Freya sighed and tossed her helmet onto her bed before she sat down beside it. Reaching down she took her boots off, letting them flop onto the floor before she laid down sideways. Closing her eyes she reflected on the past eight hours. She had returned from her shopping spree early enough to grab breakfast from the cafeteria before heading to the new holo training building. It was a huge building with multiple floors where anyone could set up real-looking target zones.

Sergeant Leni had set up a zone that was as close as she could to the next Tournament mission enlisted berthing area without knowing the exact layout. Then she had them run through the area over and over again. At first it was only a dry practice run where they went through the berthing area slowly and stopped a bunch of times to go over some point or other of what to do in this or that type of situation. They graduated to faster exercises with less explanations to finally live fire with target dummies runs.

Freya threw her left arm over her eyes as she went over the practice runs. For the most part she and Tike took turns being the door knocker. If the room required a breach, or an explosive entry, then Tike was up. If the door required someone who could hack a lock to unlock it, then Freya was up. When Freya was not in the door knocker position she took the fourth position in the stack guarding the rear because of her light armor.

There were hundreds of rooms and Freya got very good at clearing rooms. The one thing she learned was that her high perception and quick reflexes were the only way to survive if someone came up behind them. In the absence of heavy armor she learned very quickly why she needed high Agility and Dexterity stats if she wanted to be a 1st Scout.

She was still contemplating the practice runs when her door chimed. With a groan she sat up and went to the door. She found Mon standing outside with a smile on his face when she opened it. “What?” She asked him grumpily.

“Heard that Sergeant Leni put you guys through your paces today. I just wanted to let you know that the cookout is starting soon. We are having it at the beach by the lake.” He told her with a soft smile.

Freya found herself smiling back. “Sorry.” She apologized. “It has been a long day. I’m just going to take a shower..” She told him feeling warm.

“Am I blushing? God, I need to close the door. Close the door you idiot.” She told herself while smiling at Mon. “I need to get going. I’ll meet you there?” She asked him out loud.

“I’m cooking.” He told her as he tilted his head a bit.

“God, you're such an idiot. Of course he’s cooking.” She thought to herself. “Okay. See you in a bit.” She said with a small wave.

“What the hell was that? I need a cold shower.” She thought as she closed the door. She looked at her messy room and felt embarrassed. She quickly cleaned up hoping Mon hadn’t seen how dirty her room was. When she was done she quickly stripped down, tossed her clothes into the recycling bin and took a shower. She got dressed in her civilian bathing suit telling herself she was not dressing up to impress Mon as she applied her makeup. She wrapped a towel over her waist and tied it in a knot like she did back home.

She made her way out of her room and down the stairs. She found Netty at the base of the stairs roughhousing around with Dusty. Both of them stopped when they saw her.

“Holy Treasia, you look hot.” Netty said looking at Freya.

“Thanks.” Freya replied feeling slightly embarrassed at how both of them were looking at her. Netty was wearing a black and white one piece swimsuit that did not look good on her. She had her towel wrapped around her waist like Freya did, but while Freya’s looked stylish Netty’s looked like she tied it like she had just come from a shower. Dusty was wearing a god-awful orange and blue Hawaiian shirt with blue and white shorts that went down to his knees. He had his towel thrown over his shoulder.

“You guys going to the cookout?” She asked them, already knowing the answer. She didn’t want to embarrass herself by asking if they would go with her.

“Yeah, we’re just waiting on Bob. He should be down any second if you want to wait. We can all go together.” Dusty said with a smile.

“That sounds good.” Freya replied with a small smile.

“Magic, you coming with us to the cookout?” A voice she recognized as Bob’s came from behind her a few seconds later. Freya turned around and smiled unconsciously at the man.

He was dressed the best of the four of them. He had a thin white silk shirt that Freya could see the faint outline of a tank top beneath. He had nice tan shorts on with matching flip flops. He was carrying a very large towel in one hand and a volleyball in the other.

“Hi Bob. You look good.” She told him, nodding her head.

“Thanks.” He replied with an embarrassed smile.

“What about me? You didn’t say I looked good.” Dusty said, frowning at his clothes.

“Lose the Hawaiian shirt and we’ll talk.” Freya said, putting her hand under her chin while looking him up and down.

“Okay.” He told her, suddenly unbuttoning his shirt and pulling it off. Freya gave herself a second to look at his amazingly toned abs before covering her eyes.

“I was wrong. Put the shirt back on, for the love of all that's holy.” Freya told him, making the others laugh.

