Investigation of the destruction of (Simulated) Marine Dropship, B127.

Colonel Jessie Regence presiding.

Pilot: Marine Private, Level 2, Freya O’Malley, call sign Magic.

Ship: Stonewall Inc. standard, six pod, Goozden 127 light armored Respawn Dropship frame with after-market modifications: Causnix Mac 127 Recurve Engine, Vehicle dock, and Mech reloading printer.

The Event: B127 suffered a (Simulated) catastrophic electrical failure that resulted in loss of power to the ship. The ship was powering up following the completion of a (simulated) mission. Main and secondary generators overloaded caused by a cascade of failures originating from maneuvering engine 8 that resulted in the ship losing all power and culminating in the ship being destroyed by the self destruction protocol.

Investigation: The Pilot filed a completed preflight check report prior to start of the mission. The pilot reported no problems found. The pilot was engaged by several enemy ships prior to entering the mission planet’s atmosphere. The pilot made some evasives maneuvers and the ship sustained no damage at this time. All enemy ships were reported destroyed and B127 continued with mission objectives. The pilot encountered moderate to severe enemy anti-ship fire from the mission planet and sustained damage to maneuvering engine 8. The Pilot completed a shutdown of maneuvering engine 8 with no further problems noted at this time. The Pilot made some in-atmosphere combat maneuvers that were within design limits. No further damage noted at this time. The Pilot then made a within normal limits landing in an aquatic environment. The ship remained for two weeks in this environment before the pilot returned to the ship via respawn pod. The Pilot then transferred to the simulated cockpit and started normal simulated cockpit preflight checks. Pilot did not complete exterior preflight checks due to the environment. This is within normal procedures and protocols. The Pilot commenced the main engine start-up protocol. At this time Maneuvering engine 8, which had been shut down, received power. See Addendum 4 for systems failure report that led to maneuvering engine 8 failing to stay in shutdown during powering up of the ship. The failure to maintain shutdown of maneuvering engine 8 resulted in complete loss of power throughout B127. Loss of power affected the main generator as well as the secondary generator. This resulted in the craft’s main engine, as well as maneuvering engines 1-7 and 9-16, to shut down due to power loss. Maneuvering engine 8 remained powered-up at this time. Power loss affected all systems, including the drone simulated cockpit, which resulted in the forced respawn of the Pilot, Private O’Malley. The (simulated) self destruction protocol was enacted at this time.

Findings: See Addendum 4 for failure report. It is this panel’s findings that the cause of the destruction of B127 falls was electrical failure and was not the fault of the pilot. The pilot followed all protocols and procedures of the piloting of B127. Gadsden industries, the holding company of Stonewall Inc, has been informed of the event. In response, Stonewall Inc has replied with corrective action. See Addendum 5, and Addendum 6 for corrective actions. Pilot Freya O’Malley has been returned to active flight status.

Freya cursed then sighed in relief as she read the report. She knew that they would investigate what happened, but she had no idea that it would be so fast. As she climbed out of her pod she reflected on how easy it would be for her to lose her right to fly her ship. All it would take was one stupid mistake and her rights would be taken away. She took a deep breath as she stepped out of her respawn pod inside Monarch’s pod bay and equipped her armor from the locker besides her pod. She tried to put the incident out of her mind as the normal after mission glow hit making her feel better.

She looked around once she had her armor on and blinked at how many people were inside the respawn podbay. It wasn’t as bad as when she graduated basic, but there were still a lot more people returning from the mission than she thought there would have been. She spotted a few people that she had been introduced to from Chivia’s bar, but she couldn’t remember their names at the moment. They had their heads down and didn’t look like they wanted to talk anyway. She read her notifications as she headed towards the stairs.

You have completed the first Tournament mission successfully.

Tallying up your reward.

Pilot rewards

Survived entry into Mission world against enemy ships.

Survived moderate to severe anti-ship weapons fire.

Safely deployed dropship

Mission rewards

Max credit for keeping all 150 priority prisoners alive.

