You have completed the mission successfully.

You are awarded two E-points, one Skill point, and one mod point.

Completed mission 10 Credits. Looted Credits: 10 Credits

For taking command of 3 squads you are award six E-points. You are rewarded three skill point and three mod point. 15 Credits

Bonus Mission 1: For gathering 24 pieces of intelligence on enemy terrorists you are awarded 240 credits.

For safely deploying and return of a Respawn Dropship without damage you are awarded 5 E points. You have been rewarded with 2 skill points and 2 mod points. 20 Credits.

Piloting skill advanced +1 for skilled landing.

Advanced Drone Operator skill advanced +1 for the skilled deployment of Respawn Dropship.

Freya took a deep breath as the after mission glow coursed through her body. Opening her eyes, she found herself inside a respawn pod. Smiling happily she opened the pod door and equipped her working uniform version of her armor. Her smile got bigger once she read through her notifications and learned that both her piloting and advanced drone skills had grown by one each.

“Yeh!” She yelled out and pumped her fist up and down. Then she looked around embarrassed hoping no one saw her. To her horror, a Sergeant was equipping his working uniform. He didn’t look at her but she did hear something the sound suspiciously like a chuckle coming from him.

Feeling her cheeks burn red with embarrassment she left running up the stairs to the first floor of the Marine concourse. “Now what?” She wondered to herself. “I have six mod points. I should throw five into strength and one into health to get closer to the requirements for 1st Company Scout. I also need to see what skills to take seeing as I have ten skill points to blow. I’m still two-hundred and twenty-four credits away from a new armor if I want to keep all my mods. One-hundred and eighty-six more if I just want to get the armor without transferring the licenses for the mods to the new armor.”

Deciding on a plan she kept running up the stair until she reached the second floor and made her way to the training facility. She waited in line for her turn at the training screen. When it was her turn she logged in and looked up all the skill in her was now qualified for as 2nd Company scout. The list was huge. She limited the list to what she could afford and while it did shorten the list a lot there was still hundreds of skill on the list. She then limited the list to the most popular for a scout and she got thirty skills on the new list.

The most popular skill was Enhanced senses. It was greyed out because she already had the max skill level she could have without adding hardware mods. The next on the list was silent walking for two skill points for the first skill level. The level after that cost six skill points. Just below that on the list was silent combat running that was four skill points but it required two levels in acrobatics and one level silent walking. With a shrug, she dropped all but one skill points into the silent combat running. When she was done she opened the door and walked into the light.

Silent walking Freya learned was a lot harder than the description made it sound. While some of the skill she learned was about paying attention to where she put her feet, most of the training was about a how to walk toe to heel instead of walking heel to toe like a normal person. Walking by putting the toes of her foot down first make it so she was able to test the ground first before she put her full weight done. That way she was able to avoid loud breakable objects like leaves or sticks. It also showed her how to silently move over wooden floors that creaked when someone walked on it.

The preppy annoying lady who had trained her in the first part of the acrobatics training returned to train her for the next level. The training in the next level of acrobatics was all about balance and spatial awareness. The spatial awareness was similar to the training she got when she went through pilot training but instead of sitting down and being spun around she was thrown into the air and spun around. The trick, Freya learned, was to lock her eyes on an object so that her vision didn’t get blurry and she didn’t get dizzy. The balance part of the training was learning how to walk on a very thin balance beam and still do some tricks. She also got a review on how to fall correctly. This time the emphasis was on falling from greater than two feet in the air.

Silent combat running was learning how to move in an unstable environment where there were hidden dangers of stepping into a hole in the ground and breaking her leg without making a sound. Part of the skill was how to react instantly if the ground changed if it went from solid to liquid. It also trained her to be on the lookout for traps and other obstacles when running.

It sounded obvious when she read the skill on the screen but doing it was a lot harder than she expected. It was during this training she kicked herself for not looking up the requirements for Zero-G combat training. She had forgotten her promise to herself about learning how to fight in space. When she was done with the last skill training she walked out the door and into the light.

