Chapter 26

Nice job but don’t get caught

Sergeant Torres hit a button on the holo table and a map of a large grass field appeared with a stage in the far corner. He pointed to the map and said, “This is where the opening ceremony is going to take place. First division will be here, right in front of the stage. Second division will be behind them, here, followed by third and the unchosen. They have not set up where the Companies are going to be but I expect them to be...”

Priority orders!

To: Private Freya O’Malley

You are directed to report to Conference Room 104. Please use closest lobby.

Freya cursed, which made Toast look at her. “I just got red priority orders. I’m to report to Conference Room 104.” Freya whispered to him.

“You need to leave now.” Toast said, looking concerned. “Get up and leave. I’ll tell Sergeant Torres.”

Freya nodded and stood up. She got some looks as she left but no one questioned her. Sergeant Torres had his back to her but Sergeant Leni looked at her. Freya shrugged her shoulders trying to convey that she had to go and that she was sorry. Sergeant Leni looked away from Freya to Toast. Freya looked behind her and saw that Toast looked like he was sending a message. She turned back around and walked through the door.

Freya walked out of the barracks, right to the small building that contained the lobby and pressed her hand on the screen. It was apparent that she was expected because the screen asked her if she wished to enter Conference Room 104. She selected yes and opened the door. Taking a deep breath, she stepped into the light.

She stepped into the conference room filled with sergeants and warrant officers. They were mostly standing around in small groups chatting with each other. They were standing around a big table that dominated the middle of the room. To her left were mostly warrant officers and a few sergeants who were mingling with the officers and to her right were the rest of the sergeants. Freya looked round the table and for a seat. As she was doing that, the door behind her opened again and a Warrant Officer First Class entered the room.

“Everyone have a seat. We have a lot to do before this thing gets kicked off.” He called out as he made his way to the left side of the room and took a seat at the head of the table. Freya turned to her right and took an empty seat on the other side of the table.

“Let’s keep this simple and fast. I was thinking of a Snake formation with the dropships as the head and the assault and close-in support ships making up the tail. Thoughts and ideas?” He asked the room.

“What were you thinking, sir? The flying pigs at a steady course with the assaults behind them with a sidewinding course and the supports at the tail doing most of the movements?” A Warrant Officer asked from near the head of the table.

“Yes. We have enough pigs to create a realistic head and the supports have enough mobility to create a good sidewinding motion.” The Warrant Officer First Class said and a picture of what he was talking about appeared above the table.

Freya looked at the zoomed-out picture. It really did look like a snake. The head never moved except to move forward but the tail of the snake moved side to side. The farther back the tail went the faster it moved. Also the tail got skinnier the further along it went. She saw a button at the bottom of the page and pressed it to zoom in.

Her ship, which was in the head formation, was circled in a vanilla-colored light that was flashing. She was not the biggest ship in the head but she wasn’t the smallest either. Her position at the snake’s head was near the front making up one side of the mouth. Her ship was moving forward while pointed sideways with its nose pointed slightly forward. Below her ship was the course vector she needed to keep her ship at to stay in formation. It didn’t look all that hard to do.

She checked out the other ships and nodded to herself. They all had odd course vectors like her but, other than staying in formation, flying that way didn’t seem all that hard. Behind the dropships were the heavily armored assault ships. They were the Marine’s main spaceships designed to breach space-born vessels. The other name for them was boarding ships. They were armored enough to ram into the sides of ships or space stations and release troops into the ship. She flew a few of them when she was going through pilot training. Most of the time they didn’t ram a ship but they did have the armor to do it if they had to.

What she noticed after a few seconds was that there were no shuttles in the formation and she wondered why, although she was too intimidated to ask. She looked around the table hoping someone else would bring it up but no one did. She looked back at the formation and frowned.

The last part of the formation was the tail of the snake. It was made of close support ships that were moving side to side at a high rate of speed. She checked their course vectors and winced. There was no way her ship could constantly change directions that fast even with her new, improved engine.

“What kind of ending at you looking at, sir?” A Sergeant asked, breaking everyone's attention away from the holographic, floating formation.

“I was thinking a simple starburst but I’m open to ideas.” He replied.

