The car was filled with metal boxes that were mostly intact. There was a guy at the end of the car standing by the door with his gun pointed towards the door that Freya had looked through. Unlike the last guy, this guy was not trigger happy. He had not fired a single shot. Smiling Freya took her backpack off.

She pulled a rope and a carabiner. She quickly made a belay for her rope and with practiced moves, she created a makeshift rope harness. She then anchored the rope into the roof with a spike. Threading the rope through the spike she threw it off the side of the train. Putting her backpack back on she walked to the edge of the train and looked out into the sand storm.

She looked back at the recruit and waved to him with her off hand then jumped off the train. Freya smiled as her feet hit the edge of the train. She felt it was a lot easier than climbing a glacier. She didn’t have to worry about falling ice or if her spiked shoes would slip. When her feet hit the side of the train it made a hollow sound. She hoped the enemy didn't hear. She walked sideways towards the edge of the train and towards the door at the back of the train. She swung herself around the corner until she was at the edge of the door. Switching her hands on the belay she pulled her old rifle from off her back. Holding it with one hand she flexed her legs.

“This is stupid. This is so stupid. I would never do this is real life.” She told herself and swung around and into the doorway. The guy on the other side of the train had not moved. As soon as she saw him she fired. He stumbled back into the closed door and fell down. Her kill count rose.

Mentally laughing to herself at what she had just done she let go of her rifle, letting it hang from the strap around her shoulder. She lowered herself until she was even with the doorway. She pulled herself into the door and stood up in the back of the train. A quick pull at the edge of the rope harness and it fell apart.

“One down.” She called over the radio.

“Roger.” Came the reply over the radio.

She grabbed her rifle and made her way over to the dead guy. He had a small machine gun that looked really nice. She bent down and grabbed it.

Temporary license needed. Cost ten credits. Accept: Yes/No.

Cursing she dropped it then picked it back up and pulled off her backpack and threw it inside. She paused then smiled and reached over the dead man and searched him. She found a few ammo rods but not the ones she used in any of her guns. She found some odd currency and other stuff that she threw into the backpack with the gun.

“I wonder.” She thought as she looked at the dead man’s armor. It looked small and flimsy. “Never know until you try.” She thought and stole the dead man's armor. “It’s more an environmental suit than armor.”

As she was stuffing the armor into her backpack she noticed he was wearing a gold disk on a chain. “What kind of OG gangsta were you my friend?” She asked herself and she pulled the chain off from around his neck.

Platoon wide Bonus Mission: You have discovered a member of the Sudosun terrorist group. Capture a picture of all the suspected terrorists for intelligence purposes. They can be identified by a yellow circular medallion they wear around their neck. Reward 10 credits per terrorist picture captured.

Smiling happily she turned the terrorist face towards her and captured his face in her feed. She got a notification that she had an update on her bonus mission. Laughing to herself she pulled the body away from the door and looked through the window.

“Was that you, Magic?” The platoon leader asked.

“Yep,” Freya said looking at four more enemies with their backs to her. She could see the occasional marine pop out from behind the boxes at the opposite end of the car and take a shot. The bad guys would immediately do the same before hiding behind cover again.

It's like a game of demented Wack-a-mole." Freya thought to herself

“If we survive this mission I’m buying you a drink at whatever bar you want.” He told her.

“Sure.” She said and opened the door slightly taking a deep breath she lined up a shot and her kill count rose by one. She moved to her next target and fired. She cursed as the man fell down forward knocking the boxes forward. The other two turned around.

“Franius’s Squad charge forward.” She called out retreated behind the door she was using as cover. She waited for a second as the gunfire escalated then looked through the crack in the door. She spotted a marine stand over the last fallen terrorist and she watched as he shot him. Smiling happily she opened the door and counted the dead. Including her bad guy that was five. She walked over and took off one of the terrorist's helmets and caught the bad guys face on her feed. She got a notification that she had a bonus mission had an update.

“Take their helmets off and get their faces on your feed,” Freya told the squad in front of her as she pulled another helmet off. She got a notification from her dead bad guy as well as the two more as Frankius squad as she asked. She collected two more of the really nice looking guns before she made the call.

“We clear here boss.” Freya called out over the radio.

“Wait one.” He replied. “And we’re clear here too.”

There was a flurry of notifications as the platoon leaders squad captured the terrorist's faces. All in all, Freya counted fourteen mission updates. Five on her side and nine on the platoon leaders side. She made her way back up to the roof and took charge of her squad again. The rest of the ride was smooth.

The last bit of action was when she was sitting with the platoon leader eating dinner on the second day at the warehouse where they setting up the second printer. She was just complaining to him about why they had to guard the printer and not the native military when a bomb went off by the gate.

She was notified that two respawn pods were now in use. Cursing she dropped her nutrient drink and raced outside. She could see fire coming from the front barricade they had set up. It looked like there was a car on fire by the wall.

“Report!” The platoon leader commanded.

“A car rammed the front gate. We lost Jermaine and todd.” Someone said over the radio.