Status Screen

Name: Freya O’Malley

Rank: Private. Level: 1

Template: 2nd Company Scout

Enlisted points: 12625

Credits: 296

Skill points: 1

Mod points: 0

Weapons: Desus MOA Magnetic heavy rifle with Mega Colax purified battery six heat sinks with NG rod ammo

Armor: Dryad model armor. Dragonlily sensor suite. Sensor alert cloud. Active camouflage. Mega Colax purified battery.

GMZ 127 energy rifle with Colax purified battery. Basic combat knife.

Ship: Goozden 127 light armored Respawn DropShip active camouflage six respawn pods

Wetware mods

Health

Level: 19

Health Regen

Level: 18

Strength

Level: 25

Perception

Level: 150

Agility

Level: 75

Dexterity:

Level: 100

Memory

Level: 125

Processing speed

Level: 158

Personal AI

Level: 0

Skills:

Enhanced sensing

Level: 2

Tracking

Level: 1

Acrobatics

Level: 2

One time infantry Dropship

Level: 1

Advanced combat Infantry

N/A

Math and Military studies

BS

Advanced Drone Operator

Level: 2

Piloting

Level: 2

Silent Walking

Level: 1

Silent Combat running

Level: 1

Hardware mods: Suicide mod

Medals: Gold E Sharpshooter

Not knowing what else to do Freya left to go on another mission. She rationalized the decision by thinking that she needed the credits to get her new armor. She walked down the stairs and over to the console trees. The trees were mostly empty. She chose a console closer to the middle where they were an opening. Logging in she got a warning and a message.

Tier 2 missions are locked. Mission point are locked. Warning all short term and long term missions are also locked at this time. Time to unlock 1 day, 23 hours, 16 minutes, and 57 seconds.

Bredbeddle, a named platoon in the Second Division in First Company, has invited you to try out for the position of 2nd Company Scout. Tryouts start in 1 day, 23 hours, 16 minutes, and 54 seconds. If you intend to be at the try-outs please do not go on a mission as you will miss the try-outs and lose your chance at a position on the platoon. From: Sergeant Gawain, Platoon leader of the Fourth Platoon, Bredbeddle, in First Company in Second Division.

Do you wish to accept the invitation to try out with ‘Bredbeddle’? Yes. No.

Freya squealed in delight. She stopped and looked around again in embarrassment as people stopped what they were doing and looked at her. She gave the crowd a smile and turned back to the message. Clicking yes the message disappeared. Then she frowned.

“Now what?” She asked herself. She couldn’t go on a mission due to missing the tryouts in rough two days.

“Entertainment!” She said remembering the long boring down times in the mission she had been on. She looked around but didn’t see any store that sold anything besides war stuff. She silently asked her HUD to display a waypoint on all the stores that sold entertainment stuff that could be downloaded into her armor. Twenty-two stores popped up in the pole of stop sign of the Marine Concourse. The closest one was on the second floor. Smiling she logged out of the console and went to find the store.

The store did not sell what Freya considered entertainment but she was interested despite herself. The store sold college classes. It wasn’t like the college classes in the training facility but an old fashion modular training classes. It was dirt cheap too. She looked through the classes on a screen and picked up a class in the physics of FTL communications as well as a class in designing the most common FTL communication devices. The two classes were only five credits each but they did have an expiration date on it. The classes would expire four ship time years from the date she bought it. She bought both classes and had them download into her armor. To her delight that included her working uniform part of her armor.

There were four other stores on the second floor that fell into the entertainment category that she requested in her HUD. The first was a puzzle game store. It sold everything from chess to huge three-dimensional puzzle piece puzzles. Freya had fun looking at all the neat looking stuff but in the end, didn’t find anything that she was willing to spend her hard earned credits on.

The next store on her map was a music store where it sold playable holographic instruments and modular class on how to play those instruments. The instruments ranged from the common Earth instruments to the exotic outer rim planet instruments. Freya spent nearly an hour in the store playing around with all the different types of instruments before she reluctantly left. She couldn’t get her penny pinching unconscious mind to part with a few credits to buy something.