Freya looked back at the hologram and saw that at a certain time every ship broke formation, immediately put on speed and raced away in different directions. She thought it looked cool but she noticed that a few people around the table shifted in their seats. She looked around further and noticed a few people were frowning.

“Sir, what about a downward burst with a landing by our platoons?” A sergeant asked, looking at the Warrant Officer in charge of the meeting.

“What? Something like this?” The Warrant Officer who was leading the meeting responded, as he made a few taps on the table and the formation changed showing ships going in all sorts of directions down towards the planet’s surface.

Freya looked on, amazed. The Warrant Officer just did the math for all the ships in the snake formation in just a few seconds. She guessed it would take her a few minutes at least to do what he just did. She looked around her at the people at the table but no one looked surprised.

“Sort of.” The Sergeant said after watching the formation break apart a few times. “Can you make the ships land in front of their platoons, in the case of the pigs and the assaults?” He asked.

“Sure.” The Warrant officer replied and the formation changed once more. This time the formation broke apart, raced downward at a high rate of speed and landed in front of the platoons that appeared on the hologram. The dropships and the assaults landed in front of various platoons while the close support ships landed in formation in front of the troops.

Freya let the hologram play a few times, impressed. One second, everyone was flying above the companies, then they suddenly broke off and raced downward at an insanely high rate of speed and landed. The close support ships broke off and flew under the dropships and assault ships, flying much faster than she thought possible, and landed at the same time.

She checked the course vectors and winced. She had literally four seconds from the moment the formation broke apart to landing. Her ship was capable of doing what was proposed, with both speed and maneuverability, but she was going to have to be on the ball, making split-second decisions. If she went too slow she would lag behind the others but if she went too fast she could possibly cause a collision with the support ships as they raced below her.

“What about firing off a few decoys that light up just before we break?” A Warrant Officer asked and tapped on the desk, changing the hologram once more. Freya, along with everyone else, watched as, right before the formation broke off, every ship fired what looked like a red flare upwards.

“Expensive.” Another Warrant Officer commented.

“What about changing the decoy color to different colors?” A different Warrant Officer said and changed the hologram yet again. The red flare turned into a rainbow of colors.

“What if we program them to spell something out?” Someone else said from the table. Freya was too busy looking at the hologram to notice who asked the questions. She checked how much the decoy cost and winced. She had the money and even had the decoys on her ship already but once fired off she would need to replace them.

“It would take away from our landing.” The Warrant Officer First Class muttered. “But that’s not a bad thing.”

“What angle are they going to show our flight?” A Warrant Officer asked, looking down at the table and doing something that Feya couldn’t see.

“I think with this we should go with a low angle then rise until it is looking right down on the flight.” The Warrant Officer beside the woman who had asked about the camera angle replied, looking down at what the woman was doing.

“So if we do show something then it would have to be horizontal.” The female Warrant Officer muttered to herself while nodding. “How about something like this?”

The hologram changed once more in front of Freya and this time she found herself looking down at the formation. Right before the formation broke apart the decoys flared out. They made three red circles with a green compact circle that had a small blue burst of color in the center. The red decoys moved away from the center of the formation but the green and blue center didn’t move. The decoys made a classic target in the sky. When the decoys faded away all the ships were on the ground.

Freya looked at the amount of decoys she had to contribute and winced once more. She would have to use all of her decoys in the show. She looked around but no one looked mad. In fact, almost everyone looked happy.

“Any objections?” The Warrant Officer who was in charge asked everyone in the room.

“It’s going to cost at least four thousand credits to replace all the decoys.” Freya thought to herself angrily but she didn’t say anything.

She watched the show for a few more seconds before she took a deep breath and let all the air out of her lungs. “It does look pretty cool though.” She told herself, watching the colored target appear over the ships, hiding them.

“Sir, we have some inexperienced people here. Are we sure they are capable of flying this formation?” A male Warrant Officer asked.

Freya looked up and realized that everyone in the room was looking at her. She looked around but no one said anything and she realized they were waiting for her reply.

“Sir, my ship and I are more than capable of doing this.” Freya said to the Warrant Officer in charge.