“Stupid recruits still don’t know how to use proper radio etiquette.” The platoon leader muttered beside her.

“Frankius get someone over there and secure the gate.” He said over the radio. Turning to her, he said. “Find a good spot and be my overwatch.”

“Everyone else, find a spot on the wall and watch for the bad guys.” He said over the radio walking towards the command center.

Freya ran towards the warehouse. She nearly took the door off when she slammed her body into it to get inside. The large room where the printer was being set up had a really high vaulted ceiling that took up two floors. There were huge lights hanging from the ceiling lighting up the room.

The workers were standing around looking afraid. She gave them a wave before heading up the stair to the second floor. She had scouted the place out before when they were setting up. She found the maintenance hatch that led to a catwalk that ran the length of the room. There was also two more catwalks that ran on either side of the room with a few much smaller catwalks that connected the middle to the side catwalks. Along the sides were windows that open inward.

The warehouse took up the entire city block. It was much too large for the marines to defend it so they had sealed the doors around the part of the warehouse that would house the printer. The platoon leader then went crazy bobby trapping the place. Freya doubted anyone would survive coming thought that way. The only thing the Marines had to worry about was two streets one in front of the warehouse and one behind it.

The platoon leader had set up sandbag outside by the walls along the edge of the warehouse to be used as barriers. There was only one entrance and that was the now destroyed gate. In the font of the sandbag wall was a huge parking lot that made a great kill zone.

Freya frowned as she looked out from one of the windows facing the front of the building. “How the hell did that car get so close to the gate?” She wondered shaking her head. she raised her big gun and looked through the scope. Scanning the horizon she spotted some dark burrs coming towards them.

“We have enemy incoming from the front at the edge of the parking lot about 86 degrees. Wait one, while I check the back.” Freya warned over the radio. She ran along the skinny catwalk to the other side of the building. Scanning the back she was nearly knocked off the catwalk when there was an explosion that blew out all the windows. Shaking off the glass she scanned the horizon.

“We have multiple vehicles in-coming from the rear. They have some kind of cannons mounted on them.” Freya said looking at the blurry vehicles in her scope. “They also have some crappy active camouflage on them.”

“Can you stop them?” Her platoon leader asked.

Taking a deep breath Freya sighted down the barrel of her gun. She gently pulled the trigger and she felt the vibrations in the gun as it fired. The truck she fired on lost its active camouflage and lost its blurriness. It appeared perfectly in her scope. She aimed at the window where she thought the driver would be and pulled the trigger again. Her kill count rose and the truck stopped. In retaliation one of the trucks behind it fired it weapon.

Freya found herself flying through the air as the world turned into a blur. Her back exploded in pain as she landed on something. Gasping she tried to breathe but she couldn't get air into her lungs. “Dammit, I’m dying again.” She thought to herself as she lay there desperately trying to breathe.

She started to see dark edges around her vision when she was suddenly able to take a deep breath. Sitting up she looked around. Her heath gauge had dipped a bit and a debuff icon was fading away. When she looked at the debuff she read ‘lung spasm time remaining: 0 seconds.’ Taking a few deep breaths she looked around. She was sitting on top of the printer on the first floor. She had been knocked off the third floor and had fallen all the way down to the first. To her surprise, she was still holding onto her big rifle.

She suddenly became aware of a lot of radio chatter going on. The platoon leader was yelling out orders while the regular platoon members were talking over each other. Freya shook her head and looked up. There was a hole where the window had been. Looking away she scooted over to the edge of the printer and jumped down. She ran to the stairs again and made her way back to the catwalk.

She ran back to the back side of the warehouse on the catwalk and looked out. The trucks were stopped right at the sandbag wall. Occasionally one of the cannons would fire at a group of recruits. Freya took aim and fired at the cannon center mass hoping to hit something important. She pulled the trigger again and the cannon drooped. Smiling she targeted another cannon and fire. This time she must have missed whatever she hit in the first cannon because the gun barrel raised towards her. Not moving she pulled the trigger again. She rushed her aim so she didn’t hit what she was aiming at but she must have hit something important because when the cannon exploded as it fired taking out the roof of the truck. Her kill count rose three times.

She quickly aimed at the last truck that was attacking the back of the warehouse. Cursing she turned and ran. There was an explosion behind her that shook the catwalk. The shaking was so bad it made her fall onto the catwalk floor. Grabbing the edge with one hand she held on as the catwalk bounced around. She nearly slid off but she hooked her foot onto one of the support wires giving her a second point of contact. It was enough to keep her from falling off.

Once the catwalk settled down she got up to her knees and took aim out of the hole in the wall where the window had once stood. It was much bigger than it had been before. The cannon was still pointed at hole. Quickly she took aim at the center mass of the cannon she fired praying that she would get the shot off first.

The shot hit center mass but the cannon didn’t drop. Cursing and in a near panic she fired off two more shots. It was only after the third shot that the door to the driver's side of the truck opened up. A man pulled out a machine gun and fired at her. Freya fired one more shot into the cannon before she switched targets and took out the driver. The cannon still hadn't fired at her but the barrel was still pointed at her.

