You have completed the mission successfully.

You are awarded one thousand E-points, fifty skill points and fifty mod points.

Completed mission: 250 Credits. Looted Credits: 200

Bonus 1: For discovering a listening post under active camouflage, you are awarded two hundred and fifty E-points, ten skill points and ten mod points. 100 Credits

Bonus 2: For discovering a Light Attack Mech under active camouflage, you are awarded two hundred and fifty E-points, ten skill points and ten mod points. 100 Credits

Bonus 3: For discovering a Heavy Assault Mech under active camouflage, you are awarded two hundred and fifty E-points, ten skill points and ten mod points. 100 Credits

+1 Personal AI for the discovery of a listening post under active camouflage

+1 Personal AI and +0 Hacking skill for subconsciously hacking personal armor to enhance sensor suite

+1 Personal AI for the discovery of an enemy Light Attack Mech active camouflage

+1 Personal AI and +0 Hacking skill for subconsciously hacking personal armor to enhance sensor suite

+1 Personal AI and +0 Hacking skill for subconsciously hacking surveillance drone

Unable to advance the Hacking skill due to not having all the qualifications needed

+1 Piloting skill for successfully piloting your ship through average anti-air fire

For safely deploying and returning a Respawn Dropship without damage you are awarded 5 E-points, 2 skill points and 2 mod points. 20 Credits.

Status Screen

Name: Freya O’Malley

Rank: Private. Level: 1

Template: 1st Company Scout

Enlisted points: 20,120

Credits: 4888

Skill points: 81

Mod points: 81

Weapons:

Desus MOA Magnetic heavy rifle

Mega Colax purified battery Six heat sinks NG rod ammo.

Armor:

Wrath Tier 4 (modded to tier 3)

Massimio Friction assistance Veddarius battery Cloudforge Sensor alert Five drones

GMZ 127 energy rifle

Colax purified battery

Hayes 2020 pistol

Two Mrock pistol ammo rods

Basic combat knife

Ship:

Goozden 127 light armored Respawn Dropship

Causnix Mac 127 Recurve Engine Active camouflage Six respawn pods Vehicle dock Mech reloading printer Shand’s Auto Cannon

Wetware mods

Health

Level: 25

Health Regen

Level: 25

Strength

Level: 30

Perception

Level: 150

Agility

Level: 75

Dexterity:

Level: 100

Memory

Level: 125

Processing speed

Level: 158

Personal AI

Level: 6

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

Engineer

Apprentice

Advanced Drone Operator

Level: 3

Piloting

Level: 4

Silent Walking

Level: 1

Silent Combat running

Level: 1

Advanced Targeting

N/A

Hacking

Level: 0

Hardware mods: Suicide mod

Medals: Gold E Sharpshooter

Freya stepped out of the light and back into Camp Iron and was overloaded with blue box notifications. She took a few steps so that she wouldn’t be standing in the middle of the door and started reading the notifications. The first thing she noticed was the huge increase in E-points.

“A thousand E-points just for completing the mission?” Freya said incredulously.

“You should see the rewards for being a squad leader.” One said behind her, chuckling.

“Ahh, I thought I was psychic,” Freya said, looking at her Personal AI skill points.

“Why?” Done asked.

“Well, I thought I used my mind to see through some active camouflage but it was only my Personal AI starting to work finally,” Freya said, then smiled when she flipped through all the skill increases to her Personal AI. She went from a single point from it waking up to six after one mission.

“Only, she says.” Done said shaking his head. “Do you know how many people would kill for a Personal AI?”

“Sorry,” Freya said, turning around to look at Done, feeling embarrassed. She saw One gazing off into space with a slight, happy smile on her face.

Platoon alert!

To: The Iron Hand

From: Sergeant Torres

Debriefing in ten. Command and Squad Leaders meet in five.

“Let’s go get something to eat. Some of these can go for hours.” One muttered as she changed directions towards the barracks. Done frowned and nodded to One, while Freya followed the two.

“Should I come too?” Freya asked.