“It’s a tough formation that requires a skilled pilot.” The Warrant officer that was in charge replied to her quietly. “Someone with your… skill level might have a hard time. No one would begrudge you from not performing in the opening ceremony in your ship, Private.”

“That is your decision, sir, but I feel that I am more than capable of flying in this formation.” Freya replied, trying not to freeze up. She was scared of being put on the spot but a little angry as well.

“Very well, Private. I trust in the Marine pilot training.” He told her, looking her in the eye. “We only get to do this once. If you screw this up it will be because you failed and not the training. The last thing I want is for this to go viral all because one Earthling couldn’t handle it. If a normal pilot screwed up it would be laughed at but if that pilot happened to be an Earthling it would not go away anytime soon. Do you read me, Private?”

“Yes, sir.” Freya replied, nodding her head.

He turned to the rest of the room and nodded. “You all have your assignments. I have added the coordinates where we are to form up. I want everyone in the air at least fifteen minutes before this kicks off. If no one else has any concerns that will be all.” He told them.

Freya downloaded the information and quickly stood up. She kept her head down and left the room as fast as she could. Her perception mods picked up a few looks sent her way as she left but she didn’t look anyone in the eye.

“So you guys are flying in as a snake?” Toast said, when she was back in Camp Iron. She had found her squad getting ready in the common room with the rest of the platoon.

“Yeah, crazy I know, but it looks really cool.” Freya said, smiling.

“I know that opening ceremonies for Tournaments are a bit over the top but I’ve never seen anything like that before.” Patterson muttered, shaking his head.

“It’s one way to boost ratings.” Tike said with a smirk.

“Did you guys talk about what the first mission is going to be?” Netty asked, looking up from her shoe polisher. The polisher was a hand-held machine that placed a protective coating of nanites on her shoes to make them both shiny and seal them to the environment. Netty passed the polisher to the next person as she waited for Freya to answer her question.

“Nope. I didn’t stick around after the meeting was over. Too many Sergeants and Warrants for this Private.” Freya said with a smile as she tapped her tablet. She sent the information about the platoon emblem she needed to be painted on to her ship to rew Chief Diaz. It didn’t take long for Diaz to send her a message back saying that it would be ready before she lifted off. Freya checked the time and saw that she had about five minutes before she needed to be in the hangar.

“Hey Magic, do you think we are going to be able to drop the Mechs with the timetable we got?” Sergeant Torres asked her, as he walked into the common room.

“Yes, Sergeant. It will be close but I can do an emergency drop two seconds before I land. It will be a rough landing for them but other than being bounced around they should be fine.” Freya told him. It was one of the first things she looked up when she got back. The math told her that she needed to set the emergency drop to automatic to get the timing right otherwise there was a good chance she would be late and that would be very bad for all three of them.

“You hear that, One?” Sergeant asked the Mech pilot.

“Yeah, she told us earlier. It sounds like it’s going to be a lot of fun.” One said excitedly as she tightened her backpack on her medium armor.

“Join the Marines, they said. It’ll be fun, they said.” Done muttered as he put his helmet on. His voice was dry and cracked as he quoted a line from a very old but famous movie that had been rebooted several times over the past few centuries.

“Buck up, Marine.” One said, slapping Done on the shoulder and knocking him forward.

“Who says that?” Done asked One as she walked past. He stood up again then he corrected himself as a few people in the platoon turned to answer his question. “Who says that outside of a bad movie?” There was no response to his corrected question.

“You guys ready?” Freya asked, looking at the time again.

“Ready to go!” One shouted happily.

“Yeah,” Done said, less enthusiastically.

“Good luck and stay safe.” Sergeant Torres told them as One opened the door for Done and Freya.

“Don’t get squished, Done!” Netty yelled, cheerfully.

“If Done dies, can I get his spot?” Dusty asked, in a hopeful tone of voice.

“Jackholes.” Done muttered as the door closed.

“This is going to be fun.” One said slapping her hands on Freya and Done’s shoulders as she made room for herself between the two when they walked outside. Freya smiled behind her helmet. One unlocked the door to the lobby and went first into the light. Freya followed after Done.

“I hear that the missions are all going to take place on a habitat asteroid.” One said as Freya walked into the hangar.