The next store was a music store as well but this store didn’t sell instruments. Instead, the store sold downloadable music. Freya spent several hours listening to songs in the store. She moved the ones she like over to her cart and skipped the ones she didn’t like. When she got bored looking for new songs she trimmed down the songs in her cart because of her guilty conscious of spending so much on music. In the end, she spent twenty credits to download eight days worth of music into her armor.

She left the store feeling both happy and guilty at the same time. She always loved music back home but the price to download even the cheapest music stream was too costly. Here she was able to create her own stream with the music she bought and now owned. Still feeling guilty about spending so much money on something that was not vital to her missions she decided to go to the chow hall and spend time on her new course work or maybe on creating a stream for her music.

Paying the one credit she entered the chow hall and found an empty reclining chair. Grabbing some pizza she sat down and opening her holographic display. She went through all the music she bought and created her music stream while she ate. It took her hours to do it and when she was done she realized she was starting to get tired. Remembering that she did not have any sheets or blankets for her bunk in the barracks she went off in search of a store that sold bedding.

She found a store that sold quilts like home and she bought one that reminded her of her mother’s. She bought some bathroom stuff that included a nice aquamarine colored towel. After paying for everything she went back to the barracks where her stuff would be waiting on her. Inside the barracks, most of the bunks were empty with a few people already sleeping. She found her bunk that had her stuff in her locker. She made her bed and then getting undressed she made her way to the showers and took the longest shower she had taken since she joined the Marines. Smiling happily she made her way back to her bunk. Slipping under her new blanket in her underwear she quickly fell asleep.

She was awoken by a marine who banged on her bunk to wake her up. “Hey, you got ten minutes until they close the barracks. I would get up if I was you.” The woman told Freya. Thanking the woman Freya got up and quickly quipped her working uniform and left the barracks. She headed to the chow hall to kill time as she still had twenty-three hours left before the tryouts started. Paying the credit to get in she got breakfast. She got some weird yellow fruit and some cereal that looked delicious. The cereal was not from earth and didn’t require milk but it did require the juice of some kind of spiky orange fruit. It took a few second for Freya to figure out how to squeeze the juice out but once she was done, it tasted amazing. She added it to the list of things she would buy again. The yellow fruit, on the other hand, Freya added to the list of things to never buy again. Still hungry she got up and got some sausages that looked like a normal sausage from back home. It tasted ok and Freya put it in the only ok list.

Sitting down in a reclining chair she opened her holographic display and started to read her course work. She spent the rest of the day reading up on her first class the physics of FTL communications. The material engrossed her. She spent hours reading only stopping to eat lunch then later dinner. She played her music as she read. It wasn’t as fun as the classes in the training facility but the information, now that she had a background in mathematics, really drew her in. By the time she stopped, she had completed two modules of the twenty-seven module class with an average score of 97%.

She went back to the barracks and took another Hollywood shower. She slipped into her bunk with a happy sign only to jump up again to set her alarm on her HUD. Once that was complete she found that she had to go to the bathroom so she got up again and took care of things. Sliding into her bunk again she found that she was too nervous to sleep so she opened her holographic display and started to read again. Late into the night she turned the display off and went to sleep.

She got in the morning and had breakfast in the chow hall. She had a thing that looked like a log but felt like meat. The instructions from the android were that she had to cut the thing down the middle and eat the insides. She could eat the outsides but she was told that it tasted awful. The android explained to her that it was a delicacy on at least two paradise planets. The log thing tasted pretty good. Not amazing but still pretty good. She put it on her ok list.

Ten minutes after she finished eating she got a message telling her the address where the tryouts were taking place. It told her she had to be there before 0700 hundred hours to check in. She sent an acknowledgment back and opened her holographic display and tried to kill the hour she had left. After rereading the same paragraph several times she gave up and listened to some music and kept an eye on the time.

She waited until it was fifteen minutes to 0700 before she got up and left the chow hall. The address was on the sixth floor in the pole part of the concourse. She climbed the stairs to the sixth floor glad she had put almost all of her points in strength by the time she got to the sixth floor because she was not out of breath or tired after climbing all the flights of stairs.

The room number that she was to report to was 6120. When she arrived ten minutes early she found that she was not the first person there. In fact, there was a line by the door of people waiting on getting in. She took her place in line and looked around at all the people in the line. Some of the people in line were quite like her, while others were talking in small groups. From what she could tell she was the lowest ranking person in line.