Platoon Mission Bonuses

1,476 non priority prisoners escaped or survived to the end of the mission.

Destroyed 6 enemy bombers.

Destroyed enemy energy weapons battery.

Killed 5 enemy Mech units, in combat.

Successfully hacked enemy servers.

Acquired 68% of the total vital intelligence from the enemy.

Destroyed enemy’s first Forest Camp.

Destroyed enemy cargo ship.

Made 9 enemy Mech units non-combat deployable.

Caused serious injury or death to two enemy companies due by instigating a friendly fire incident.

Decreased enemy moral from yellow to orange.

All priority prisoners survived final enemy reinforcement waves.

Individual bonuses

AI +7

Piloting + 4

Advanced Drone Operator +4 (Adjusted)

Advanced drone bonus 1) Two non-vehicle combat drops.

Advanced drone bonus 2) Deployed ship danger close in a combat area safely.

Advanced drone bonus 3) Destroyed two fixed ground targets.

Advanced drone bonus 4) Deployed in a hazardous environment.

Advanced drone bonus 5) Credited: Ship survived mission (Ship destruction was found not the fault of pilot).

Advanced drone bonus 6) Credited: Found a new systems weakness for Goozden 127 light armored Respawn Dropship.

Hacked enemy systems.

Recovered 68% of vital enemy intelligence.

Co-authored the plan to destroy the enemy First Forest camp.

Aided in destroying the enemy First Forest Camp.

Co-authored a plan and personally aided in the escape of over one thousand non-priority prisoners.

Aided in the destruction of a cargo ship.

Made 9 enemy Mechs non-combat deployable with false orders.

Caused major confusion in enemy ranks with false orders.

Caused serious injury or death to over a two-hundred enemy soldiers with false orders.

Had vital enemy ranking officers, in mission and non mission areas, removed from command with false orders.

Major contributor in reducing enemy moral from yellow to orange.

Highest kill count in platoon.

Highest kill count in 3rd Company, Second Division.

Company tournament Ranks

11th Best company in the Battalion based on mission points and bonuses of platoon members.

Reward: One large and one medium building to platoon’s camp. 20,000 credits to platoon's war chest.

Best Company in Second Division based on mission points and bonuses of platoon members.

Reward: One large building to platoon’s camp. 10,000 credits to platoon’s war chest.

Platoon tournament Ranks

32nd best platoon in the Battalion based on mission points and bonuses.

Rewards: Bonus to personal rewards increased by 1% for each platoon that was higher in rank before the tournament started. Total increase 16%.

Highest ranking platoon in Second Division.

Rewards: Bonus to personal rewards increased by 1% for each platoon in Second Division that was higher in rank before the tournament started. Total increase 8%.

Personal tournament Ranks

Ranked number 1 in the Private Rank only bracket.

Ranked 64th in non-leadership position bracket.

Ranked 3rd (adjusted) in dropship pilot bracket.

Ranked 4th best Hacker in tournament.

Ranked 6th in 1st Company Scout template non-leadership bracket.

Ranked 27th highest kill count in tournament.

Total Personal rewards for Tournament

30,143 E-Points, 952 Skill points and 952 Mod points. 8973 credits. 10 credits for recovered loot.

Congratulations! You have leveled up.

0 of 9973.58 E-points needed for next level.

Congratulations! You have leveled up.

0 of 9,973.58 E-points needed for next level.

Congratulations! You have leveled up.

9,221.04 of 9,973.58 E-points needed for next level.