“Where did you hear that?” Done asked as he turned around after seeing Freya walk into the hangar.

“Dog has friends in Navy side. He told me.” One said, walking in between Freya and Done.

“You fell for that?” Done asked, sounding amused.

“What? He was joking?” One asked, surprised.

“Dog is Dog. The meathead makes things up all the time. He’s almost always wrong.” Done said, in tired tone of voice. “On our first mission, he tells my squad that Sergeant Torres was going to split the squads up to get a better idea who he was going to pick.”

“On a spawn mission?” One said, right before laughing.

“Yeah, I know right?” Done replied, sounding amused. “So take what he says with a grain of salt.”

“What a meathead.” One said, between laughs.

Freya looked up as they passed the small window to the control room and spotted Diaz. She waved at the Petty Officer, who waved back. She turned towards her ship and smiled. The ship had gotten a new paint job. Instead of being straight black it was now grey with blotches of black paint on it. The Platoon Emblem was visible on the wing of the ship. Freya thought it looked beautiful.

“See you guys on the other side.” One said, splitting off from the group and heading towards her Mech.

“Not if I see you first.” Done said, as he started running towards his Mech.

Freya ignored both of them as they raced towards their Mechs. She slowly walked around her ship doing her preflight check off. She ran her fingers over the smaller platoon emblem on the left side of her ship. It really did look awesome. She made sure everything was right before she turned and walked up the ramp into her ship.

She kissed her fingers and tapped them on the nameplate as she passed it and looked around at the pod bay. Once she was sure everything was in working order she entered the pod and closed the door.

She opened her eyes inside her cockpit and smiled. It felt like home. She sat down and put her harness on before she continued her preflight check off. She warmed up her engines and, while she waited for them to check out, she set her course into the flight computer. She would still be flying the ship but it would put a course window in front of her so that she knew where she was supposed to be at all times. She switched her engines to flight when the light came on. She gently lifted her ship until the crane locked on.

“Hey girl.” Diaz called over the talk-around channel on the radio.

“Hey, Diaz.” Freya replied on the same channel.

“So, how do you like the paint job? Took me most of the night to get it right.” Diaz told her.

“I love it.” Freya said smiling into her mic. “I love what you did with the platoon emblem.”

“Thanks. I hand painted it. Took me hours but it came out perfect.” Diaz replied.

“Hours?” Freya asked frowning. “I just asked you to paint it about five minutes ago.”

“Got to love the time dilation.” Diaz replied, laughing.

“Time dilation. Right.” Freya responded, drawing the last word out for two seconds as she made a few corrections to her engines.

“Ready to load the Mechs on your orders.” Diaz told her, sounding happy.

“One, ready when you are.” Freya told One as she unlocked the docking pad.

“Hey Jarheads, do not damage the ship!” Diaz called out to them on the radio. “If you people scrape the new paint job I swear to Treasia, I’m going to kill you two.”

“Yeah, yeah. Bump the ship once and the crew chief never forgets it.” One muttered over the radio as she piloted her Mech under Freya’s ship. Freya watched as One gently raised her Mech up and locked in. There was a slight click noise and the ship rose up a bit but other than that One loaded herself up perfectly.

“Done, ready when you are.” Freya told the other Mech pilot.

Unlike One there was a slight bump as Done docked his Mech. “Sorry.” He said over the radio as the green light came on. Freya checked for damage but according to her sensors there was none.

“Friggin Marines. Aside from the lack of radio protocol, that went better than I expected.” Diaz said, in a resigned tone.

“Said I was sorry.” Done replied.

“B127, Monarch. Request permission to vent the hangar.” Freya asked flight control over the radio.

“Marine RDS B127 from Monarch. Permission granted.” Flight control replied.

Freya made sure Diaz was safe in her control room before she started venting the docking bay. She watched the red light flash for a while before the atmosphere started being sucked back into the Monarch. Once the red light stopped flashing and the crane retracted she called the Monarch back.

“B127, Monarch.” Freya called out.

“Go ahead B127.” Came the reply.

“Request permission to leave the Monarch.” Freya asked.

“Marine RDS B127, Monarch. Permission to leave, granted. B127 please be aware that you have a lot of traffic out there. Watch your sensors.”