Right at seven, the first person in line opened the door and disappeared into the light. Each person had to unlock the door before it would open and after they disappeared into the light the door closed. Freya awaited her turn nervously. Finally, when it was her turn she pressed her hand on the lock and walked into the light.

You have entered Camp Bredbeddle. You have currently have basic guest rights to the main camp. You are not allowed outside the camp nor are you allowed inside any buildings without permission from a Bredbeddle squad leader or above. You are being monitored at all times in the Compound while a guest of Bredbeddle.

Freya blinked as she took in her surroundings. If she didn’t know any better she would have assumed she was on a mission planet. Right in front of her was a small two-story barracks building that reminded her of an apartment building on Earth. There was a sand volleyball court set up next to the building along with a basketball court. There were a few other buildings surround the Camp. To the west of the camp was a large lake or ocean. It was so large she couldn't tell. To the east were some mountains that looked like the ones back home.

Shaking off her amazement she walked forward to the next person in line could enter the Camp. Freya followed the line of people to a pavilion where a bunch of metal picnic tables was set up. At the far end of the pavilion was a picnic table where the platoon leader and a few others were sitting. They were all looking at the people entering the camp.

Freya found a place to sit and looked at the platoon leadership table. There were four people sitting at the table. She found a Sergeant she guessed was Sergeant Gawain. He was a tall but thin man with a stern expression. Next to him as a short chubby man with a nice smile. Freya was surprised to see he was a Gunnery Sergeant. She wondered why he was sitting there. Stand behind the two men were two other Sergeants. One was short but really muscular while the other one was tall but really thin.

“Take a seat everyone. We will be starting in a few minutes.” The Sergeant said to the mostly quiet crowd. He then turned and said something to the Gunnery Sergeant who laughed. They started talking to each other as the rest of the people found a seat on the picnic tables. The two Sergeant behind them just watched the crowd slowly come together.

Freya took her eyes of the command table and looked around at all the people who sat down around her. She spotted a few people who didn’t look overly excited but the rest of the people who were there for the tryout did. A few people were talking amongst themselves but for the most part, most of the people were quiet. Freya turned around as the Sergeant at the command table had stood up.

“Hello everyone and welcome to Camp Bredbeddle. I am Sergeant Gawain the platoon leader. This is Gunnery Sergeant Depont. He is the Company Commander for First Company. He’s here today to look over at all of you. Gunny you want to say a few words?” The Sergeant asked the Gunnery Sergeant.

“Sure put the old man on the spot Sergeant.” The Gunny said standing up. “As Sergeant Gawain has said my name is Gunnery Sergeant Dupont and I’m here just to observe the selection process. I here to kill some time before I have to really get to work. The Sergeant here is a good man and a really good leader. If you follow his example you’ll go far. I know you guys don't want an old man like me taking up your time so I’ll sit my happy butt down and let the Sergeant get to work.” The Gunny said with a smile and sat down.

“Thank you, Gunny.” The Sergeant said standing up. “The name of Bredbeddle comes from King Arthur stories and poems. If you know anything about King Arthur you know about his most powerful Knight was the Green Knight. He was known by the name Bredbeddle. Before he met the once and future king he was cursed by Fairies to be forever immortal. He tested most of the knights from Camelot by fighting them and defeating them. Once he bested the knights he gave them a bargain. He would allow them to take one strike at him and he would not attempt of block or dodge it. If he survived then he would, in turn, be allowed to strike them. My namesake Sir Gawain took up the bargain and grabbed an ax and chopped the Green Knight’s head off.”

“Imagine his surprise when the knight did not die. The Knight simply pick up his decapitated head and ask if Sir Gawain was ready to receive his strike. Sir Gawain true to his honor placed his head on a tree truck and awaited his death but the Green Knight did not strike. Sir Gawain impressed the Green Knight and instead of striking him right away he decided to test the young knight."