“Nah. Not for a debriefing. Just come with the rest of the platoon.” One said, shaking her head. Apparently, everyone had the same idea of getting something to eat because almost the entire platoon was in the cafeteria.

One and Done got their food to go and left as soon as they could. Freya got hers and spotted Patterson, who had a seat open next to him. Freya looked around for Tike but didn’t see her. She took her tray over and sat down next to Patterson.

“Excuse me,” Freya muttered to the other Marine on the other side of her.

“No worries.” The man beside her said with a deep voice.

Freya turned to look at the man curiously and smiled. He was a large man both in height as well as muscles. He had tan skin and some really white teeth when he smiled. A quick glance at his collar showed her he was a Private First Class.

“Magic, right? I’m Mon.” The man said, holding his hand out for her to shake.

“Mon?” Freya asked as she shook his hand.

“It’s short of Master of None. M.O.N.” He told her, with another amazing smile.

“It’s because he skates as close to the edge of his Template as he can.” A woman said from the other side of the table. “He has so many weird skills and mods that when Torres looked at his skill sheet he straight up laughed. He called him M.O.N in front of everyone and it stuck.”

“Hey, you never know what skills you’re going to need on a mission,” Mon said in mock anger.

“What kind of weird skills do you have?” Freya asked him.

“He has the single-use dropship skill and he doesn’t own any vehicles.” The woman said laughing. “I’m Netty by the way.” She told Freya.

“Freya.” She told Netty. “Why did you get something like that?” Freya asked him.

“I plan on getting some driving skills and licenses.” He told her, while giving Netty the evil eye.

“Hi, I’m Dusty. One of the backup Mech pilots.” A sandy-haired man said, reaching behind Mon to shake Freya’s hand.

“Don’t fall for that, please,” Netty said rolling her eyes. “He’s not the only backup Mech pilot. I’m one too.”

“But I am the first backup pilot.” He said, leaning back a little bit so that Freya could see him better behind Mon’s back.

“But I’m the first backup,” Netty parrotted, mockingly. “Please. First loser maybe.”

“I guess that makes you the second loser,” Dusty said, turning away from Freya to look at Netty.

“Ignore these children. I’m called Ostrich. I hear you’re a drone operator?” The man beside Netty said, holding his hand out for Freya to shake.

“Of course she’s a drone operator. She flies a dropship and invented a drone that is paying for all this.” Netty said, waving her hand around her pointing out the food. “She’s way out of your league, Ostrich.”

Freya caught the flash of rage that flowed over Ostrich’s face. She looked away uncomfortably.

“You going to eat that?” Mon asked her, pointing to her plate. She had got something that reminded her of the tiny chocolate eggs that her people got for Easter to hide for the children to find. They were in a weird, sticky, yellow sauce. She got it hoping it tasted something like the chocolates.

“Not sure. Let me taste it.” Freya said, using her fork to scoop an egg up. Freya nearly threw up as soon as it hit her taste buds. It was all that she could do to swallow it instead of spitting it out.

“Oh my God, that tasted awful,” Freya said, pushing her tray towards Mon.

“Thanks,” Mon said, smiling and digging into the awful food.

“Mon has refined tastes. That pile of cat poop is worth about fifty credits on my planet.” Dusty told Freya, shivering in disgust as Mon shoveled the food into his mouth.

“I find that it requires refined taste to enjoy it,” Ostrich said, with a smug smile.

“Then why aren't you eating it, support boy,” Netty said nastily.

Ostrich opened his mouth but closed it, unable to reply.

“Hey man, you must have overlooked it. Let me buy you some” Dusty said, smiling unkindly. He stood up, got a small tray and came back to the table to push it in front of Ostrich.

Ostrich looked down at the eggs, not doing a very good job of hiding his disgust. “I’m full, sorry. One must have an empty stomach to enjoy such a refined meal. Isn’t that right, Mon?” Ostrich said, looking up from his plate.

“No,” Mon said bluntly.