Status Screen

Name: Freya O’Malley

Rank: Private. Level: 2

Template: 1st Company Scout

Enlisted points: 53,263

Credits: 11,446

Skill points: 1,222

Mod points: 1,201

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 Memory expansion module

Side weapons:

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: 14

Skills:

Enhanced sensing

Level: 2

Tracking

Level: 1

Acrobatics

Level: 2

One time infantry Drop ship

Level: 1

Advanced combat Infantry

N/A

Math and Military studies

BS

Engineer

Apprentice

Advanced Drone Operator

Level: 7

Piloting

Level: 8

Silent Walking

Level: 1

Silent Combat Running

Level: 1

Advanced Targeting

N/A

Hacking

Level: 5

Hardware mods: Suicide mod

Medals: Gold E Sharpshooter

Freya stopped at the top of the stairs in shock. It was the single biggest reward she had received so far. She hadn’t leveled up in a while and now she had leveled up three times. She looked at her mod and skill points in shock. She was beyond rich now in both points and credits. She had so many points and credits that she had no idea what to do with them.

“Excuse me, private.” Someone said behind her. She moved off to the side to let a group of recruits pass her.

As she watched them pass her and disappear into the crowd, she realized that she had been just like them just a few months ago. It seemed like a lifetime ago, but in reality it had only been a few ship months. That made her realize that she had only been in the platoon for few weeks. She was awed at how far she had come in such a short time. Her chain of thoughts led her to remember that she needed to call her mother as soon as possible. For Freya it had only been a month or so ship-time since she had called her mother but for her mother it must have been years. That made her feel horrible and she promised herself that she would call her mother as soon as possible. She shook her head in sadness and started the long climb up the stairs to the sixth floor where the rest of her platoon waited for her.

There were a few people on the stairs with her, but most got off well before the sixth floor. She walked around the octagon part of the marine concourse towards the pole part of the concourse. Halfway down the hallway she found the door to her camp. It opened automatically and she stepped into the light.

She looked up at the two Mechs that were standing in the hangar and smiled. She was still not sure if they were replica’s or the real thing, but it made her smile just to see them. She made a mental note to ask someone if they were the real thing. She walked around the hangar through the grasslands that was around the main camp towards the barracks. She didn’t see anyone around, but she didn’t really expect to since they were most likely getting ready for the debriefing.

She entered the barracks and immediately shut her eyes as a naked Dog ran by her screaming while holding himself with both hands. “Dammit Dog, what the hell!” Freya yelled and cracked her eyes open to see his backside as he ran away. Behind him a naked Netty also covered her private parts. She gave Freya an apologetic look before she too ran past.

Freya was still trying to figure things out when the door opened to Sergeant Torres’ office and he came roaring out screaming expletives. “What is going on here?” He shouted as the Gunnery Sergeant followed him out of the office. She did not look amused.

“Attention on deck!” Sergeant Torres called out and everyone stopped what they were doing, including Netty and Dog, and stood at attention. Netty and Dog still hid their privates with their arms and hands. Freya silently cursed as she stood at attention in the doorway.

“Now can someone please explain what the hell is going on?” Sergeant Torres said, in a deadly, quiet voice.

“PFCs Netty and Dog lost a bet, Sergeant.” Dusty said from the door to the lounge.

“This bet included running around my barracks, naked?” Sergeant Torres said rubbing the bridge of his nose.

“Yes, Sergeant.” Dusty replied.

“Where are my squad leaders?” the sergeant asked, looking around.

“In the debriefing room, Sergeant.” Dusty replied.

“And they let you animals run around unsupervised?” Sergeant Torres asked, letting his hand drop from his face.

“I guess so, Sergeant.” Dusty replied once more.

“You two, get dressed. Dusty, get me my squad leaders. I’ll be in my office.” Sergeant Torres said, sounding beyond angry. He turned around and went back into his office. Gunny stood and looked on as everyone suddenly had someplace else they needed to be.

“Magic.” Gunny said in greeting, as Freya ran past her to head to her barracks room.

“Gunny.” Freya replied as she ran past the woman. She could have sworn that the woman was smiling.

Freya ran into her room and sighed, leaning against the closed door. She looked around her small room, that felt somewhat empty. She still had some of her clothes on the floor from before the mission and her bed was still unmade but other than that there was very little personal stuff here. She shook her head, took off her uniform, grabbed the uniform from off the floor and put them in the recycling bin. Even though she just respawned in a new digital body she still felt the past two weeks of dirt and grime on her. She turned on the shower and climbed in.