"He gave the knight a riddle then gave him a year to solve it. If he solved it then he would be free to go. If he failed then he would then receive the Green Knights strike. Sir Gawain agreed and gave his word he would return in a years time to give his answer. A year past and Sir Gawain returned. He had failed to figure out the riddle. He then knelt and placed his head on the tree trunk. The green knight asked him why he returned if he did not know the answer to his riddle. Sir Gawain replied. ‘I gave my word.’ The Green Knight raised up his ax and gently tapped Sir Gawain on his noggin. The Green Knight had spared him.” The Sergeant Gawain said placing his hands behind his back.

“In combat, we all will be tested. That test will be a test of honor. For some on you, it will be the orders to fight on to the last man even when it appears that there is no way to win the fight. For others, it might be the decision not to pull that trigger in the heat of battle even if that person deserves it beyond a shadow of a doubt. It’s the honor of the Federation Marines. We fight to win but we fight with honor. This is what we do here. We fight for Federation. The Federation deserves the best of the best when it comes to her Marines and that is what will happen. We will uphold the honor of the Federation as we fight to protect her. Can I get a hoorah?”

Freya joined in on the ancient warcry.

“Bredbeddle is a fast heavy gunner platoon. That means that we will have three squads of heavy gunners with two support squads and one command squad. We will be running thirty member platoon.” The Sergeant said turning around and turning on a holographic display. The six squads appeared on a whiteboard. Below the squad's list, there was a list of sixty names. The command squad was already full but the rest of the squads were listed as empty.

“As you can see there are sixty names on this list. We will whittle this down to thirty in four missions. The first mission will be today and it will be a short tier 2 mission. Bring your A game, people, or go home right now. I plan to eliminate ten people after this mission. That brings me to another point if your name is highlighted in red please see me after we break up. I need to speak with you.” The Sergeant said turning around to face the crowd again.

“Let me tell you right now I will not accept any rocks in my platoon. If you bring my platoon down, you are gone. I don’t care who you are. If you’re not living up to the minimum standard of this platoon you’re gone. That means if you are more that one standard deviation from the mean in mission points at any given time, I would start to look around for another platoon if I was you. Hopefully, you will find one in the third division. I also reserve the right to trade you to another platoon if I can get a better soldier. Your place in this platoon is never secure. Anyone not bringing their A game each and every mission, know that I will drop you like the rock you are. The Federation deserves the best and I aim to give it to her. Questions?” The Sergeant asked.

Freya looked to the board as several people asked questions. She stopped listening as she saw her name outlined in red. A chill ran down her back as she wondered what that meant. Did that mean that she was already cut? She looked back at the Sergeant but he was walking away. There were several people following him. Freya got up and followed them.

One of the other Sergeant told the small crowd that was following the platoon leader that they were to wait outside the platoon leaders office and he would see them by rank. Freya followed the small crowd into a small building and sat down on the fake wooden chairs that were lined up on the outside of a big office. The Sergeant who followed the Platoon leader sat down on a desk that was right in front of the platoon leaders office. The platoon leader and the Gunnery Sergeant kept walking into the office.

Freya looked at all the people who were sitting in the chairs. By her count, there were twelve people waiting on the Platoon leader. Taking a deep breath she tried to calm herself down as the first person was called into the office. He was in there for several long minutes until he came out. He didn’t look happy as he left the office. The Sergeant at the front desk called out the next name and a Corporal got up and entered the office.

Thirty-eight minutes later according to her HUD clock, Freya was finally called. She got up and quickly checked on her uniform before heading inside the office. She was still wearing an armless version of her armor. She wasn’t worried about her uniform though as one of the soldiers who had gone before her had worn a pink and white striped camo uniform. She opened the door and walked into the office.

The platoon leader was sitting behind a huge desk and he frowned as Freya walked in. Behind him sitting in an overly large chair by the window was the Gunnery Sergeant and Company Commander. He looked away from the window and smiled at her before he turned his gaze back out the window. The Platoon leader motioned for Freya to sit down.

“At ease Private. It's good to meet you. Why do you think your name was highlighted in red?” He asked her.

“I’m not sure sir,” Freya replied.

