Freya stopped by the intersection, that was roughly two hundred feet from an airlock leading to the last set of stairs before the floor they had been directed to by the waypoint. She boosted her sensors once more and waited to see if there were any active camo ambushes set up. She gave it a minute before she dialed it back down to normal after no enemy had appeared.

The battery indicator for her armor was blinking at twenty-eight percent. She had been using her Personal AI to boost the sensors at nearly every intersection since the ambush. It ate at her batteries but she felt it was a good trade off versus dying because she was too cheap to use the ability. It was better to die because she ran out of battery power than to die with energy still left in them.

She jogged towards the airlock door and looked inside. As soon as she saw that it was empty, she jogged down the hallway a bit and took up a position about fifty feet away to guard against anyone stumbling across them. She didn’t look back to see if what was left of her squad was following her. She trusted them to do their jobs.

“Fall back, Magic.” One said. Freya turned around and ran back to the airlock. Mon had his weapon pointed down the hallway where she had been guarding. She kept close to the wall so that she was not in his line of fire. One was also in the doorway and she had her weapon pointed in the opposite direction, protecting their rear.

One pulled back to let Freya though. Mon pulled back into the airlock last and shut the door. One started the airlock cycle as Mon took up position in the front. She got into the second position and Freya stacked up on them in the rear. As soon as the door started to open, Mon rushed though. One followed him, taking up her position guarding the stair above them. Freya waited a second for Mon to secure the stairs going down before she ran past him and scouted the way forward.

Two flights of stairs later she was at the last airlock. She peeked through the porthole window and saw that the airlock was clear, but she spotted the other window on the opposite side of the airlock was dark. She cursed to herself silently. She pulled back and called the others on the radio.

“Window on the second door in the airlock is dark. Not sure if it’s because the lights are out or if it's blocked.” Freya told them.

“Toss some grenades or rush?” Mon asked.

“If they are guarding the airlock then they’ll know as soon as it cycles.” Freya commented.

“There is an airlock two flights down. We can go down and around them.” Mon said, walking over to the stairs and looking down.

“What do you want to bet that the window is also blacked out?” One muttered, sounding distracted. “Magic, go check. I might be wrong. This is the only stairs in the area. We would have to backtrack and that would put us very behind on time.”

Freya went down the stairs, doing as she asked. It only took her a couple of seconds to find the next airlock and a quick peek through the window proved One was right. “It’s blacked out.” Freya told them on the radio.

“So they have us in a rundown. If we start to cycle one airlock then they rush from the other one.” One muttered over the radio.

“You want me to return or hang here?” Freya asked One, as she backed away from the door. She looked down at the stairs. They continued downwards but according to her mini map it went down nearly ten levels and there was no way to get back up without traveling halfway across the space station.

“Stay there and guard that door while we figure this thing out.” One ordered.

“We could blow the door and rush them. If we can take the ones on the other side of the door fast enough we should be able to hold the reinforcements off.” Mon suggested.

“Only if they’re idiots. I would put an auto turret just far enough away that we couldn’t reach it with grenades. Then I would mine the area around the door. Yeah, we might get a few of them if we toss grenades, but we won't get all of them. Add a few shooters behind the auto turret and nothing is coming out of that alive.” One replied.

Freya frowned and looked at her mini map, but aside from going around the long way she didn’t see anything that would help. She then unslung her backpack, pulled out her modified maintenance scanner and started scanning the walls. Not finding anything interesting she slowly worked her way to the door. She walked across the door with her scanner. The only interesting thing was some pipes that were used to vent or add atmosphere. She tracked the pipes back to through the wall and halfway down the stairs where she found something she could work with.

“I got an idea.” Freay said over the radio.

“I’m all ears.” One replied.

“I found the air tanks for the airlock here. I bet we can find the one up there too. I can adjust the tanks to put out pure oxygen…” Freya started to say, but Mon interrupted her.