She was enjoying the hot water when she received a red notification box that told her that she had two minutes to get to the debriefing room. She cursed and washed the rest of the soap off as quickly as she could then, still dripping wet, she equipped her uniform and ran out of her barracks room towards the debriefing room. She made it with four second to spare.

Toast smiled as she sat down beside him. Patterson gave her a little wave as she sat between him and Toast. Tike leaned forward a bit so that Toast was not blocking her and gave Freya a wave. Freya smiled and waved back. She turned around to see Sergeant Torres looking down at his tablet before he looked up.

“First let's get the elephant in the room out of the way.” Sergeant Torres said quietly. “There will be no more running around naked in my barracks. Is that understood?” He asked them.

“Yes, Sergeant.” Came the unified response.

“There will be no more bets going on either, or you will be put up on report. Is that understood?” He asked them. “Gunny was just congratulating us before she witnessed the stupid dross that happened a few minutes ago. She was not impressed, let me tell you. It was all I could do to stop her from writing you people up. As of right now the entire platoon is confined to quarters. We will not be going to Chivia’s to celebrate tonight. Is that understood?”

“Yes, Sergeant.” The Platoon replied.

“Good, now onto the good parts. I’m sure you all read the notifications about the tournament rewards, so first - damn good job.” He told them. “We impressed a lot of people, so let’s keep that going. Gunny has given us our marching orders for the next tournament mission. There are four missions that the company has to complete. Gunny, on the advice of Magic here, has chosen to award us the hardest mission.” He said, waving his hand at Freya. Freya looked back at him, confused, not sure what she did.

“Our next mission will require all of you to have the Zero G combat skill. If you don’t, then you will be required to get it. It shouldn’t be a problem with the rewards we just got. Just a show of hands how many of you don’t already have that.” He asked the platoon. Freya and a few others raised their hands. “Okay, if you people have any problems getting that then come and see me.”

“Tomorrow at zero seven thirty, we will be leaving here for our second tournament mission to assault a space station. This is not a Federation space station, so there will be a lot of people inside it and we can expect heavy resistance. Magic is going to reinforce her dropship so that she can land on the space station. We will use that as a respawn point. Our job will be broken down into four objectives. First is taking the command deck. I’ll be with One, who will be leading first and second squads to assault the command deck. Corporal Wilson will be leading sixth squad in taking the engine room. Sergeant Leni will be leading third squad in taking the enlisted berthing. It’s a very large area, so expect a lot of fighting to happen there. Ed will be leading fourth squad in taking the officer’s quarters. Toast will be second in command of fourth squad. He will be joined by Patterson from fifth squad. Tike and Magic will be with third squad.” Sergeant Torres told the room.

“Before we break up we need to decide on what we want for the platoon rewards. We have two large and one medium building options. I want a holo training room for squad practice and for my backup Mech pilots to keep their skills up. That will also help us on our next mission. I also want a pod room for those of you who have a habit of dying right as the mission is completed. Magic, I’m looking at you.” Sergeant Torres said and the room laughed. Freya gave the room a weak smile, feeling embarrassed.

“That leaves one large building and I’ll put that up for a vote. I want a rec room, but I’ll leave that up to the rest of you. Here are your choices.” Sergeant Torres said and a large list appeared on the screens that were hanging from the ceiling.

“After we are done here I’ll give everyone an hour to get your mods, skills, and whatever equipment you want to buy before I want everyone back here to start training with your mission squad leaders. Since we are all confined to quarters tonight I think we can get a cookout going to celebrate our first tournament mission win. Mon, you up for some cooking?” Sergeant Torres asked.

“Sounds good, Sergeant. I’m not paying for this one though.” Mon replied.

“That’s fair. I think I can authorise a small purchase request for tonight.” Sergeant Torres said, with a smile.

The platoon voted on a rec room. It was a large building that could be converted into a bunch of different rooms where people could play several sports, including some of the zero G sports. Freya like the fact that it could be converted into a holo movie theater where people could play as their favorite movie character. She had heard of something like that but had never seen anything like it before.