She was lining up another shot when the passenger door opened up and two men jumped out and started firing at her. Cursing Freya stood up from her knees and ran away from the bullets that were flying all around her now. She stopped once she found cover and raised her gun again. Leaning against the edge of the catwalk she aimed her gun at the passenger side of the truck. Both enemies were hiding and she had not shot so she waited for her finger on the trigger.

Silently she countered in her head. When she got to four one of the enemy popped up with his gun already aimed. They both fired at the same time. He dropped and she didn't. Her kill count rose by one. The other soldier made a run for the warehouse as his fellow soldier dropped. Freya moved her rifle and took the shot. It was a rushed shot and Freya cursed as she missed. She pulled the trigger again but nothing happened. Surprised she looked at her ammo counter and noticed that she was out of ammo. Cursing she dropped down and changed out the battery. When she was done she popped up from her cover but the enemy was missing.

There were plenty of other enemies though and she found another target and fired, dropping one. She fired, again and again, dropping enemies left and right but she was worried. They were inside the sandbag walls and the fighting was fierce. In some instances, they were fighting hand to hand. She was worried that they would get overrun soon.

There was a loud bang and below her, one of the doors exploded inward. Cursing Freya dropped her big gun and pulled out her old gun. She took aim as four enemies rush in from the broken door. She gunned them all down with a few shots. They never knew she was there. She popped her head up and looked out the window but didn’t pick up her big rifle nor did she stop aiming at the broken door below her.

It was about that time she realized that her platoon leader was screaming on the radio asking for a report. “Truck cannons taken out. Fighting inside the wall. Four ….” She was saying when she was interrupted as two more men rushed inside the room heading for the dead soldiers. She shot the first one. The second one didn’t even pause as he ran towards the down soldiers in front of him. He reached down and picked something up off the floor before Freya got him. He dropped a step or two away from the printer.

“... Six made entry inside the warehouse. They are down.” Freya said finishing her report. She kept her gun aimed at the broken door.

“Lockdown, however, they are getting in. We are finishing up here. I’m sending you a squad. Do what you can.” He told her.

“Roger,” Freya replied moving slightly backwards to get a better angle on the door.

She resisted the urge to look behind her at the battle that was raging just outside. She didn’t want to be distracted while guarding the door. From the other side of the warehouse, the door opened and three people slipped into the room. She raised her gun but didn’t fire. They were her platoon mates. She brought her gun barrel back towards the broken door.

“Find something to block that door,” Freya called out to the squad. They changed direction and grabbed a few boxes and pushed them in front of the door. Once it was blocked Freya went back and got her big gun. As she did she looked outside. The battle seemed mostly over. The only action she saw was a single recruit was at the wall firing at the retreating enemy. It wasn’t long before he got them all and the gunfire slowed to a stop.

“I think it’s over on this side. I don’t see any more enemies.” Freya told her platoon leader. “We have lots of casualties though.” She checked her notifications and found that the queue for the respawn pods was twelve people long. That was not including the six that were in the process of being respawned.

“That’s six people still alive.” Freya thought to herself shocked.

Looking out of the hole that cannon made she only saw one person still alive outside. She desperately looked for more survivors but there was no one else but the lone recruit.

Doing the math in her head she called out to the lone recruit and order him inside. There was no point with him staying outside. Once he was inside she had the surviving recruits make small holes in the wall and take up guard positions. Freya settled down near the broken wall and started scanning the horizon looking for new threats.

Twenty minutes later the last recruit respawned and joined the rest of his squad guarding the warehouse. The platoon leader ordered a squad on each side of the building to search the dead bodies for medallions for the bonus mission. Most of the enemy did not have them but the squads did find eleven more bodies that did have them. Freya remained on guard as they searched and looted the trucks. Finally when they were done the platoon leader ordered two squads to pick up the dead bodies and piled them up away from the warehouse. He had another squad move the trucks and used them as part of the barricade.

Freya stayed on the catwalk for the rest of the day and into the night. The workers who had taken refuge inside a closet came out and started working on the printer again. They seemed to work faster and Freya couldn’t blame them. Who but a soldier would stick around at warzone?

The end of the mission came as the platoon leader called out that the army was in route to take over security. The local army arrived in tanks and armored troop carriers. The Marines handed over the building to the army as the workers left. The printer was finally up and running. Freya got a notification that she had to fly her ship back to the Monarch as the other Marines made their way to a glowing door.

Her ship was still hidden on top of the train in the train depot. She walked to her ship alone as the platoon leader exited the mission last. Climbing aboard her ship she entered the pod and closed her eyes. When she opened her eyes she was in her virtual cockpit. Smiling happily she sat down in her flight seat.

Still smiling, she gently lifted off the train before she pushed the engines up to seventy percent and rocked out of the atmosphere on a trajectory towards the Monarch. Her crew chief met her in the landing bay. The chief waved her away as Freya climbed out the back of her ship. Shrugging Freya waved the chief and made her way out of the door and into the light.