“That’s ok. I flagged your name because you do not meet the minimum requirements for this platoon. I’m willing to give you until the beginning of the next mission to get up to minimum requirements, that is if I don’t cut you after this mission for failure to meet combat standards for this platoon. I have two scout positions open and they are both 1st Company Scouts positions. I know it said 2nd Company Scouts but I decided to upgrade the minimum requirements. You currently don’t have the qualifications to meet that standard. Worse this is a fast response platoon so you need a minimum of thirty strength to keep up with the rest of the platoon as we move. I will allow you to go on the next mission but if you don’t have 1st Company Scout quals before the next mission I’m going to have to ask you leave.” The Platoon leader said looking pleased.

“Also I intend to make the position you are applying for, a hybrid scout and drone operator. You exceed the skill qualifications but you don’t have all the drones needed for the position. If you check the list that is posted on the whiteboard outside you will see all the drones you need a license for. I’m sure someone they call Magic won’t have a problem getting the upgrades needed for this platoon. If not, well, I would not be surprised to find that someone with your background was stealing other peoples glory. That will be all Private.” The Sergeant said looking down at his tablet.

Too shocked to say anything about his jab to her heritage, Freya stood back at attention and smartly did an about-face and marched out of the room. She robotically left the office and went up to the whiteboard. The list was on the board and it was a long one. There was no way she could afford everything that was needed. Cursing she turned around and started heading towards the exit door to the camp intending to make her way back to the Marine concourse.

“Magic!” Some yelled out her name. “Magic, wait up.”

Frowning she turned around to see a Corporal run up to he smiling. “Hi, I’m James. People call me Toast.” The Corporal said holding his hand out to shake.

“Freya O’Malley.” She told him shaking his hand.

“So the old jackhole pulled a fast one hmm?” The Corporal said shaking his head.

“Yes,” Freya said icily.

“Just so you know I’ve known that jackhole for a few years now and I know how he operates. Let me guess he gave you a seemingly impossible task like maybe a really expensive mod or hardware. Did he maybe tell you to raise a physical stat or a bunch of stats? How did he stick it to you?” The Corporal asked.

“He wants me to somehow buy five drone licenses. Upgrade my armor to tier 3 and to raise my stats nineteen mod points.” Freya told the smiling corporal.

If it was possible the Corporal smile grew. “You sees, he can’t make it impossible for you to succeed or they would pull his position away from him so fast the Monarch herself would not be able to keep up. That means that it’s possible to do what he asked. It will be really hard but possible.” Toast said looking her in the eyes.

“Come with me and I’ll tell you how we are going to get you all those requirements before the beginning of the second mission.” Toast said laughing. “Let’s stick it to the jackhole.”

Not sure if the Corporal was crazy or not Freya follow him. He led her to a table before he opened his holographic display and brought out a map. The map showed a dessert with five bases on it. There was a base in each corner and one at the center. The center one was currently marked red while the other bases were marked white. Toast tapped the second base and motioned her to look at it as the base enlarged.

“I’ve heard about you. The private that was battlefield promoted in a sim mission. That same private who got her Golden E medal on her first real mission. I also heard a rumor that you sold a tactic to the war college and bought a Respawn drop ship with it. Am I correct?” He asked her.

“Yes,” Freya said not sure where he was going.

“Great! So you will be using your dropship in this mission. Correct?” Toast asked her.

“I don’t know. It’s up to Sergeant Gawain.” Freya told him.

“Don’t worry he’s just asshole he’s not stupid. He will have you use your dropship. Tell me how good a pilot are you?” He asked her.

“I’m a level 2 pilot.” She told him.

“I’m not asking your level. I’m asking you how good you are. It’s too soon for the Monarch to judge your skill so I need to know. Can you land your ship here?” He asked her pointing to one of the corners of the base.

There was a ravine that ran on the backside of the base. It wasn’t a wide ravine only a few feet across except where he was pointing. He was pointing to a larger opening in the ravine. She looked at it and realized he wanted her to land in the opening of the ravine. Not only that he wanted her to land horizontally on the wall. She blinked at what he was asking. Then she read the dimensions of the wider part of the ravine. It was not that much larger than her ship. It was possible but it didn’t leave her much room to error.