“Magic.” Sergeant Torres called out to her, as the platoon was dismissed. She walked over to where Sergeant Leni and Corporal Wilson were standing next to the platoon leader.

“Great job on the intel gathering for this next mission. I need you to get the upgrades that your crew chief recommended. Are you good with getting Zero G Combat?” He asked her.

“I made a killing on this last mission, so it shouldn’t be a problem.” She replied to him with a smile. She sent a message to crew chief Diaz asking her if it was possible for her to make some time to put the upgrades she requested on before the next mission.

“Great. Get it done.” Sergeant Torres said, turning away from her. Freya took the hint and headed towards the platoon’s training facility.

Freya waited in line for her turn at the training facility console. It didn’t take long before it was her turn. She brought up the prerequisites for the Zero G combat skill. She needed level 4 Acrobatics. She had level 2 Acrobatics. The third level wasn’t that expensive, but level 4 was very expensive. Out of curiosity, she checked on how high Acrobatics went and she was shocked to find that it went all the way up to ten. The price got ridiculous the higher it went. She checked on a few other skills she had already and saw that many of them went up a lot higher than she had thought. Then she realized that she had set the console to only show her what she could afford not long after she graduated from bootcamp. She was a lot richer than she had been back then.

She bought the next set of skills and moved on. The next prerequisite she needed was Zero G maneuvering. She needed level five in the skill. She winced as she accepted the skills. Next, she needed Advanced Spaceboard Tactics. To get that skill, she needed Simple Spaceboard Tactics. That didn’t cost a lot so she added it without any complaint. Then she needed to get Basic Shipboard Tactics. It cost a bit, but it wasn’t all that bad. Advanced cost a lot. She bit her lip as she saw the price. She was glad she was so rich with skill points or she would never have been able to afford it. She had a bunch of skill points left over so she decided to add a few skill points to Silent Walking and Silent Combat Running. She also added a few points to Tracking just because.

She pulled up a list of what else she could afford on skill points. There was a shocking amount of skills to increase her accuracy with weapons. Nearly every gun out there had a basic and advanced skill that could be bought. Most of the basic stuff was dirt cheap, costing a total of ten or so credits to complete all the levels. The advanced stuff varied. For her short rifle it cost about fifty skill points to max out the advanced skill while her long rifle cost a hundred to max out. She only looked at them and didn’t pick either of them. She felt she didn’t need them.

She closed the window to the accuracy section and brought up the list again. The next branch she opened up was martial arts. There were literally thousands of martial arts she could choose from. Conscious of the up-coming mission she narrowed down the list to just zero G martial arts. There was a list of about a hundred styles. Some of the styles were unarmed while others used weapons. They ranged from just a few skill points to master to the most expensive which was two-hundred skill points. The really expensive one focused on both unarmed and weapons as well as fighting in both gravity and non-gravity environments. It required the Zero G combat skill so she was good there. It had three skill tiers: basic, advanced, and master. She liked the description if not the price, so she left the page open to browse the other arts. She looked at the others, but there were always things that they left out so that she would have to pick up another style to fill in the gaps. In the end she selected the first, up all the way to master.

This time, when she closed the window to the martial arts list, she searched for all combat-related skills for boarding and fighting in ships and stations. The list was staggering. She had to add filters just so it would list some skills. She broke the list down to what she could afford and what she was qualified for, up to three prerequisites. The list was still huge, but it was manageable now. She noticed that a lot of them required the Engineering skill, but with only apprentice level, she was limited in what she could do. She added journeyman Engineering and the list expanded quite a bit.

There were a lot of sabotage skills, from damaging or taking control of life support systems to sabotaging ship engines and gravitational systems, in the case of a space station. She licked her lips as she realized that with some of the skills listed she could easily combine them with her hacking skills and truly be deadly in space. She thought about all the classes she bought but hadn’t had the time to take and sighed once more before she selected the same classes but paid for them by skill points instead. Then she picked up a few more coding classes.