“Take the shirt off, Dusty. Put it back on, Dusty.” He grumbled good naturedly

“We going?” Netty asked as she threaded her arm through Freya’s. “Don’t worry I’ll protect you from these heathens.”

Freya threw her head back, flipping her short hair back at the same time as straightening her back. “Thank you, Netty. You're a good friend.” She told the other woman, dragging her forward towards the door, making the other woman scramble to keep up.

It was a long walk to the beach. They talked about the last mission with Bob telling the others about when he saw the stolen cargo ship coming in to pick up the prisoners he had been guarding. “I get this message from One telling me that Magic is on her way to pick up the prisoners, but she told me Magic was coming in on a bus. Imagine my surprise when I see this gigantic ship that was bigger than a whale from back home coming in for a landing right in front of us.” He told them, waving his hands around to show how big the ship was.

“We didn’t know what was going on. Sergeant Torres and Leni were the only ones who knew. I was in the command bunker with the rest of my squad and then we started to get all these updates telling us that two hundred and whatever prisoners had escaped. We thought it was One.” Netter told the group as she walked beside Freya. Freya had disentangled their arms as soon as they were out of the barracks.

“Hey, what happened after Done got zeroed?” Dusty asked Bob. “I was too close to Done when his Mech went down. Took me with him.”

“Well, after you guys took out those two Mechs, we had to retreat. One had me take a group to this school. I didn’t see her take those Mechs one vee three.” Bob told them, shaking his head. “We thought she was just delaying the enemy long enough to give us time to escape, but wow that Marine can drive a Mech.”

“Yeah, she’ll end up on one of the feed clips when it goes out.” Netty said, sounding sad. “Did anyone else beside Magic here do anything clip-worthy?”

“I might get on the one where Magic lands the cargo ship to pick up my prisoners. We traded some cool banter so hopefully they don’t cut it.” Bob said from behind Freya.

“They might show my death, if it’s not too graphic, when Done got killed.” Dusty volunteered from beside Freya.

“I might get on if they show some clips of the command bunker. Otherwise I didn’t do anything clip-worthy.” Netty said, sounding tired. She was walking in front of the group. She was using her body to cut a path for the others to follow through the knee high yellowish green grass.

They were walking through the football-sized field that was between the camp and the lake. There were some trees here and there around the field, but mostly it was just grass. Freya could smell the sweet smell of the grass and hear the buzzing of some kind of insects all around her. She spotted a few unusual-looking flowers along the way and had picked a large one to put behind her ear.

She looked up at the sunset and sighed in appreciation. The sky was a dark pink with a few flat-looking clouds in the sky. She could see a very large moon that shone faintly in the sky. It was much bigger than Earth's moon. She wondered if the moon was programmed to be based on a real moon or if it was made up by the Monarch. Either way Freya thought it looked amazing.

In the distance she could see her platoon mates at the beach as they talked to each other in groups and played around. She could see someone had put up a volleyball net, but no one was playing yet. There was smoke coming from one side of the beach where she assumed Mon was cooking their meal. She could smell the cookout from where she was halfway through the field. Feeling hungry she picked up her pace.

She spotted Toast sitting at a table talking to Tike. Tike saw her first and gave Freya a wave. Telling her friends goodbye and after promising to play a volleyball game with Bob she left for her squad’s table. She looked around for Patterson, but didn’t see him. She wondered if he was going to be late.

Toast smiled and handed her a beer as she found a seat at the picnic table. “Didn’t they have anything better than this?” She joked as she took the beer. It was the same one that they had drank the first time the squad had gone to Chivia’s bar together.

“That’s what I said.” Tike said laughing.

“If you don’t like it you can get your own.” Toast replied, sounding grumpy but with a smile on his face.

Freya took a few big swallows to show her appreciation before she put the bitter brew down on the table. She looked around and spotted Patterson in the lake fooling around with a woman from the third squad. The woman was sitting on Patterson’s shoulders trying to push a guy from the third squad off someone else's shoulders. It looked fun.

She sat with her squad for a few minutes listening as Tike talked about the explosives that Toast had used to blow the Forest Camp up with. She was telling him about a few more chemicals he could have used. Freya didn’t think she was being deliberately condescending, but she could see Toast getting a little irritated. After she talked about using poison gas to kill everyone in the camp then steal their equipment, Freya could see that Toast was at a tipping point so she stood up and grabbed Tike’s arm.

“Can you come with me to see if the food is ready?” She asked Tike.

“Oh, sure.” Tike said getting up. “Hey, we will talk about this later. Okay?” She asked Toast who looked off into the distance and nodded. Freya patted his shoulder as she walked past, feeling his pain.

