Freya groaned as the alarm woke her up. Opening her eyes, she found herself confused for a few seconds, before it clicked that she was in her own room in the barracks. It was the first time since she left home to join the Marines that she had her own room. She smiled and pulled her quilt tighter towards her neck and fell back to sleep.

Her second alarm woke her up again, but she absently hit snooze and went back to sleep. She was woken up a third time by the rude alarm clock. She hit snooze, but the alarm didn’t go off. Grumbling, she cracked her eyes open and looked at the blue screen that was hovering before her. The snooze button was greyed out. Frowning, she looked at the time and swore.

She quickly jumped up and ran to her bathroom. She hurriedly stripped out of her armor, that she forgot to take off before she went to sleep the night before, and jumped into the shower. She hastily washed herself, not bothering with her hair as she didn’t have the time. She left her dirty armor in the shower room and went back to her room, where she found her locker and equipped a new uniform armor to replace her dirty one. This time she equipped her helmet, so she wouldn’t have to brush her hair. She would pay for it later with tangles, but she was fine with that. Before she could leave, she got a blue box that told her she had to change her camouflage to Iron Hand platoon standard camouflage. She sighed and set her armor to the correct camouflage pattern.

Once she was done, she raced out of her room and into the hallway. She hesitated, as she didn’t know which way to go. Letting the door close and lock on its own, she looked both ways down the corridor. The hallway was filled with hideous green doors and shiny grey floor. To her left, was a window that showed that the sun was slowly coming up. In the other direction, she found more doors and what looked like a wide open space on the same side as her room.

Hoping the open space was the staircase she halfway remembered climbing up two and a half hours ago, when she got home from the bar, she started walking towards it. She let out a sigh of relief as she found the stairs. She took the steps down, two at a time, as she rushed to get to the waypoint on her map which marked where quarters was being held. Quarters was when the platoon met in the morning and was where they got their orders for the day.

Quarters was being held in a big room on the opposite side of the quarterdeck - the room right before the exit doors. Freya noticed, as she rushed in, that she was last. She slid into formation and quickly checked her uniform, looking for any equipping mistakes. Finding that her gig line was straight and everything was in place, she slid her hands behind her back and got into the parade rest position. Toast, who was standing in front of the platoon with the other squad leaders, facing Sergeant Torres, looked back at her and frowned. He looked at his wrist then at her. She got the message. She nodded to him and faced forward again.

Sergeant Torres looked up after a few seconds. He was standing in front of the platoon, facing them with a corporals on either side of him. “PLAH-toon… Attent-shun!” One of the Corporals beside the Sergeant called out. As one, the entire platoon went from parade rest to attention, with their feet together and their arms resting next to their legs.

“Morning, platoon!” Sergeant Torres called out in military cadence.

“Morning, Platoon Sergeant Torres.” The platoon replied. Freya was a split second behind, because she had never been part of morning quarters before and didn't know how to reply.

“At ease.” Sergeant Torres replied and the platoon relaxed into parade rest with their feet shoulder-width apart and their hands behind their backs.

“Hope everyone got a good night’s rest last night, because we are going to be busy for the next couple of days - we are heading out on our first tier three mission today. I expect the best from you people. For most of you, this is not your first time on a tier three mission, but I don’t want any of you going in overconfident. This sim mission is a tough one, with a medium to high tech rating. I really hope you took my suggestion and got everything you need for this mission, as it will require everything we have just to complete it. And I expect to complete this mission, make no mistake. Understood?” Sergeant Torres stated, in a no-nonsense tone of voice.

“Yes, Sergeant.” The platoon replied. Again, Freya was slightly behind in her reply. If anyone noticed, no one brought it up.

“Corporal Leni, you have anything to add?” Sergeant Torres asked the corporal standing to his right.

“Heavies, your loadouts need to be anti-personnel. You can bring some of your anti-materiel stuff along, but I want most of your stuff to be AP. One and Done, I need a mixed set of weapons, but lean towards the heavy stuff. Fifth squad, your loadout should be optimized for max stealth.” Corporal Leni told them, as she looked at each of the squad leaders.

“Corporal Wilson?” Sergeant Torres asked the other Corporal beside him.