“We can make a firebomb.” He said, sounding excited.

“Will it be hot enough to take out an auto turret?” One asked, sounding like she was distrustful of the plan.

“No, but it will confuse its sensor for a few seconds. The blast wave should hopefully set the mines off.” Freya replied.

“Lots of holes in your plan, but I don’t have any better ideas.” One replied. “Wait, can we do both doors?”

“We should be able to.” Freya replied.

“Okay, let's do it.” One said, sighing.

It took nearly ten minutes to set up. She had Mon rip open wall panels so that she could access the air tanks. She set the air tanks to start venting pure oxygen into the airlock. She had to reroute some sensors so that it wouldn’t show anyone what was happening unless they physically looked. She then did the same thing at the other airlock.

“I’m a hundred percent down here.” Freya said after she looked at her maintenance scanner as the gas filled the room. She was the only one by the second door.

“On my count.” One said. Freya pulled out two grenades and primed them. As soon as One reached zero she opened the door and tossed the grenades in. She hit the emergency override and slammed the door closed. She retreated down a few steps and waited. Seconds later there was a muffled boom and it was over.

She ignored her door as she ran up the stairs towards the one where her makeshift squad was waiting by. As soon as One spotted her she tapped Mon’s shoulder and he pulled open the door to the airlock. He rushed in, followed by One, with Freya in the rear. She noticed almost immediately that the lights were gone inside the airlock and the door on the other side was hanging open on one hinge.

Mon rushed out and started blasting away. One followed him and shot in the opposite direction. Freya followed the two and took a quick glance in the direction One was shooting. Not seeing anything she turned back and looked down the hallway where Mon was shooting. She spotted an auto turret that was being hit by rounds from Mon’s weapon. In less than a blink of an eye it was knocked over as one of its legs was hit and it became unbalanced.

She spotted several figures behind the turret that were on the floor. They were in the process of getting up when Freya started pulling the trigger. She had enough time to get two of them before Mon mowed the rest down with his gun. And, just like that, the battle was over. One called for them to cease fire but Freya had already stopped shooting.

“Get ready for the reinforcements.” One called out, as she spun around and targeted the door they had just come though.

Freya couched behind Mon as he stepped up next to the door. She pulled out one of her last two grenades and primed it. She only had to wait a couple of seconds before the first enemy trooper appeared in the doorway. Mon took him out with a blast of automatic fire.

“Grenades out.” One ordered and Freya tossed her grenade at the same time as One did.

They all pulled back and waited for the grenades to go off. Seconds later she heard the explosions go off. Mon, not waiting for the order, raced around the corner and charged through the broken airlock. Freya followed him, with One in the rear. Mon didn’t stop, and he charged right out of the airlock and around the corner. He unloaded as soon as he cleared the airlock. Freya followed him out, holding onto her last grenade. She ignored the firefight as she primed her grenade and raced to the railing by the stairs. She leaned out over the railings and tossed the grenade, throwing it so it went under the stairs she was standing on. She had just enough time to see the enemy had bunched up on the stairs before she pulled herself backwards.

“Grenade out!” She shouted as she pulled back.

She felt Mon push her backwards towards the wall right before the grenade went off. He was moving as soon as the grenade went off. Freya scrambled to keep up with him. He raced down the stairs, firing his gun at anything that moved. He moved so fast that Freya never had the chance to shoot her own weapon. They had to vault the railing on the last stairwell as they came across where Freya’s grenade had taken out a bunch of enemy soldiers.

Mon charged right up to the last airlock before he stopped. “At the airlock.” He informed One, who was guarding the stairs above them.

“Come back then.” One replied. “If they have a turret it will be up by now.”

“On our way.” Mon replied. He turned his head and nodded at Freya to go first. Freya did as he asked and ran up the stairs to where One was waiting. Mon charged right past them and ran through the airlock. As soon as he passed her, Freya followed him. Mon kept on running as he exited the airlock. He ran towards the broken turret and past the dead enemy soldiers. He only stopped at the next intersection.