“B127, Monarch. Copy, watching for traffic.” Freya replied.

Freya smiled and watched the doors to the docking bay open. “Hey guys, I need a favor - I need radio silence on this one. There is a lot of brass floating around with us and they can hear the talk-around channel, so keep it quiet until the mission is over.”.

“We got your back, Magic.” One said, much more subdued than normal.

“Roger than.” Freya said, nodding her head as she spooled the engines up and flew out of the hangar at a much slower pace than normal.

“There is literally billions of lightyears of empty space in every direction and yet I’m sitting in traffic.” Freya thought to herself as slipped behind a much larger dropship in front of her. She was a bit below the ship and about a quarter of a mile behind it but that was as close as she was allowed to get per regulations in normal traffic. She could boost around the ship in front of her but she would have to keep a quarter mile distance at all times between her and the ship in front of her. She sighed in frustration as she realized that she could not justify the use of the fuel needed to fly around the ship in front of her, even though she would use very little of her precious fuel. As if to make her point, another dropship left the Monarch and slipped in behind her ship.

Four close support ships exited the Monarch at the same time and, as she watched, they passed around the traffic. “Must be nice to be an officer.” Freya thought to herself, as she watched the ships pass her. Behind the support ships, an assault ship left its hangar and joined the traffic headed to the rendezvous point.

Making sure the radio was off, Freya leaned back in her chair. “On the road again. I can’t wait to get on the road again.” Freya sang, not caring that she was singing off key to the song in her head.

At the pace they were going it took them twenty minutes to get to the rendezvous point. Once she was near enough, she stopped following the dropship in front of her and angled her ship towards where she was supposed to be. She turned her ship slightly sideways and coasted into position. At the correct coordinates she came to a stop in reference to the other ships. She, and the rest of the ships, were still moving forward towards the opening ceremony planet but they all matched speed with each other so it looked like they had stopped. She looked back at the Monarch and remembered what she looked like naked. It was strange to see her now looking like a normal ship.

She was still staring at the Monarch when her computer pinged her. She looked at her sensor and saw that everyone was now in position. Her computer gave her a twelve second count before the formation was to move. She adjusted a few things and then waited, staring at the countdown. At five seconds she started raising the power to her engines without moving forward. At two seconds she licked her lips and looked at her course vector one last time making sure she was on track. At zero she got the order to move out with the rest of the formation from the Warrant Officer First Class.

In space it was easy to stay in formation. All she had to do was make sure she didn’t drift and she was fine. As they got closer to the planet she started getting comms from the Warrant Officer First Class as he gave orders to people to make some last minute changes or correct vectors.

As soon as they hit the atmosphere, it got much harder to stay in the correct formation. It was a constant battle even with the thin atmosphere of the planet's upper atmosphere. Freya was constantly correcting for the slight winds that wanted to push her around. She bit her lip as she failed to stay perfectly on target but she was in an odd zone where what was happening outside her sensors didn’t matter. It was like she was sucked into the sensors. It was a new and yet odd feeling. The only good thing was that she was staying within her vector with only a point two margin of error so far. It was not perfect but it was not bad either.

“Thirty seconds to break. Keep it together.” The Warrant Officer First Class told them over the radio.

Ten seconds later he spoke over the radio again, “Twenty seconds. B808 adjust your vector. Stay on course.”

“Fifteen seconds. B808, get on course now!” He barked over the radio. Freya looked at her course briefly and noticed she was flying on a perfect heading. Her speed was exactly on target. She didn’t let herself celebrate as the break in formation was coming up.

“Ten seconds.” The Warrant Officer told them. Freya flipped a switch and knew a light came on for both One and Done. The light told them that she was giving them a twelve second warning for the drop. At five seconds the light turned yellow.

“Five seconds. Prepare for break.” The Warrant Officer told them.

“Three seconds.” He told them over the radio.

“Two seconds.”

“One second… Break, break, break.” Came the call over the radio and Freya jerked her stick and pushed her engines to eighty percent power. At the same time, she set off her decoys and let them go on their pre-programmed flight path.