“Hey y’all up for a volleyball game?” A woman named Dancing asked them as they walked past Ed’s squad’s table. She was a Heavy gunner from Third squad. Freya knew who she was, but hadn’t really talked to the other woman that much. The woman had been in Freya’s stack in the holo training for most of the afternoon clearing rooms as the first person in. “We’re doing a girls vee guys game in a few minutes.”

“Hell yeah, I’m in.” Tike said, sounding really excited.

“I’m going to see if there’s food ready, but if you need an extra body I can fill in.” Freya replied, nodding at Dancing all the while reflecting on how weird it seemed that Dancing was not a nickname but the woman's actual last name. She had been surprised when she read the woman’s name tag on her armor just after break during practice.

“I think we’re good if Tike’s in?” Dancing said making the statement sound like a question.

“Let’s kick their asses.” Tike said with a huge smile. Freya shook her head as the two of them went off calling for Netty and another woman to get out of the water. It was only when One came up from the water laughing that Freya realized that she had been holding up the guy from third squad on her shoulders in whatever the game was Patterson was playing with Netty. Freya shook her head in amazement and turned away from them to walk towards Mon and the food he was cooking.

Mon was standing behind the grill with a spatula in one hand and a beer in the other. Done was standing next to him with a beer in his hand as well. Done was motioning with both of his hands describing something and as she watched she wondered how he didn’t spill his drink while waving his beer hand around. She didn’t hear what Done was saying, but she did hear them both laugh when he was finished. Mon was still laughing when he turned to her. Freya felt a flutter in her stomach when she saw him looking at her.

“Hey, superstar. Food’s not ready yet.” He told her as she walked up to the two.

“I was checking on what kind of craziness you were cooking.” Freya replied, peaking over the edge of the hood of the grill to see what was cooking.

“Good old fashioned Martian sunflowers and some tet sausages.” Mon said waving his beer hand at the food on the grill.

Freya looked at what he was pointing at. On one side of the grill, a bunch of green plant stalks that were as thick as her arm were cooking. The ends of the green stalks tapered down to a point. The tapered end of the stalk had white growths on it that were slowly turning yellow as they were cooked. As she watched, Mon reached out with this tongs and started turning the stalks over.

On the other side of the grill were normal, fat-looking sausages. They looked like every sausage Freya had ever seen before. On the far side of the grill was what looked like a frying pan with a bunch of small, slimy-looking vegetables. They were mostly grey but there was a red, slimy-looking vegetable here and there in the mix. Freya frowned at the mix, concerned. It didn’t look appetizing.

“I’m out.” Done said, as Freya was looking at the food. “I’m going to try to see if I can get in on the Volleyball game.”

“Enjoy.” Mon said with a smile.

“Beer?” Mon said turning to look at Freya. He pointed to a small cooler. Freya looked down and realized that she had left her beer back with Toast on the table.

“Sure.” Freya told him as Mon reached into the cooler, pulled out another Duck’s special stout and popped the top off the beer before handing it to her. Freya nodded her thanks and took an extra long drink.

“So I was just talking with Done about who he thinks is going to take over for One when she gets traded after the tournament.” Mon said, stopping to take a small sip of his beer.

“One is getting traded?” Freya asked frowning.

“After her three vee one in the mission, I’d say it's a sure thing.” Mon said. “Look, standard doctrine says you don’t attack an enemy Mech unless you have numeric superiority over it. It’s not like in the movies. You don’t go two on one in a Mech. The odds of your Mech being taken out is just too high. If you have to, then you fight a retreating action. Use the terrain to your advantage. One took on three Mechs and walked away nearly unscratched. That is something that will get noticed.” Mon told her.

“What if she doesn’t want to go?” Freya asked, concerned.

“Once you get accepted into a named platoon, then you’re in. If they want to trade you, up or down, then they will and we have no option but to go. We are Marines. We go where we are told to.” Mon said, shrugging his shoulders.

Freya had a sudden bad thought. “What about me?” She asked him, worried.

“Yeah, we don’t think you’ll be around that much longer either. You should have never been in the Second Division in the first place. You’re just too good for us.” Mon said, sounding sad. “We think we’ll lose Toast as well. That guy can think. Tike is over the moon because she thinks she's going to be the squad leader of fifth when he goes.”

“Dammit.” Freya muttered, looking down at her toes.

“Hey, don’t worry about tomorrow. Drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” Mon said with a smile.

“We are digital. We don’t die.” Freya said, not getting his reference.