“Magic, go.” One commanded as they all stopped.

Freya took a second to peek around the corner. Not seeing anyone, she raced around the corner, trusting her active camouflage to protect her. She ran down the hallway to the next intersection, then stopped and peeked. She didn’t see anyone else on this intersection either. By the time she was ready to turn into the intersection, her two squadmates had caught up to her. Freya took a second to orient herself on the mini map before she raced around the corner.

They were two intersections away from where the waypoint was located. She peeked around the next corner and, not seeing anyone, she kept on going. The next intersection was five hundred feet away. She stopped, peeked around the corner and immediately pulled her head back. She closed her eyes as a picture of what she saw appeared in her mind perfectly.

“Two auto turrets staggered in the hallway. One about a fifty feet away, the other about another thirty feet behind it. Metal barriers in front of both.” Freya told her squadmates. “Lots of people behind the second turret.”

“Rally point?” Mon asked.

“Sounds like it.” One replied, pulling off her backpack. “Anyone else have any grenades left?”

“I’m out.” Freya replied.

“Same here.” Mon replied, in a matter-of-fact tone of voice.

“Magic, take my last grenade. Aim for the second turret. Mon you got the first.” One said, handing Freya a grenade. “I’m going first. If you guys take both turrets, keep going. I’m pretty sure we don’t have a lot of time before the people behind us catch up. Let’s do what we do.” One said as she readied her weapon.

Freya crouched down right at the edge of the corner while Mon stood right behind her. One took a deep breath and raced around the corner screaming. Mon moved a second later and Freya leaned around the corner and tossed her grenade before she pulled out her short barrel rifle. She saw her grenade sail through the air and land just behind the metal shield that was protecting her target. She noticed that Mon had aimed true and his turret was getting hit, then her grenade went off.

Mon took off running down the hallway firing his weapon. Freya stood up and followed him. She randomly fired her weapon down the hallway unable to see any enemy combatants because of the smoke. Mon used one hand to help himself as he vaulted over the metal shield. Freya didn’t bother using her hand as she jumped over the metal shield like it was a barrier on a steeplechase track.

The smoke was just clearing as they passed the first shield. Freya was finally able to accurately target enemy combatants. She fired three times and two of her targets dropped. The enemy started firing back. Mon unloaded with his weapon and enemy soldiers started to drop like crazy. Then his weapon ran dry. Seconds later he was hit with multiple rounds and dropped in front of Freya.

Freya didn’t stop as she targeted the enemy in front of her. She dropped a few as she ran up to the next metal shield. She leaped over the shield just like she did the first one. She didn’t bother aiming and just fired at any targets she saw. Then she was among the enemy. She fired point-blank at one enemy, but he grabbed her gun and pulled her towards him as he fell. She let go of the weapon and pulled out her pistol.

She crouched down and sprayed the area around her with rounds until the gun ran dry and she dropped it and pulled out her knife. She ran at the closest enemy, keeping him in front of her so his friends couldn’t shoot her. She targeted the seal between his helmet and his neck. Her knife slid easily through the seal and into his neck. Freya had a brief sight of blood flashing across his face as she dragged the knife across the seal before pulling it out. She grabbed his arm and tossed him at the people that were behind him.

It gave her a second or two to get as close to them as she could. Her knife flashed once more as she buried it in the weak point in a woman’s armpit. She twisted the knife before pulling it out. She spun the woman around and used her as shield as the others recovered and opened fire. Freya reached down and pulled out the woman's big pistol. She mentally paid the copyright fee and started pulling the trigger.

The big gun was a semi automatic that left a pretty big hole in the heavy armored person in front of her. She let the dead woman go and ran towards the next enemy, firing her pistol as she went. He fired but she had already moved to the side in anticipation of his shot. Her shots tore through his faceplate and he dropped. She quickly looked around and saw a single soldier running for his life. She took a second to line the shot up and pulled the trigger. Her bullet took him high in the back. He dropped and didn’t move. Just to be sure, she put a second bullet into his back.