“I’ll eat it.” An overly muscular Marine said, standing up. Freya hadn't seen him because he was sitting on the other side of Dusty. Freya caught Netty rolling her eyes as the big man reached over everyone's plates to grab Ostrich’s. Still standing, he took a big bite then froze. His smile slowly disappeared. He forced himself to swallow.

“Now that’s a real man’s meal.” He told the table, as he took another bite. Freya smirked then shook her head as the man forced himself to swallow a second bite.

“Dog! Sit down and shut up.” Netty said, shaking her head. Dog smiled and sat down, his mouth full with another spoonful of the disgusting eggs.

“Two minutes to debriefing, people. Let’s get this place cleaned up and get going.” A man at another table said, standing up. Freya recognized him as the man who led Patterson and herself back to the platoon after the first time they died.

Netty quietly cursed the man as she looked at Freya. “Wonderboy there thinks he’s the next squad leader. Ignore him.” Netty told her as most of the rest of the Marines did as he asked.

“I’m done anyway,” Freya said standing up and reaching for her tray but Mon stopped her.

“I got this. It’s only fair since I ate off it.” Mon said, standing up still holding Freya’s tray. Dusty quickly walked beside her as Mon left to put the trays away. Freya couldn’t help but watch the good-looking man as he walked away.

“Dusty, you’re worse of a dog than Dog is,” Netty said, bumping Dusty away from Freya. “We better get out of here or the rest of these bloodhounds will jump your leg.”

Freya laughed and followed the other woman. “Why aren't you worried that they’ll jump your leg?” Freya asked her.

“They know if they annoy me that I don’t mind the fine for ‘accidental friendly fire’.” She told Freya, making air quotes. Freya laughed again. She was finding that she really liked the odd and pushy woman.

Freya sat down next to Patterson in the briefing room. She was looking at the squad leaders, who were huddled around the table with Sergeant Torres and the command staff, when Ostrich sat down beside her. He looked everywhere but at her. She scooted closer to Patterson and away from him.

“I don’t know who you are but you’re sitting in my seat. Sit by your own squad.” Tike said, walking into the briefing room and motioning with her thumb behind her.

“I can…” Ostrich said, but Patterson interrupted him.

“Ostrich, get lost,” Patterson said, sounding annoyed. With a huff, Ostrich got up and Tike sat down where he had been sitting.

“So, what did I miss?” Tike asked excitedly.

“Fresh blood here got hit on by pretty much the entire platoon,” Patterson said, nodding his head at Freya.

“It wasn’t like that,” Freya said feeling embarrassed. “They were just saying hello.”

Tike snorted. ‘Right, you keep believing that.” She told Freya with a wicked smile.

Just then the squad leaders broke away from the table and Toast walked towards them. “So, what did I miss?” Toast said, sitting down beside Patterson.

“Magic got the new girl treatment,” Tike said, smiling.

“Is it going to be a problem?” Toast asked them.

“Ostrich came on a little strong but no, I don’t think so,” Patterson said, shaking his head. “But you should have seen Dog showing off.”

“Nice. Which one is Dog?” Toast asked, looking around.

“Meathead with the second squad,” Patterson said, pointing at the man across from them, who was currently flexing his muscles. Toast chuckled.

“Ok, everyone listen up.” Sergeant Torres said, stepping away from the holo table. “We did a pretty good job. No one fell below the second standard deviation. We did have one who fell below the first deviation and I’ll be talking to that person after the debriefing.”

“Everyone did a good job but there was room for improvement. First, I would like to congratulate One, who had the highest mission points in the platoon. She got into the second positive standard deviation for one-shotting a disabled Light Assault Mech.” Sergeant Torres said, clapping. Everyone started clapping, following his lead. Freya leaned out from her seat so that she could see One, who was standing and giving herself a golf clap with a huge smile on her face.

“Patterson and Magic, good job on finding the Mechs. Patterson, good job in disabling the Mech. Jaob, good job in spotting the ambush and alerting the rest of the platoon.” Sergeant Torres said, as he named a few more marines and their accomplishments.