“If I’m going to go all out, might as well go all the way.” She thought to herself, as she got enough credits to get her masters in FTL Communications plus a few extra classes in coding. She went back to the previous page and spent the rest of her Skill points picking up a bunch of sabotage and control skills. She looked at her Enhanced Sensing skill, but she was not able to increase it unless she got wetware mods first.

She then looked at the Mod points and really looked at what she needed in the future. Perception was a really big one to not only fly her ship but to spot enemies while on patrol. Processing speed was another big one she noticed. When she was flying her ship, she needed to be able to understand what was going on faster. That meant she needed to think faster.

Thinking about her mods prompted her to bring up her qualifications for Second Scout - her next advancement. She grinned as she realized that she met all her next advancements. With the Space combat skill, she got the last advancement in her Advanced Infantry Combat towards Special Warfare. She already had her Golden E award for sharpshooting so the hardest prerequisite was complete. She had more than enough to get the rest. She added her points, leaned back and smiled. She still had a lot more points to add. She brought up her next advancement qualifications and cursed. She saw that there was a split now between what she needed on her scout template and what she needed for her ship.

For her next advancement in her template she needed: 300 mod points in Agility and Dexterity, 250 in Perception, and 150 Processing Speed. She also needed 75 mod points in Health, Health Regen, and Strength. She took a deep breath then let it out when she saw that she needed two years time in service as well. She only had a bit less than six months' time in service. She looked at what she had got so far and then added her points in.

She decided to go with what was most important to the platoon at the moment - her ability to fly her ship better. First, she raised her Health, Health Regen, and Strength to 75 just to get it over with. Then she split the two most important mods, raising her Perception and Processing Speed up to 225. She actually brought it up much higher but lowered it down when she realized just how many points it took away from her total. It had been a long time since she had leveled up. and she forgot that it cost three mod points to go up by one point between the levels of 200 to 250.

She put a bunch of points into Agility and Dexterity, but then took some away so she could raise her Memory mod up a bit. In the end, she raised her Agility and Dexterity to 157 and her Memory to 150 as she realized that she needed a bit more Memory for when she flew. Plus it looked better at 150 than it did at 125. It was a stupid reason to raise it, but it felt better to Freya so she did. She still had a year and a half to get enough mod points to raise her Agility and Dex high enough so than she could advance in her template. After that, she only had one more advancement to go in her template. The last advancement to Sniper took an insane amount of mod points and a few skills that, when she looked them up, had a lot of prerequisites that seemed weird - like Pattern Recognition and leadership skills. It also required that she had to be a corporal to get it. She had two mod points left and, on a whim, raised her Strength by one to 76.

Satisfied, she pressed her acceptance and her skills and mod points plummeted. She followed the instructions and entered the door to her platoon’s training facility. The first thing she trained on was Acrobatics. Her instructor was that annoying preppy woman who cheered at everything she did that was even half right.

The training was different from before though. When she had Acrobatics before it was all about gymnastics, but now it was all about an obstacle course. The first level was not all that hard. It was a jungle gym that she had to climb through under a specific time. The timer was annoying and she failed nearly fifty times before she got to the end under the time limit. The annoying preppy woman showed her where she went wrong and told her how to get better. As annoying as the preppy woman was Freya had to admit that the woman knew her stuff.

The preppy woman returned for the next Acrobatics level. It was like the last training but much harder. The preppy woman had her climbing up as well as through the course. There were parts of the course that she had to jump. If she missed it was a long way down. Freya lost count of how many times she ran the course before she made it under the time limit. The annoying woman returned one last time for the last level Freya bought of Acrobatics. The training was an obstacle course that was stupid hard. At one point she found herself hanging on a pole by one hand as she placed her feet on the side of the pole before she pushed off, doing a flip in the air to catch another pole with her other hand. When she finally finished under the time limit she was glad she hadn’t bought the next level. She made a note that she needed to level her Agility and Dex much higher if she wanted to take another course in Acrobatics.