“Before you answer I can already tell you that he is going to give you a fast time to get from the Monarch to the deck. He’ll make up some excuse about trying to sneak in or some crap but it will be legal order. So expect there to be very little time to drop onto the planet and get into that hole. Do you think you can do it?” He asked her again.

Freya frowned at what he said. If what he said was true then she was going to have to not only fit her ship into the hole she was also going to have to do a hard landing as well. She did the math in her head and shook her head. It was possible but she had to be perfect or she would wreck her ship.

“I’m going to have to do it aren't I?” She asked him.

“Yup!” He said smiling again looking at the map. “If you don’t then there is no way we are going to make it to the seventh wave. It’s what you’re going to need to get all of your mod points and credits.”

“What did he require of you, to stay in the platoon?” Freya asked suspiciously.

“Nothing to stay in. To be a squad leader I had to get you past all four missions and get you a permanent position on the platoon. He’s trying to get me to quit his platoon as well.” Toast told her.

“Why don’t we just leave? I’m sure we could find another named platoon.” Freya asked him.

“Because I never give up.” Toast told her, losing his good humor. “I promise you when you get a permanent slot on this platoon I will keep that bastard away from you. I’ll be the person you answer to. That will go for all my people in my squad. If he doesn’t like it and can go bugger off.”

Freya didn’t say anything for a few minutes and just stared at the Corporal. “Ok.” She told him looking away.

“Great. Now, do you know how to rock climb?” He asked her smiling again.

“Gather around everyone and let's go over this.” The platoon leader called out as he and the gunny walked up to the group. He tapped the whiteboard and it disappeared and in its place was the map Toast had shown her.

“This sim mission in on the planet Craven. It’s a world on the outer rim. It is host to thousands of insects like beings that rampage out of their holes as soon as any life is detected on the surface. We will be defending the fourth base….” The Platoon leader started to say but was interrupted by toast.

“What is it, Corporal?” The platoon leader asked Toast as Toast jumped up and down on his feet waving his hand in the air.

“Sir. Request permission to change the base location to base 2.” He said dropping his hand.

“Request denied.” The Sergeant immediately replied. He turned back to the map only to stop and turn back to Toast. “Ok Toast, why the hell do you want to change bases?”

“To make it harder, sir.” Toast replied smiling. The Gunnery Sergeant burst out laughing.

To Freya surprise, even the platoon leader chuckled. “Ok Toast, fine we will be heading to base two. Now, we will take the OTDS (one-time dropships) down. Private O’Malley will drop in her respawn dropship. O’Malley, you will land your ship in the courtyard and ….” The platoon leader was interrupted again as Toast started jumping up and down again.

“What is it this time Toast?” The platoon leader asked sounding annoyed.

“Request permission for Magic to land at coordinates ….” Toast said pausing to look down before he read off the grid coordinates from the map.

The platoon leader tapped the map and the small hole in the ravine appeared. “Fine. Private O’Malley will land in the deathtrap and somehow attached herself to the side of the wall. She will do that under one-hundred and four seconds from the moment she leaves the Monarch. The rest of us will not use the OTDS but will the dropship to spawn.” The Platoon leader said looking up at Toast from the map.

“And Toast if she crashes then you’re both out. Not just losing your squad leadership but you're out of my platoon. Are you sure your squad member can hack the landing?” The Platoon leader asked with a big smile.

“Of course sir!” Toast replied sounding affronted that the platoon leader would even ask.

The platoon leader looked back at the Gunnery Sergeant who was smiling. He looked at the platoon leader and shrugged. Freya thought Gunny looked way too amused. The platoon leader looked back at Toast and nodded.

“One-hundred and four seconds was not the worst-case scenario but it was two seconds off from it.” Freya thought, ignoring the rest of what the platoon leader was saying as she did the math. “It’s bad but not as bad as it could have been. Two seconds is not a lot of time but I can do a lot with those two seconds.” She thought to herself as she began to plan her decent.

“Ok rockstar it’s time to go.” Toast interrupted her as she was doing the math. Blinking she looked up and was startled as she noticed everyone was leaving. She quickly brushed her holographic notepad away and ran to catch up with Toast.