“Just that, if you’re not supposed to be talking on the command channel - don’t. Follow the chain of command. If your squad wipes and you have to talk on the channel, keep it short and stick with formal comms procedures. Squad leaders - keep your traffic short. I don’t need you to tell me the color of the enemy’s underwear. I want pertinent facts only. Use the phonetic alphabet correctly. I don’t want to hear something stupid like ‘I as in eyeball.’ You have the phonetic alphabet on your HUD - use it. One last thing - watch your hot mikes. If you key up, remember to key off when you're done. The rest of the platoon does not need to hear about how awesome your love life is.” Corporal Wilson said, shaking his head.

“I as in eyeball. That’s a good one.” Sergeant Torres said, chuckling. “Squad leaders, do you have anything to add?” The squad leaders standing in the first line of the formation didn’t say anything and Sergeant Torres nodded. “Ok, mission briefing in fifteen minutes. If you haven’t already done so, grab some of that chow. It’s pretty good. That’ll be all.”

“PLAH-toon… Attent-shun!” Corporal Leni called out. The platoon snapped to attention. “Dismissed!”

“Magic, wait up.” Toast called out, as the platoon shuffled out of the room.

Freya stopped and waited on Toast. “Sorry Toast." She said when most of the people in the platoon had left the room. “It won’t happen again.”

“Always be at quarters fifteen minutes early or you’re late.” Toast said, sounding like he was quoting someone.

“Yes, Toast.” She replied, subdued.

“Ok, have you eaten yet?” He asked her.

“Not yet.” She replied, with a much more normal tone of voice.

“Ok, let’s get you some food. It really is pretty good. While you eat, I need you to send me your loadout for this mission. I want to go over it before the mission briefing, to make sure you haven't left anything you need behind.” He told her.

“Yes, Toast.” She replied, nodding.

“Great! The cafeteria is to the left at the end of the hall. And Magic, eat fast. I want you at the mission briefing at least five minutes before we start. You got me?” He asked her.

“Yes, Toast.” She replied seriously.

“Good, off you go. I need to talk to the Sergeant.” Toast said, looking around for the platoon leader.

The cafeteria, when Freya found it, was just where Toast said it was. It was in a long rectangular room. It was much smaller than the chow hall and there were no food stations like the chow hall had. Instead, the cafeteria had one long buffet style counter along the far side of the room. There were a few round tables scattered around the room. It was mostly empty, with only a few people sitting and eating.

Freya grabbed a plate and quickly picked up some scrambled eggs and some French toast. After grabbing some of what she hoped was orange juice, she found an unoccupied table and sat down. She shoveled the food in as fast as she could and washed it down with the orange drink. It wasn’t orange juice, but instead something else odd-tasting but pretty good. While she was eating, she sent Toast a message with a list of what she was bringing on the mission. He sent back an acknowledgement that he had received her list, but that was it. Once she finished her breakfast, she placed her tray in the recycling machine by the door and left.

She arrived in the mission briefing room eight minutes early. Smiling happily, she sat down on a wooden bench. The mission briefing room looked just like the locker, with TV screens bolted to the walls and a holo table in the middle. The benches were circled around the table, so that everyone sitting could see. Sergeant Torres was already standing by the table with his command crew and the squad leaders. She equipped her battle armor and weapons, then waited.

“Way to slip in at the last second.” A voice said to her right and Freya looked up to see Tike walk towards her. She sat down next to Freya and equipped her armor and weapons. She smirked at Freya the entire time. “Toast chew your butt?”

“A marine who arrives on time is late.” Patterson said, walking towards them and sitting down on the other side of Freya.

“No!” Freya replied to Tike. “He just wanted a list of what I’m bringing on this mission. He did mention that I should show up to quarters earlier, but that was it.”

Patterson snorted and Tike rolled her eyes. Freya opened her mouth to defend Toast some more, but was interrupted. “Magic!” Toast called from the holo table, motioning her over with his hand.

Freya got up from the bench and walked towards the table. Sergeant Torres looked up to her and nodded. “Magic, I need you at the table before the briefing, with the squad leaders. If we aren’t going to use the dropship, I’ll tell you to sit back down but I don’t expect that to happen all that often.” He told her.

He motioned to the table and said, “Our job for this mission is to infiltrate and eliminate this fort here.” He pointed to a small fort on the table. It lay in the middle of a maze of canyons that reminded her of the pictures she had seen of the Grand Canyon before the wars. There was a broken yellow line that showed a route to the fort through the canyons.