She looked around her, flashing her gun, but nothing moved. She spun around slowly but, no matter where she looked, all she saw were dead bodies. She let her gun sink to her side as she tried to control her breathing. Her chest heaved as she tried to suck in air. The whole fight had taken less than a minute, but she felt exhausted. She went back and found her weapon. The battery was mostly empty so she switched it out. She went back and found Mon. He was lying on his belly with his face turned to the side. She rolled him over but the vital signs on his monitor were flat.

She pulled off his backpack, pulled out two spare batteries and exchanged them with those in her suit. Her battery indicator went back up to seventy-eight percent. She discarded the rest of his stuff and moved to find One. The corporal was back at the intersection lying on her back. Like Mon, she was dead. Her chest was covered with a bunch of holes. Freya pulled off her friend's backpack, but didn’t see anything she could use. She looked back down towards the hallway they had come from, but didn’t see any reinforcements yet. Knowing that it was only a matter of time, she turned back around and ran down the corpse-strewn hallway.

She peeked around the corner of the last intersection and spotted a bunch of people hiding behind some boxes. They looked nervous. When they didn’t appear to notice her, she slowly eased around the corner. She stopped as soon as she was fully exposed, ready to run back behind the corner, they didn’t do anything, except occasionally shift around.

She quietly crept forward until she was right in front of them. Still they didn’t see her. She stepped over their hastily created barrier and walked right into the middle of them, shocked that no one spotted her yet. Smiling, she walked right through them to the other side. There were two people sitting by some kind of equipment. They were glancing towards the hallway Freya had just come from, uneasily.

Freya smiled viciously as she raised her weapon. She crouched behind their equipment and took aim. She started with the two people in front of her and walked her rounds into the people closest to the boxes. A few fired back at her but it was too late. They were fully exposed and she wasn’t. It took a couple of seconds but she got them all. The machine she was hiding behind was torn apart by their gunfire, but she was unharmed. Smiling, Freya stepped around the broken machine to take in her victory.

She was still gloating over her fallen enemies when she saw a bunch of enemy soldiers come running from where she had come from. Cursing, she took a few pot shots at them to slow them down before she turned and ran down the hallway. She had no idea where to go since she had just passed the waypoint, so she ran to the next intersection. She didn’t bother to slow down as she ran around the corner.

She found herself behind another enemy squad. They were actively shooting at something in front of them. There were two auto turrets pointed away from Freya. They were behind metal shields. One was broken and on fire while the second one was firing at something. Knowing she was about to die she threw herself up against the wall on her stomach and started shooting the enemy in the back.

They were just turning around when the enemy reinforcements came around the corner. Freya dove to the ground as she noticed rounds start flying over her from behind her. She turned her head and saw the enemy reinforcements engaging with their comrades thinking they were the enemy. Ferya stayed where she was as the two groups killed each other. The reinforcements had the advantage, as they had some cover behind the corners of the intersection. The enemy behind her were completely exposed and were slaughtered.

For a brief second or two the fighting stopped as the enemy finished slaughtering the group in front of her. The calm was broken as the auto turret started shooting again, but seconds later exploded in a ball of fire and metal. Freya covered her head, but she felt burning pain pepper her as the shrapnel sprayed into her.

Then she heard the battle cry of the Federation Marines as they charged down the hallway. Freya ignored the pain and rolled onto her back. She raised her weapon and started firing at the stunned enemy in front of her. Seconds later the Marines were amongst them. The enemy was overwhelmed and the battle lasted for only a few more seconds, then it was over.

“You going to lay there all day or you going to help?” Sergeant Leni asked, as she walked up to Freya.