“Now we head into the boneheaded awards. First goes to Done, for tripping over a rock.” Sergeant Torres said, as a 3D hologram appeared over the table. It showed Done in his Mech trying to step over a flat horizontal rock, but he didn’t step high enough and he tripped. The platoon chuckled.

“Done, my man. You have over three hundred in agility. How did that happen?” Someone asked from the platoon.

“I was watching the feed from Magic.” Done said, defending himself.

“That brings me to the second bonehead award. This one goes out to our rookie.” Sergeant Torres said as a hologram appeared of Freya. It appeared to come from behind her so she thought it must have come from Patterson’s feed. In the feed, Freya could see herself looking at a machine in front of her. She saw herself shrug then pull out her pistol and kill the machine.

“On the good side, our newest rookie has a hundred accuracy in full-auto machine pistols now.” Sergeant Torres said, making the entire platoon laugh. Freya looked down, feeling her face go beat red.

“Next we have…” The Sergeant continued, but Freya didn’t listen because she was feeling too embarrassed.

Toast reached over Patterson, patted Freya’s knee and whispered. “Don’t worry, everyone ends up there sooner or later.”

Sergeant Torres soon switched to what each squad did wrong. Thankfully he didn’t have much to say about Fifth Squad. “First and Second Squads, once your Mechs advance far enough, you need to move as fast as you can and join either Third or Fourth.” The Sergeant said to the squads in question. He showed a highlight reel to illustrate what he was talking about. “If you’re under fire, then advance under cover.”

“Tater, your squad was a bit slow on returning fire from the ambush. Your people stalled when they should have advanced.” Sergeant Torres said, as the platoon watched what happened during the ambush. “Fourth Squad was square in front of the ambush. Third Squad should have shifted to the right much faster and set up the engagement here. That put the fourth squad in a really bad position taking fire from both this direction and this direction. People, we are a family and family don’t let each other down. I know you all know what to do, so I expect this to never happen again. We were lucky this time that no one caught one. We can’t rely on luck for every mission.”

The Sergeant talked for about an hour before he stopped. “Corporal Leni, do you have anything to add?” He asked the Corporal.

“Yes, Sergeant. Ostrich, stick to medium armor or buy more strength. You were slowing the squad down. Magic, I know scouts normally don’t get the Hacking skill, but since you already have a Personal AI, you might as well. It made a huge difference in this mission. Dusty. I know you like your gun, but please get a new one. It’s so old that my Grandmother used it when she rode a dinosaur to war. Petey, for God’s sakes find some cover, man. You can’t inspire your fellow squad members if you keep dying. Let’s get the basics down before you start to get into the advanced stuff.” Corporal Leni said, before adding a few more comments for people to pick up specific skills or mods.

“Corporal Wilson?” Sergeant Torres asked.

“I need to see Ostrich and Magic after the meeting. I want to go over some drone stuff. Other than that, I think the platoon did a good job in their communications.” Corporal Wilson said.

“No I for eyeballs?” Sergeant Torres joked.

“Not this time.” Corporal Wilson said, smiling.

“Ok, that’s it, everyone. You have the rest of today off. We’ll meet for quarters in the morning then expect at least four-hour training exercises after that. If you want to go over the last mission or any other mission in the future, I’ll post the feeds on our private server. Petey, stay behind please.”

“Hey everyone, wait a second.” Corporal Leni said, waving her hand as the platoon stood up to leave. “If you don’t know how to climb a stupid cliff, then I need you to get the skill. It doesn’t cost that much and it really comes in handy. Patterson, I’m talking to you.”

After the laughter died down, Toast asked, “Hey, you guys want to head to Chivia’s tonight?”

“Yeah, sounds good. What time?” Tike asked.

“I was thinking six or so.” Toast told them.

“I'll be there,” Patterson said with a smile.

“I’m in,” Freya told them.

“Magic!” Corporal Wilson called out. Freya turned around and saw him motioning for her. With an apologetic smile to the rest of her squad, she turned and jogged over to him and Ostrich.