“We will go in through this wall. The cave doesn’t go all the way through, so we are going to have to use explosives to break the wall. Toast, I want your squad to climb the canyon’s walls here and make it to the other side, before we do that - I want you to scout the area. We will follow this dry river bed here right to the fort. Keep your squad at least three hundred feet ahead of the others.” Sergeant Torres told him.

“Tater and Ed, I want you to lead your squads to here. You should draw fire from the enemy. Toast, I want you to send those locations to One and Done. One and Done, you guys are going to be hiding in the cave. Once Toast sends you the grid coordinates, I want you to blast them. Start with the heavy stuff and work you way down to the bunkers and nests. Once we clear this first part, we'll advance. I am hoping to get here by noon.” Sergeant Torres said, pointing to a bend in the dry river bed.

“We'll catch our breaths here and move on as soon as we can. I expect delays, but the timeline for this mission is two days. That means we are going to have to push as fast as we can. That brings me to the dropship. Magic, you’re going to have to drop way out here. I need you to follow this corridor as best as you can. There are a bunch of other countries surrounding the one we are invading - we are not authorized to enter their airspace. You do have some wiggle room, but don’t wander away too much from this corridor.” The Sergeant said, minimizing the map a little bit to show the airspace around the country they were invading.

Freya looked at the map and brought out her tablet. She typed in the numbers and did the math. As she was doing that, the Sergeant continued with the briefing. “You also need to come in here about fifty miles from the edge of the canyons and stay one hundred feet from the deck. That should keep you in the shadow of the canyon walls. We need to stay hidden from them as long as possible. I'll leave it up to you where to deploy. I want it to be under a mile from our insertion point, but don’t get too close, in case they shell the area. Questions?” He asked her.

Freya looked up from her tablet and back at the map. She reached out and shrunk the map down, then looked for a good place to put down. Beside her, Toast searched as well. She found one and pointed it out to Toast. He nodded and they both looked at the Sergeant.

“Yeah, that will work really well. Good job, guys. Ok, let's get this show on the road.” Sergeant Torres told them and straightened up. The squad leaders and Freya went to their squads and sat down.

The Sergeant went over the mission step by step. He started with which squad was going to spawn on Freya’s dropship first and ended with how they were going to hit the fort. He added more details to the mission, before he handed off the briefing to his command staff. Corporal Leni went over who was going to set the explosives. It was a guy Freya didn’t know. She expected that Tike would set the explosives but she wasn’t the only one who had the Engineer Template in the platoon.

Corporal Wilson talked about communications again, but he also talked about drones as well. Freya learned that she was not the only drone operator in the squad, as Corporal Wilson talked to a corporal in the command squad about sending out different drones. The Corporal had way more drone licenses than she did and he had a better cloudforge, so he could put out more drones than she could. His drones would also last longer.

She frowned as she thought about Sergeant Gawain. “Why the hell would he want me to be a primary drone operator, if I can’t equip armor heavy enough to supply a good cloudforge and put out a lot more, better quality, drones than I can right now?” She thought to herself, as Wilson talked to the Corporal. She shook her head and forced herself to pay attention.

“Remember, you are only allowed two standard deviations from the median for your mission points. Drop below that and I can’t help you. Gunny will make me drop you. Make good decisions and remember your training and you will be fine. The Tournament will start right after this mission, so please don’t get dropped because you were stupid or lazy.” Sergeant Torres told them.

“Ok people, let’s do this.” The Sergeant said, stretching out his arm. “Everyone in.” Freya stood up with the rest of the platoon and put her hand in near the Sergeant’s. “We are the Iron Hand! We are the first in and the last out! On three, can I get a Oorah? One... Two... Three... Oorah!”

Freya yelled out the ancient war cry of the Marines with the rest of the platoon. “Platoon! Follow me!” Sergeant Torres called out and led the way out of the briefing room and out of the barracks. Freya paused as she stepped outside to look at the changes that had been made. She hadn't seen much when she came back to the camp that night because it was dark, but now that the sun was up she could see what had been done.

First, there was now a huge mountain that seem to rise up behind the barracks. Between the barracks and the mountain, was a river that flowed to a large lake. Most of the river that Freya could see was what she would consider rapids - here was a lot of white water. The lake was a lot closer to the camp now, than it had been, and there was a really nice-looking beach by it. On the far side of the beach, there was a wooden dock and in front of the dock was a bunch of canoes. The grassland was still there, but there was also a forrest as well that took up much of the north and west of the camp.