“Just give me a second, Sergeant.” Freya said as she pulled her backpack off and pulled out her last medi pen. She opened her medical port and slotted it in. She gasped as her back became numb. Her health was only showing eight percent down from one-hundred, but her wounds had been surprisingly painful. Once the medi pen was empty she pulled it out of the port and put it away in her backpack.

“You good to give me a report, Magic?” Sergeant Leni asked.

Freya nodded as she stood up. The squad around her collected what they could. She gave the sergeant her report. She started from where she landed and described how she got into the space station to her battle on the surface and finally to how she met Sergeant Leni. When she was finished the Sergeant was looking away.

“Good work. Join up with Patterson and let's get going. We still got a bunch of floors to clear before this mission is complete.” Sergeant Leni said, nodding to her.

“Yes, Sergeant.” Freya said and went looking for Patterson.

It took them hours to clear each floor, but most of the organized opposition was over. Fourteen hours into the mission, they finally got the blue box that told them that the second mission was complete. Freya had to walk all the way back to her ship, but this time when she started her eninge up it didn’t explode. She retracted the airlock at the bottom of the ship so that it was flush with the hull again. She sighed in relief when she lifted off and flew back to the Monarch unharmed.

Diaz saluted her from her control room as Freya made her way to the door to her camp. Freya paused at the door to look back. Her ship was sitting in the middle of the hanger with the Iron Hand icon on its wing. On either side of her ship were One and Done’s Mechs. In the control room, Diaz sat talking to someone Freya couldn’t see. She couldn’t help but smile as she realized that she loved her job.

You have completed the Second Tournament mission successfully.

Tallying up your reward.

Pilot rewards

Survived entry into mission space station against moderate to severe anti-ship weapons fire.

Safely landed dropship on space station while under fire.

Safely deployed dropship.

Mission rewards

Max credit for completing the mission in under twenty-four hours.

Platoon Mission Bonuses

Successfully gained control of the main and secondary engine rooms.

Destroyed Command Center and Secondary bridge.

Destroyed Combat Information Center and Damage Control Center.

Successfully hacked enemy Space Station’s defenses.

Destroyed seven troop carriers.

Killed all enemy reinforcements.

Recovered all relevant enemy information in the space station systems.

All floors cleared and all enemies found.

Individual bonuses

AI +12

Piloting + 6

Advanced Drone ship +2

Hacked enemy systems.

Discovered a potential flaw in Federation cyber security.

Aided in recovering 100% of vital enemy information from inside the enemy database.

Aided in the destruction of seven enemy troop carriers.

Discovered and killed two scouts under active camouflage at a distance greater than a half mile.

Discovered ambush site under active camouflage.

Spotted two enemies under two forms of active camouflage.

Caused the death and serious injury of enemy soldiers by creating a friendly fire incident.

Company tournament Ranks

12th best company in the Battalion based on mission points and bonuses of platoon members.

Reward: One large or two medium buildings to platoon’s camp. 15,000 credits to platoon's war chest.

Second best company in Second Division based on mission points and bonuses of platoon members.

Reward: One medium building to platoon’s camp. 5,000 credits to platoon’s war chest.

Platoon tournament Ranks

31st 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 17%.

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 72nd in non-leadership position bracket.

Ranked 2nd in dropship pilot bracket.

Ranked Best Hacker in tournament.

Ranked 24th in 2nd Scout template non-leadership bracket.

Total Personal rewards for Tournament

30,781 E-Points, 964 Skill points and 964 Mod points. 9,009 credits. 10 looted credits.

Congratulations! You have leveled up.

0 of 9,973.58 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.

8,360.06 of 9,973.58 E-points needed for next level.

Status Screen

Name: Freya O’Malley

Rank: Private. Level: 8

Template: 2nd Scout

Enlisted points: 84,404.64

Credits: 9280

Skill points: 968

Mod points: 964

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: 26

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: 9

Piloting

Level: 14

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

You have been ordered to meet with FS Monarch as soon as possible for advancement counseling.