“Look, I shouldn’t have said anything. Things might not change for a while. There is a rumor that the Tournament is a set up for a real world mission. If that’s true then they won’t break us up.” Mon told her. He raised his beer and gently clinked it to her’s. Freya absently raised her glass and took a drink with Mon.

“Why do you think this is a set up for the next mission?” Freya asked him.

“Something the Colonel said during her speech.” Mon replied as he turned back to the green stalks on the grill and flipped them again. “She said that they were going to delay the stream until after our next mission. Now that could mean that they were waiting for the season to start up and she was giving us a timeline, but a few of us think that’s not what she meant. She could have been telling us that the tournament is training for the next mission. It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen.”

“So we could be going on a real world mission soon?” Freya said, getting excited.

“Maybe.” Mon replied. “And if that is true then there is no way we will be broken up right before it. Well, unless we weren’t slotted to go, but since we are kicking eight other platoons in the First Division’s asses, the odds of us not going are pretty low.”

“What if there is no real world mission?” Freya asked him.

“Then what will happen will happen and we will be Marines.” Mon said, shrugging as he started pulling food off the grill. “Hey, grab me that plate.” He told her, pointing towards a plate that looked like it came from the cafeteria. She handed it to him and he started loading it up with food.

The rest of the evening passed slowly . The tet sausages were super spicy and Freya found that the grey vegetables were intended to reduce the burning in her mouth. They didn’t taste very good but they did their job pretty well. The Martian sunflowers turned out to be an odd-looking corn. The corn was much sweeter than normal corn and much tastier. Freya ended up playing two games of beach volleyball. She lost both, but she had a lot of fun playing. She talked to Toast about them getting traded to a platoon in the First Division and he pretty much told her what Mon had. If there was a real world mission coming, then nothing would change for a while. If there wasn’t... Well, they were Marines. They adapted and overcame. It’s what they did.

Freya was leaning up against Monwatching the campfire when Torres stood up. “People, listen up. It’s been a good night and I’m proud of all of you. You’ve done an amazing job on this past mission, but it’s not over. We still have four more missions.” Torres told them. Freya looked at him as he talked. He was standing on the opposite side of the campfire with his back towards the lake. He had a beer in his left hand and as he talked he held his beer close to his chest. His eyes scanned around to look at everyone in the platoon as he spoke. The darkness behind him and the light from the campfire highlighted him like he was on some sort of stage.

“Tomorrow’s mission will be a short one, but a vital one. Don’t let the fact that we kicked ass today go to your heads. This next mission is a real nasty one. We got by the last mission with a few great performances by a few people. Tomorrow, we can’t do that. We will need everyone at the top of their games to keep our position on the leaderboards. Remember your training. Keep your head on a swivel and listen to your squad leaders. A lot is riding on this mission. Let's show the Battalion what we can do.” Torres told them, shaking his fist.

“Oorah!” Sergeant Leni yelled out.

“Oorah!” The platoon replied.

“Lets pack this party up. Secure the trash and let’s get some sleep. I want to see my command crew and Magic. Everyone else hit the sack. You’re going to need your killing edge tomorrow.” Torres told them.

Freya followed the squad leaders to where Sergeant Torres, Sergeant Leni and Corporal Wilson were waiting for them. “Magic, you got all mods added to your ship yet?” Sergeant Torres asked.

Freya checked her messages then shook her head. “I’m sending a message about it now, Sergeant.” She told him as she wrote a message to her Crew Chief.

While she was doing that Sergeant Torres continued. “Company mission brief is at oh nine-thirty. As soon as we are done I want a brief with everyone here. That includes you, Magic. Then we will have a platoon-wide mission brief.” He told them.

As he was talking, Freya got a short and funny message from Diaz. “It’ll be ready for the mission tomorrow, Sergeant.” She told Torres after he was done talking. “My Crew Chief had to rebuild the dropship by hand.”

“She’s using it as a quick way to level up.” Sergeant Torres replied, nodding after she was done speaking. “Okay, why don’t you help the rest of the platoon out. I need to talk to the rest of my command crew.” He told her.

Freya nodded her understanding and turned away. She helped Mon after he dumped some water on the campfire, picking the pieces of burnt wood out of the ashes and tossing them into the lake. She raked the ashes back into the sand while he moved the logs that they used to sit on back to where the picnic tables were. When they were done there were no traces of the party they had just had. Freya followed Mon and the rest of her friends through the grassland back towards the barracks. They split up once they were in the barracks and Freya found herself back in her room. She stripped down and took a quick shower before she slumped into her bed. She was out before her head hit the pillow.