She was so amazed that she didn’t realize that she had stopped until Tike grabbed her arm and pushed her forward. She blinked and followed the rest of the platoon towards the lobby door. The lobby was now right next to the barracks. The Sergeant paused in front of it and waited for the rest of the platoon to gather around him.

“Iron Hand, follow me.” He called out, then opened the door to the lobby and stepped into the light.

Freya stepped into the hanger from the camp. She blinked as she looked at her refurbished ship. For the most part, it didn’t look any different. The gun she had bought was hidden inside the ship and would only come out when engaged. There was a small, black pod, that must be the Mech ammo resupply pod, attached on the top of the ship and near the back ramp. Freya felt the biggest let down was that the engine didn’t look any different. Even though she knew, intellectually, that the engine was hidden inside the ship and the exhaust ports shouldn’t change at all, she still felt cheated somehow.

She was in deep thought, looking over her ship, when she heard a loud BOOM! Freya flinched and ducked down. She looked to her left, to the BOOM came from, and her mouth dropped. The BOOM came from a fifteen-foot Mech being dropped from the hanger wall. It walked towards her ship. She had forgotten that the Mechs would be attached to her ship.

Another BOOM announced the second Mech being dropped on the other side of the hanger. Freya turned her head to watch as the gigantic Mech started walking towards her ship. Freya smiled as she realized that they were the same Mechs that were displayed at the entrance of the Camp.

“Magic, my favorite ground pounding bullet catcher.” A voice Freya recognized as Petty Officer Diaz, her Crew Chief, called out from behind her, over the loud noise of the two Mechs walking.

Freya looked behind her and spotted the Crew Chief standing at a console inside a little room. The Petty Officer waved her over and Freya walked over from the dropship towards her Crew Chief. She nodded her head in acknowledgement to the Petty Officer, once she was inside the little room. The Petty Officer waved back.

“I love ya, ma woman!” Petty Officer Diaz called out, yelling over the noise.

“Ahh, I like you too?” Freya responded, confused.

“We can’t talk too much now, but we need to get together later on. Drinks are on me!” Petty Officer Diaz said, giving her the biggest smile she had ever seen on the Crew Chief’s face. “I got enough experience putting all the upgrades onto your ship to get promoted. You’re looking at the Navy’s newest Petty Officer First Class.”

“Congratulations!” Freya yelled - right as all the noise stopped. Freya felt her cheeks turn red in embarrassment.

“Thanks.” Diaz replied in a normal voice, smiling at Freya’s embarrassment. The Petty Officer looked down at the console and pressed a few buttons. Freya spun around as she heard a grinding noise coming from the direction of her precious ship.

She sighed in relief as she realized that the noise was not from her ship but was coming from a crane arm descending from the ceiling. The crane attached itself to her ship and then froze.

“Got to get that fixed.” Petty Officer Diaz said behind her. “Let’s do the preflight checkoff and we can get the walking targets loaded up once you’re settled in your oversized bullet coffin.”

“Ok.” Freya replied, excitedly. She really wanted to see the difference with her ship now.

The crew chief led Freya to the dropship and went over all the changes that had been done to it. It was mostly what Freya expected, but there were a few differences from the plan she read when she bought the upgrades. First, that the pod was moved slightly back from where the original plans had it.

“It’s a better placement for the pod and for the Mechs to reach. If I didn’t move it, then the Mechs would have to crouch down a little bit. By moving it forward, they don’t have to crouch down to reload, which increases the reload times. On top of that, it slightly reduces the drag on the dropship. The boost is tiny and you won’t really feel it, but it’s there so I went ahead and moved it.” Her crew chief explained. “Before you get upset, I got it approved by my division commander. I was going to send you a message, but you popped your next mission too fast and I just got done with the changes this morning.”

“It’s ok.” Freya said looking at the pod. She reached out and pulled on it to make sure it was stable. The pod didn’t move and Freya went on with her checklist.

Her next check was her new gun. Diaz showed her the hidden depression the gun was recessed in and opened the compartment for Freya. Freya looked over the gun and smiled. It was about four feet long and the barrel was so wide she could fit her fist into it. She didn’t see anything wrong with it so closed the compartment and moved on. Once she finished her preflight checklist on the outside of the ship, Freya boarded through the ramp in the back. As she did, she absently kissed her fingers and tapped the deck plate. Diaz followed her and did the same thing.