A second later, the close support ships flew under her close enough that she could read the call signs written on the sides of their ships. Exactly a second later, the emergency docking ejections went off, sending the Mechs flying away from her towards the ground. At the same time, Freya jerked on the stick again trying to right herself for landing. A second later she reversed her engines and boosted them up to max power. At the same time she deployed the landing arms. The ship shuddered and jerked under her but she stayed on course. With a loud bang she landed. The landing arms took the brunt of the landing but they were built to be abused and suffered no damage.

She was down safely and when she checked her sensors she found that both Mechs were on the ground as well and in position. She cut the power to her engines and leaned back in her seat. She had done it. Better yet she had done it without screwing up. She smiled. She had landed exactly as she had planned, slightly turned forward with her nose pointed at the front of the battalion and the stage.

She looked up and out the front of the window just as her company fired a single shot into the air. All the ships had landed and she couldn’t see anything that would have told her someone screwed up and crashed their ship. Her company was off to the right a bit with first company beside them. In front of her was first division, lined up in companies. In front of them were the close support ships, lined perfectly in rows. Behind her company was the third division and she looked at them on her monitor. Behind them was the fourth division or the unchosen. Some of them were standing in companies and platoons while the vast majority simple stood as one big, slightly disorganized, mess.

Standing in front of the battalion, in front of the stage, were the battalion officers and in front of them, alone on the stage, was the Colonel. It was an awesome sight and the Federation Marines stood frozen for an unknown amount of time. Then the moment was over and the Colonel took a few steps towards the Battalion.

“Battalion, at ease.” The Colonel called out. The officers turned around and gave the command, in order of their divisions, to be at ease. The Company Commanders in turn gave the order. Freya remained in her seat as her company, which included her platoon, shifted to the at ease position.

“Welcome to the Monarch’s thirty-fourth tournament. This tournament’s broadcasting will be delayed until our next mission is completed. It will be broadcasted to the fleet when the time is appropriate, so all your trumpets and failures will be seen by all. The first mission will start at oh nine-hundred ship time tomorrow and will be judged by my officers and the Monarch herself. For the first mission, you all will be working together. You will be judged on how long you survive and how many objectives you complete. Points will be awarded towards the final score by my officers. There will be five missions, with the last mission being a full battalion mission where all of you will be judged on how many objectives are completed.” The Colonel told the battalion.

“This is the time to shine, people. Not just to us but to all of the fleet. Always know that you are being recorded and do not embarrass the Federation Marines, the battalion, or your fellow soldiers. Fight well but fight with honor. Oorah, Marines!” The Colonel called out.

Freya joined them in the ancient battle cry of the Marines, even though no one could hear her. She smiled to herself, slightly embarrassed, when she realized it. The Colonel gave a longer speech about honor and the history of the Corps but Freya stopped listening. She used her time to look around at the other people in her company. Her platoon was lined up in a single line behind Sergeant Torres. Beside him was another sergeant she had never seen before and his platoon was lined up behind him. There were no spaces between the platoons but there was a large space between the next company and them.

Standing in front of Freya’s company was a female Gunnery Sergeant. Unlike her last platoon, Freya hadn’t met her new company commander. She absently wondered what the woman was like. Would she be like Sergeant Gawain and be a jackhole to her because she was from Earth or would she be nice? Freya lost herself in fantasies about how the new company commander would treat her and almost missed the Colonel dismissing the battalion.

“That’s it, folks. Let's head back to the Monarch.” The Warrant Officer’s voice said over the radio. “Assaults up first. From your position, head straight up and don’t crash into anyone. Once they get to three hundred feet, dropships you’re next.”

“One, Done, get your butts over here and load up. We’re headed home.” Freya called them over the talk-around channel as she lifted off the ground to hover about ten feet off the ground. Done reached her first and Freya lowered her ship so that he could lock in. Once she was done she hovered over One and let her lock in.

“What the problem, O’Malley?” The Warrant Officer asked over the radio. “You should have been in the air ten seconds ago.”

“Sorry sir, picking up my Mechs. In the air now.” Freya replied once the light turned green indicating that One was locked in. She boosted her engines to seventy-five percent and launched herself straight up.

“Wait. What?” The Warrant Officer asked.

“Balls of steel, O’Malley.” A female Warrant Officer called out over the talk-around channel, sounding like she was laughing.