The Tracking training was a lot more relaxed. The first few levels were tracking people, animals, and vehicles through all sorts of environments. The last level was the coolest in Freya's opinion. It was all about tracking someone physically in space and all the equipment she needed to do it with. It was an awesome skill and Freya had a lot of fun with it.

The next skills were Silent Walking and Silent Combat Running. Silent Walking had a prerequisite with Acrobatics and she was glad she got it. Silent Walking was all about moving with the environment. If it was a sandy environment, she had to know which way the sand would move when she put her weight on her foot. If she was on a hill, she had to walk sort of like a crab with her toes pointed downwards to reduce the sand sliding down the hill. She had to know which way the water was moving and angle whatever body part that was at the water's edge to reduce the chance of splashing. Silent Running was the same thing but at a much faster pace.

The first level of Zero G maneuvering was all about getting used to being weightless. It was oddly relaxing to float around. The second level of training was about how to move around. She had to learn how much strength she needed to move to her next destination. It really didn’t take much to move around in space. The next level was a simple obstacle course that was timed. She spent more time there than she did in the first two levels of training, but she had a lot more fun.

The fourth level of training was being exposed to space. It was a really odd feeling when she looked around and saw that she wasn’t near anything. She just floated a while until she got used to the odd feeling of emptiness. The realism of the training made her forget that it was a simulation and she thought she was really in space. The last part was an obstacle course in space. She learned how to use the thrusters on her suit to move around. It was a tough course and it took a really long time for her to finish under the time limit.

The next training was simple Shipboard Tactics. Her instructor showed her how to fire her weapons in a zero G environment. It was a lot harder than she expected and she had to learn how to anchor herself before she pulled the trigger. She also learned that her big gun was too big for fighting inside a spaceship or space station. She was going to have to buy a new gun. She paid a few credits to try out a few new rifles her instructor recommended and she found one she liked.

Basic Shipboard Tactics was how to actually fight in tight, confined spaces. She sometimes had to fight in a high gravity environment as it was a common tactic for some nonhuman enemies. The tactics were similar to clearing a room but on a much bigger scale. There was the door opener, who was called the door knocker, who breached the door when it was appropriate or just unlocked and opened it when it was not. Next person was the first person in. He or she was the person who turned left or right depending on how the door opened. The next person to enter the room is the person whose job was to cover the center of the room while the third person who enters the room was the person whose job was to go in the opposite direction that the first person went. The last person who entered the room, the fourth man, is the person whose job was to guards the rear.

Advanced Shipboard Tactics was all about how to take vital areas. Like the control room in a space station or the bridge or bridges in a spaceship. There were always back up control rooms and back up bridges and there were many different ways to take them. Some required splitting a squad while others used a blitz attack with a full squad to take one command area after another. The engine room was usually either one or two rooms filled with lethal equipment that could be easily turned into traps. A squad had to move fast and at the same time cautiously. The squad needed at least two members who knew what the engine parts did to keep the squad safe. It always took at least an entire squad to take the engine rooms.

The next two vital areas were the berthing areas. Usually on a military ship these were usually separated into enlisted and officer areas. Because of the high number of people that could be in the berthing areas it took at least a squad to take each. Some of the military ships which had multiple branches of the military on board could have more than two berthing areas. Freya learned that the next skill in the progression was taking nonhuman ships, but she didn’t buy the skill as she didn’t even realize it was a thing.

The next part was her favorite part. She sat down at a desk to take one of three classes she needed to graduate with a masters degree. Time seemed to past way too fast and the next thing she knew she was done and had her masters degree. She stayed a bit to take two more classes in coding before she moved on to Spaceborn Vessel Systems. It was a class that encompassed all the various different ways to screw with a ship or space station. From a simple manual disabling of a pipe to hacking a computer and downloading a combat virus into a vital control system. It scared her how easy it was to mess with a ship.