“Good job on the drones, but I need you guys to communicate more. There were a few times where you two had overlapping coverage. This increases the chances that someone will spot the drones. Magic gets priority when she’s out on patrol. If you see her drone go up terminate yours, Ostrich, unless we tell you otherwise. Magic, if you see Ostrich’s drones already flying, I need you to try to communicate to him when you spot something. I know it's almost impossible because of radio silence but please try to find away. If it’s like the hidden Mechs, then don’t hesitate to send up the drones but if it can wait, then wait for his drones to go out and send yours up. Ostrich, stick around, I want to go over some drones that Sergeant Torres wants you to get. Magic, you’re good.” Corporal Wilson told her.

With a wave towards the two, Freya made her way out of the briefing room only to find Netty waiting on her. “Hey Magic, some of us are heading to the lake after this and I was wondering if you want to go.” She told Freya.

“Sure, I just need to hit the Training facility. What time is everyone thinking of going?” Freya asked, pleased to be asked.

“We’re meeting up in the barracks common room right around eleven,” Netty said, smiling.

“Sounds like a plan,” Freya said, smiling also. Netty chattered with Freya about some random things as they walked towards the Training facility and got in line. While waiting in line, Freya researched how much Hacking was going to cost her.

Hacking was broken down into five levels. The first one just gave her the ability to use a hacking device with preloaded hacking programs. It really didn’t teach anything about hacking except to how to use various different devices. It cost only one skill point.

The second level in Hacking taught a person how to tell the difference between different programs and which program to choose from a preloaded list on the hacking machine. It cost 8 skill points. The next level taught how to tweak the hacking programs to get better results on different machines that the person was hacking. This cost ten skill points. The fourth level taught the hacker how to write hacking programs, so the hacker could tailor-make a program for that specific machine. Level four in hacking cost fifteen skill points. The last level was the advanced form of the fourth level and it taught a hacker not only to write programs but how to look for exploits and back doors in the code of the machine. Once the hacker found a back door or an exploit, they could write a program to take advantage of the security weakness. The last level cost 25 skill points

Once a person completed the Hacking skill, there were two advanced skills called Remote Hacking and Cyberwarfare. The Remote Hacking cost twelve skill points but a person had to have a hardware or wetware mod that could access an electronic device. While the Personal AI was listed as a device that could be used as a remote hacking device, it required a second mod for memory. She looked up some of the options and she found that she could buy a mod for her armor to let her personal AI use her armor as a memory dump. She could afford it but it would take about one-fourth of her savings to buy it.

Just because she was curious, she looked up Cyberwarfare. It required four bachelor degree classes. Three of the classes she could substitute for classes she had already taken. The last class she had to take was restricted to the military and it was simply called Cyber-Espionage Tactics. The description was blank. It also explained that the only way to take the class was through the training facility.

She looked at her mods and decided to put ten into Perception which cost her a staggering, forty mod points. She placed twenty into Agility to try and get it up to match her Dexterity. She was five short but she was fine with that. She had one point left over but she decided to keep it in case she needed it in the future.

When it was her turn, she tried to buy the mod and skills but it wouldn’t let her get the Remote Hacking skill unless she had the mod for her armor. With a sigh, she signed out and made her way out of the Camp. A quick trip to the armor store and one thousand credits later, she had her mod. She also spent some money restocking stuff she used on her last mission. When she had everything she needed, she headed back to the training facility, bought the skills and stepped into the light.

When she left the training facility, she had a vastly different outlook on what it took to hack electronic devices. In the movies, she had watched the hackers always seem to hack things right then and there. For the most part, this was not possible unless the hacker had a program already written and ready to go. Writing a program could take hours or days, depending on how complicated the security the device had.

The military had a few standard programs that a person could buy in the store but those programs tended to be general purpose and, if they worked, could take a really long time. The best way was to find out what she was going to hack then what type of security the device had before she started to write a program. It was possible to write a program while attempting to bypass the security of a device, but the security usually had to be bad and she had to know already how to bypass it.