“At three-hundred feet, sir.” Freya reported, as her flight altimeter told her she had reached the minimum height as ordered. She was not sure why he sounded confused.

“By the numbers.” The Warrant Officer said over the radio and the close support ships began to lift off, four at a time.

A ship raced by her, far too close, and Freya swore at the deranged pilot.

“By burgers nuggets, she’s got two of them.” One of the pilots of the close support ships that passed her said over the talk-around channel.

“I like her. Can we keep her, sir?” The same female Warrant Officer that laughed earlier said over the talk-around channel.

“Clear the channel.” The Warrant Officer First Class said angrily. “Private, if you ever do that dross again, I’ll have you up on charges.”

“Yes, sir. Sorry, sir.” Freya replied feeling a chill race up her spine. She hadn’t realized that she was not supposed to fly the Mechs in. She watched helplessly as the close support ships raced past her, violating protocol by being too close to her, one squad at a time.

Freya’s private radio channel pinged her and she answered it. “B127.”

“Hey, that was some nice flying. Bet he will never question your skills again.” The female Warrant Officer replied sounding amused. “Don’t worry about getting in trouble. Once he cools down he will be impressed. See you around, Magic.”

“Yes, Ma’am. See you as well.” Freya said awkwardly.

Once out of the atmosphere, she ran into traffic again. With a sigh, she sat back behind a larger and slower dropship and waited, flying on autopilot.

“...and then he says, ‘by burger’s nuggets, she’s got two of them.” One said, laughing so hard that she had tears in her eyes. The rest of the platoon was sitting around them laughing in the common room of their barracks while One told the story. Freya frowned, not liking the fact that everyone was laughing at her. Sure screwed up, but she didn’t think it was that funny.

“Attention on deck!” Sergeant Leni called out.

Freya stood up, turned to face the door and stood at attention. She watched, fear rising, as Sergeant Torres and the female Gunnery Sergeant who was her company commander walked into the common room.

“At ease.” Sergeant Torres said to the room. “Magic, with me.” He said, as he and the company commander turned around and walked right back out of the room.

“OHHHH. Someone’s in trouble.” Ostrich said, sounding like he was in elementary school.

“Ostrich, shut up.” Toast told him as Freya followed them out.

Freya followed the two right to Sergeant Torres’ office. He opened the door and let the Gunnery Sergeant go in first before he entered. Freya followed them in and stood at attention in front of Sergeant Torres’ desk. Gunny leaned up against the wall behind him.

“First, you’ll never do that again. Do you understand?” Sergeant Torres said, looking angry.

“Yes, sir.” Freya responded.

“Good, now that’s over. That was awesome!” Gunny said smiling. “I saw the clip of your landing. I bet the clip will be added to every opening scene in every episode.”

“You think so?” Sergeant Torres asked, dropping his angry look, as he turned in his chair and looked at the Gunny.

“Oh, yeah.” Gunny said, looking at Freya with an evil smile. “You should have seen Gawain's face when they showed the clip in the war room. I took a picture. I’ll show it to you guys later.”

“Awesome.” Sergeant Torres said with a smile.

“Private, you got guard duty at the front desk. You will stand in full battle gear and you will stand at attention whenever someone passes, no matter what the rank. You will stand at ease otherwise until I dismiss you.” Sergeant Torres said, suddenly angry again. Freya, who was about to smile, froze.

“What are you waiting for, Private. Your Platoon leader gave you an order. Go! Now! Move it!” Gunny yelled at Freya.

Completely confused, Freya saluted them both before running for her life. She raced out of the office and, as she reached the stairs, she heard laughter coming from the office behind her. She slowed down and looked back. Gunny was bent over laughing and Sergeant Torres had his head on his desk, his whole body was shaking he was laughing so hard.

Shaking her head at the insanity of it all, Freya headed up the stairs and got into her battle dress. She was just leaving her room when she got a message from the Gunnery Sergeant. When she opened it, she saw a picture of Sergeant Gawain staring at something in the distance. His mouth was open and he looked shocked. Someone had drawn horns on his head and a goatee on his face. The message was a single line.

“Nice job, but don’t get caught next time.”