The last part took what felt like years. It was the martial art she chose. It was simply called Líng Zhònglì Zhàndòu or Zero G Fighting, in Chinese. It was developed on an old mining world that had very little gravity, like Earth’s moon. People lived their entire lives inside domes and had to have corrective surgery if they wanted to leave their planet. There had been several bloody wars fought as the civilisation grew from the fight for independence from China, before Earth had united into one world government - way before the sim wars and the war of independence that ended the Empire of Earth. The martial art reflected its brutal birth. It was later adapted to pure Zero G environments as well as heavy gravity fighting.

Freya realized her mistake at choosing to train the skill all the way from novice to master after what seemed a few weeks in the training facility. It was nonstop combat that seemed to last years as she learned how to fight unarmed. Only then did her master move on to teach her how to fight with various weapons, both archaic and modern. Once she mastered that she had to teach others how to fight and oddly enough learned a few things from her simulated pupils. Only when she reached level 5 master did the simulation end and she was allowed to leave the training facility.

She stepped out the door from the training facility into Iron Hand Camp and felt very different from when she had entered. Her body was different. It felt stronger and faster. She was not sure if it was from her years of training in Líng Zhònglì Zhàndòu or the mods she had used to upgrade her body. She couldn’t get over how different she felt now. She found herself walking away from the main part of the camp to the river behind it. She found a large rock in the middle of the river and sat down. She crossed her legs and meditated. After a while of just listening to the water as it sloshed around the rock soothing her, she felt better. She got up and made her way to the exit door from the camp. She felt more herself now.

She walked to her favorite shop, Fresco’s Armor Emporium, and made her purchases for her ship. Once she was done she left the shop and went to the only weapon’s shop on the sixth floor and bought the gun she decided on in the training facility. It was a Asy Minor short barrel energy rifle. The gun used a Corlax battery so she could switch them out easily with her main weapon’s. The Asy Minor was a slow fire gun for its size that forced the person to be very accurate, but the trade off was that it was strong enough to penetrate a heavy armored enemy soldier. It was not a weapon to spray and pray with.

The downside of the weapon was that it was very destructive and a person had to be very aware of what was in the target area in case they missed. The weapon could easily wreck sensitive equipment. The good news was it most likely could not punch a hole in a spaceborn vessel as the hull tended to be heavily armored. There were some exceptions to that, however. The weapon could potentially puncture a hole to vent the atmosphere in areas like airlock doors and weakly armored viewing areas. With only 271 credits left, Freya left and went back to her home to meet up with Sergeant Leni and practice in the new holo training building. She brought up her status screen and looked at all the changes.

Spoiler: Status screen

Status Screen

Name: Freya O’Malley

Rank: Private. Level: 5

Template: 2nd Scout

Enlisted points: 53,263

Credits: 271

Skill points: 4

Mod points: 0

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 Memory Expansion Module

Side weapons:

GMZ 127 energy rifle

Colax purified battery

Hayes 2020 pistol

Two Mrock pistol ammo rods

Asy Minor short barrel energy rifle

Colax purified battery

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: 75

Health Regen

Level: 75

Strength

Level: 76

Perception

Level: 225

Agility

Level: 157

Dexterity:

Level: 157

Memory

Level: 150

Processing speed

Level: 225

Personal AI

Level: 14

Skills cont:

Zero G Maneuvering

Level 5

Advanced Shipboard Tactics

N/A

Spaceborn Vessel

Systems

List

Martial Arts:

Líng Zhònglì Zhàndòu

Level 5

Master

Skills:

Enhanced sensing

Level: 2

Tracking

Level: 5

Acrobatics

Level: 5

One time infantry Drop ship

Level: 1

Special Warfare

N/A

Math and Military studies

BS

Engineer

Journeyman

Advanced Drone Operator

Level: 7

Piloting

Level: 8

Silent Walking

Level: 5

Silent Combat Running

Level: 5

Advanced Targeting

N/A

Hacking

Level: 5

Zero G. Combat

N/A

Hardware mods: Suicide mod

Medals: Gold E Sharpshooter