The skill was also not as complete as she wanted it to be. She left the camp again, went to the store that sold college classes and bought two classes that taught the fundamentals of six of the most common security program languages. The skill she had only showed her to look for common loopholes and backdoor weaknesses. If she really wanted to be good at hacking, she needed to know more. When she got back, she sat down in the common room and started doing her modules for the classes she had just bought.

The classes were not all that hard and she knew more than she thought she did, due to the skills she had learned in the training facility, but there was a lot more information in the classes that she had just bought than she received in her skills training. The problem was the information was extremely dry and she had to go to the cafeteria several times for energy drinks just to keep herself awake for three hours before Netty came and got her.

“Hey Magic, you ready to go?” Netty asked, as she walked into the common room.

Freya looked up from her tablet and frowned as she spotted Netty in her one-piece bathing suit. “Oh no. I forgot I don’t have a bathing suit.”

“No problem. Let's go buy one.” Netty said, smiling. “I just need to send a message to everyone that we’re going to be late.”

Netty went back to her room to change back into her uniform then led Freya to a fancy boutique that sold some really nice bathing suits. Freya turned down every suggestion from Netty for a bathing suit and went with a nice, striped, black and white two-piece. They went back to Camp Iron and changed out of their uniforms into their bathing suits.

There was a small crowd of people from the platoon at the beach by the lake. Someone had set up a volleyball game and there was a group of people already playing. Mon had brought a grill and was in the process of grilling some food with Dusty. There were two coolers that people were standing around drinking beer.

“You want a beer?” Netty asked, nodding to the coolers.

“Sure,” Freya said, looking around, feeling awkward at all the people. Netty came back with two beers and opened one for Freya.

“Hey, Netty and Magic. You guys want some cheeseburgers or some hotdogs?” Dusty asked, as he spotted them. Mon looked up and gave them a smile before he looked back down at the grill.

“So, how much do we owe and who do we give it to?” Netty asked, looking around.

“My treat,” Mon said, right before he put down his spatula, picked up his beer and took a long drink from it.

“You bought all this stuff or just the food?” Netty said, looking around.

“Most of this stuff I had on my last ship, so I brought it. I’m still riding high on my bonus for reenlisting, so the food and beer is on me, this time. We can collect later on, when we do another one of these.” Mon said, waving his beer around to encompass the beach party.

“Great!” Netty said, then downed the beer. “I’m going to get another one, if you don’t mind.”

“Go ahead, but I’m not buying when we run out,” Mon said, taking another long slug of his beer.

They all stood around talking about things like their last mission, the upcoming tournament, who was cool and who was an idiot. Netty had a lot to say about the people around them. According to her and Dusty, their spawn mission was a complete failure and they only lasted for three waves.

“Yeah, we lost a lot of people before you guys showed up,” Netty said to Freya. “I have no idea what Torres did to get you and Toast, but it was the right call.”

“Yeah, how did you spot the two Mechs under active camouflage?” Dusty asked.

“I have a Personal AI wetware mod. I unconsciously hacked my suit and made my sensors better somehow. I thought I was psychic.” Freya told him, smiling as she started on her second beer.

The day passed slowly as they drank and talked. Freya got pulled into the volleyball game when Dog accidentally hit Netty and pissed her off. The next thing she knew, she was playing with Netty against Dusty and Dog. Netty took the game pretty seriously and Freya didn’t. Freya talked Jaob into replacing her so that Netty had a better partner to play with. She went back over to the grill and hung out with Mon.

Freya stayed until about five-thirty then left to take a shower and get changed before she was due to meet with her squad at Chivia’s. She drank some more and ate some more of the finger foods that Chivia’s served. Tike ended up leaving to play in the tank game in the pit while Patterson found someone he knew from his last ship. Toast hung out for a few minutes longer, before a Corporal from another platoon came by and sat next to him. Freya looked at the time and realized that it was late so she excused herself and went back to their camp. She took another shower and put her dirty uniforms in the recycling slot before she got dressed in her nightclothes and went to bed.

In the morning, she made it to Quarters thirty minutes early and waited on the rest of the platoon to arrive. Sergeant Torres thanked everyone for cleaning up the beach before they left but he warned that the beach was not a good place for some alone time with someone else.