The tank that was filled with all the stuff needed to print things was in the same place as the last one, but it was bigger now. Much bigger, Freya noted, as she ran her fingers down it. Except for the larger tank, she didn’t see anything else different inside the pod bay. She gave her pod bay one more look before turning to one of the pods. Her Crew Chief opened the door for her and smiled.

“Good luck, Magic. You might be a jarhead, but you’re ok in my book.” Petty Officer Diaz told her.

“You’re not so bad yourself.” Freya told the other woman with a smile, as the Petty Officer closed the pod doors. Freya blinked and found herself standing behind her chair in the cockpit. She gave her ship a smile and sat down. She noted a new control panel on her dashboard. It wasn’t all that big, but it did look intimidating. It was the control for her new gun. She brushed her hand over it as she familiarized herself with how to deploy the gun. Once she was sure she could bring the gun out without any problems, she turned towards the rest of her checklist. There was one more new check item now and it was the release mechanism for the Mechs. She did her checks on it and moved on.

“Hey Magic, I’m going to raise you up now so the Mechs can dock. You ready for that?” Diaz asked, over the radio.

“Roger than, Petty Officer First Class.” Freya replied. Diaz squealed happily and Freya felt her ship shake as it was slowly raised by the crane.

“Magic, this is One. Permission to Dock?” One asked over the radio.

Freya smiled and released the docking clamps so that One could dock. “Permission granted, One. This is going to be fun.” Freya told her.

“Who came up with the ladies first thing. It's dumb. Magic, this is Done. Permission to Dock, as soon as Ms. Slow as Heck gets done.” Done asked over the radio.

“Magic, One here. Can you inform Done to wait his turn. A lady never rushes.” One said over the radio.

Freya was smiling at the radio as she ship was suddenly rocked. Freya checked her instruments and frowned.

“One, speaking as another lady, don't hit Magic’s ship again or command will fine your butt.” Diaz said, breaking into their conversation.

“Crap, sorry Magic. I only did this once and that was in a sim. It won’t happen again.” One replied.

“Just so you know, this is also a sim.” Done retorted, sounding amused.

“Shut it.” One said, as Freya watched a green light come on as her computer confirmed that One’s Mech was locked in.

“Done, your turn.” Magic said, as she opened the second dock. “If you bump into my ship, you’ll owe me a drink at Chivia’s.”

“Hey, One hit your ship. Why doesn’t she owe you a drink?” Done asked.

“She does.” Magic told him, as she watched him anxiously move to dock on her ship. She found herself watching in fascination as Done’s Mech bent down in half and folded into itself. He slowly raised his Mech until the back gently bumped into the docking clamp under the dropship. The ship rocked again, but not as bad as the first time. Freya checked her sensors again, but no damage was showing. She sighed in relief.

“What the heck is wrong with you marines. Why can’t you dock without trying to put a hole in my ship?” Diaz asked, sounding outraged.

“Sorry. It’s harder than it seems. And hey, I thought it was Magic’s ship?” Done replied.

“Stop giving me excuses, Marine.” Diaz replied angrily.

“Ha!” One replied.

Freya rolled her eyes. She watched Done bring the Mech’s legs up and under him. His Mech folded itself into a squarish shape. Freya looked away from the two Mechs and ran a few diagnostics to make sure there really wasn’t any damage done to her ship. Once it came back green, she sighed in relief.

“Magic, I’ll release the crane lock as soon as you power up.” Diaz told her.

Freya powered up the ship and Diaz released the lock. Freya grinned as she hovered in the hanger. Her ship felt different to her. It felt more powerful. It was like she was sitting in a sports car instead of a minivan. Freya felt her smile get bigger as she looked around the hanger and, when she saw Diaz had already left, she hit the button to release the atmosphere in the hanger. She asked for and received permission to undock from Monarch. She flipped her ship so that the nose was pointed downwards as the bottom of the hanger opened. She gently raised power to engines to thirty percent and rocketed out of the hanger.

“Holy crap!” Done yelled over the radio, as they shot away from Monarch. Freya smiled and heard One start laughing.

“Oh my god, Magic. This is so amazing.” One said over the radio.

Freya didn’t reply as she got a ping on her sensors. They had picked up active targeting sensor pings from the planet. Freya cursed and boosted the power to the engines. “Hang on guys, this in going to get rough.” She told her passengers over the radio.

“How rough?” Done asked, sounding sick.

“Oh-God-oh-God-we're-going-to-die bad.” Freya replied, trying to sound bored, as she focused on her sensors and powered up her brand new gun.