“We are splitting up the platoon for today's drill and all other drills unless we tell you otherwise.” Sergeant Torres said, after Quarters was over. “First, Second and Sixth Squads are with Wilson. Third, Fourth and Fifth squads are with Leni. I’ll be bouncing to both groups. If no one has anything to add, let's get this going.”

“My group, get your full battle gear on then line up by squad then rank. I’ll see you outside.” Corporal Leni said before she turned and left. Freya raced up to her room and changed into her battle gear with her rifle. She ran outside and lined up. Toast was in the front of their squad, followed by Tike, then Patterson and finally Freya. Freya couldn’t stop a smile from forming on her face as she saw the two Mechs step out of the garage and walk towards their group.

Leni waited until everyone was lined up then led them on a run into the forest. There was a small but level path they took that led to a cliff. The Corporal wanted them to act as if they were in a combat situation, so the squads split up, protecting the cliff. The Corporal had Patterson and herself climb up the cliff first and she told them not to use ropes but to free climb it.

Freya noted that Patterson must have bought the climbing skill because he was much faster than he had been while on the mission. She found a good spot and laid down to protect the top of the cliff with Patterson. They waited until the rest of the squads finished climbing then Corporal Leni had them do it in reverse, but this time she allowed them to use ropes.

Then they ran practice drills for the rest of the time. She had them space out like they were going to be attacked. She stopped them to move a person or two into a better position. Once she had to move Tater's entire squad, as they were out of position. She slowly walked them through several different scenarios, each time correcting their mistakes. The only mistake Freya made was that she was out of position when Tater’s squad was late in advancing.

“Keep an eye on the people behind you,” Leni told Freya. “Move when they move. The last thing you want is to be too far forward if there is an ambush. You die and the squad behind you has no idea they are walking into a trap.”

They broke for lunch and then went back out. This time they took turns ambushing each other. While Third and Fourth squads attacked in a full-on ambush, Toast led them on a hit-and-run campaign that lasted for fifteen minutes. Between Patterson’s big gun, the traps that Tike laid down, Freya’s insane accuracy, and Toast’s leadership, they took out a third of the squads behind them without losing anyone in their squad.

When Corporal Leni finally called it, the other two squads were pissed. The Corporal had Toast and the rest of his squad go over everything they had done, then the Corporal walked the two squads through the exercise again on how they should react when they were attacked. Then he had Freya’s squad attack the other two squads again and this time it went much better for them, with Patterson taken out right at the start. They chased Freya fast enough that she never had the time to aim properly. Toast got off a couple of shots but he too was chased off. Tike still got a few with some of her traps but the squads were able to avoid quite a few of them.

The drill lasted until two in the afternoon, then they were released to do whatever they wanted, with the warning that they had drill again in the morning. Freya begged off Netty and the others, who were going out to Chivia’s again. She stayed in her room and worked on creating programs that she could used to hack things like her armor. It was really only tweak to the standard hacking program she was given but it still took her about forty-five minutes to create. The rest of the time she worked on her class modules.

The next day’s drill was very similar to the first drill the day before. They took a run deep into the woods where they attacked each other again and again. Corporal Leni had Tike teach a class on how to avoid traps. She taught them how to create and avoid primitive traps. She also explained how to avoid or blow up explosive traps. Corporal Leni told the squads that if they found an explosive trap, they were to call it in. Tike wasn’t the only Engineer in the platoon.

Like before, they ended the day mid-afternoon, but this time Sergeant Torres told them that they had a tier-three mission in the morning. Almost no one went out that night. Freya hung out with the rest of the platoon in the common room, doing some of her modules for her classes with Tike and, to her surprise, Mon. Late that night, she went to her room and got ready for bed. She thought about her time so far in the Iron Hand and was surprised that she was having a lot of fun. While most people hated the drills she found that she liked them. She was learning a lot and she was enjoying most of the people in her new platoon.

“Well, except Ostrich. He’s getting annoying.” She thought to herself, as she drifted off to sleep.