Freya woke to the blue screen alarm flashing across her face. She mentally pushed it away as she stood up. She hadn’t slept well the night before. She kept dreaming about the ugly words that were spoken about her the previous night during the game. She tried to let it go, but she couldn’t. It made her mad and depressed at the same time. She sighed as she forced herself to get up. She took a long shower and put her working uniform on before heading down to muster. She skipped breakfast, as she didn’t have the time to stop and eat. She made muster a few minutes early and stood with the rest of her platoon in formation.

“Platoon, atten...chen!” Sergeant Leni called out, as soon as both she and Torres arrived.

“Platoon, at ease.” Sergeant Torres called out and the platoon relaxed. “We got a big day in front of us. Our next mission is in twelve hours. I want a good eight hours of training before we leave. For the first couple of hours, we will practice landing alone in the city and making our way to the rendezvous point. Once we get that down pat, we will split up, with Sergeant Leni taking charge of the crew that will be attacking the control center. I will command the group that will be taking the lift center. You will all take turns doing both, as we cannot predict which group you will be in. That means you have to be an expert on both objectives.” Sergeant Torres told them.

“We will leave as soon as we are done here. Sergeant Leni, do you have anything to add?” He asked her.

Sergeant Leni stepped forward and looked at them. “Anyone that I spoke to yesterday have a problem getting a generator?” She asked, looking at each of the people she had talked to the night before.

Freya and Ostrich both replied with a “No, Ma’am.”

“Good.” She said, nodding her head and retreating behind Sergeant Torres.

“If no one has any questions?” He asked the platoon. He didn’t get any replies so he nodded to Sergeant Leni.

“Platoon, atten...chen!” She called out. The Platoon snapped to attention. “Dismissed!”

“Hey, you okay?” Toast asked as she was about to head out with the rest of the platoon.

“Yeah, why?” Freya asked, trying to mask her feelings.

“You ran out of Chivia’s in a hurry last night. Tike said that they were trash-talking you pretty hard during the game.”

“I’m fine.” Freya lied.

“Okay. If you need to talk, I’m here.” He told her.

“I'm fine. Really.” Freya said, burying her feelings.

For the next several hours, Freya ran herself ragged training with the rest of the platoon. She found that her generator worked wonders and she was able to avoid detection from the spy satellite all the way to the rendezvous point if she was careful with her energy usage. It took a few runs to get it down, but once she did, it wasn’t a big problem anymore. She couldn’t run the entire way to the point using her boost as it took too long to get there. She had to manage her battery life with care if she wanted to make it in one piece. Once she figured it out, she made it to the point more often than those who didn’t have active camouflage. She even beat Toast and Ostrich getting to the point more often. She was not as fast as Ostrich when he beat her, but she got there more often than he did.

They stopped for lunch. Freya piled her tray up with food because she was regretting skipping breakfast. She sat down next to Mon and ignored everyone to focus on eating. She had some weird seafood burger that had seaweed instead of lettuce. She picked off the top bun and looked at the odd burger. It had four pieces of pickles sitting on a single sliced tomato that had a single onion ring on top of it, with a single slice of cheese between the dressings and the burger. Someone had gotten cute and added a smiley face with ketchup and mustard. It had something that tasted like tartar dipping sauce on the side. It might have been that she had been really hungry, but she liked it enough to eat two of them.

After lunch, they went back to training. This time they practiced hitting the command center and the lift center. Freya found it was a lot like the attacks on the space station. There were a lot of rooms to clear and stuff to destroy. The hard part was barricading themselves in the lift center and trying to survive long enough for the mission to end. They never really got it right nor did they complete it correctly before Sergeant Torres called an end to the training.

“Let’s hit the spa.” Netty said, excitedly, after they finished training. Freya shrugged her shoulders and went to her room to change into her bathing suit. She met Netty by the female entrance room on the first floor. She had to shower first before she entered the spa. The next thing she was required to do was sit in a sauna for a few minutes.

“You know, this is the second time I’ve visited a spa in my life.” Netty said as she leaned up against the wood walls with her towel around her bathing suit.

“Yeah?” Freya replied, enjoying the heat.

“Yup. It was nothing as fancy as this. It was just some really nice smelling stuff and a pretty lady who gave me and my mom a message.” She told Freya.

“That sounds amazing. We had something like this back home. Not the spa but the sauna. It was nice.” Freya told her friend, with her eyes closed.

“I’m from New Tipquia. It’s an agricultural planet. We grow all sorts of stuff back home.” Netty volunteered.

“Yeah?” Freya asked, opening her eyes.

“Small town on a small planet.” Netty said, shrugging.

“I feel you.” Freya said, leaning back against the wall again. “I’m from a small town too. We live on a reservation on a continent that has been quarantined because of the war. The government keeps trying to force us off our land, but my people are stubborn. We won't leave.”

They talked about growing up in a small town and shared some stories. By the time they were done, Freya was feeling a bit better. After the sauna there was a big tub filled with icy water. Freya felt her heart stop as she forced herself to sit in the freezing water.

She laughed at Netty, who screamed as she jumped into the water. Freya looked down at the water. She frowned as she saw what looked like dirt floating in the water. She looked up and read the sign that said the ‘dirt’ was Rovap, a mud that helped moisturize and clean skin.

They stayed for only a few minutes and Freya recommended that they get out as soon as she saw that Netty's lips had turned blue. Next was a hot tub with yellow mud. The sign literally said yellow mud. She and Netty sat down in the warm mud. Freya smiled as she felt her muscles relax.

They stayed in the mud for nearly thirty minutes and when they got out Freya felt relaxed and full of energy. There were a few more areas they could have tried, but Netty wanted to eat dinner before the mission. Freya rinsed herself off before heading off to take a shower in her room.

She ate some crab-like things with pink sauce that tasted like fresh water crabs. The cafeteria was mostly empty as everyone was getting ready for the next mission. Netty was late but Freya stayed with her as her friend ate dinner. When they were done, they hung out in the expanded entertainment room. It looked like a smaller version of the second floor of the chow hall now. It was only after looking at the chairs that she remembered that she needed to call her mother. She decided that she didn’t want to call right before a mission. She rationalized that she needed to get her head in the right place for the upcoming mission. She promised herself as soon as the mission was over she would call her mother.

Soon they were called to the briefing room to go over the plan once more. Sergeant Torres didn’t talk about anything that they didn’t already know. He reminded everyone to use every toy and tool they had because, according to his words, this mission would be the hardest one they had ever faced. He led the platoon outside to the mission lobby. With a ‘For the Iron Hand’, Freya followed Sergeant and the rest of her platoon into the light.

She found herself, for only the second time, in the small room where her OTIDS was stored. She stepped into the tiny pod of the dropship and placed her feet in the pedals, locking them in place. Then she leaned back and felt the back of her armor attach itself to the dropship. Once she was securely attached to the OTIDS, the door closed.

“Count off by the numbers.” Sergeant Torres called out, a few seconds later.

One by one, the platoon called out their names and reported in, starting with One in first squad. Freya, when her time came, called out her name after Patterson. When she was done, Wilson called out next. Sergeant Torres was the last one to call out his readiness.

“Sergeant Torres ready. All members in First Platoon, Third Company ready. Launching OTIDS in five. Four. Three. Two. See you all on the ground. Launch.” Came the command over the radio.

Freya felt her OTIDS launch her at the planet. The dropship shook as soon as it hit the atmosphere. She felt it start to take radical evasive maneuvers soon afterward. She wished she had some control over her dropship but all she could do was sit inside her pod and wait. Her controls were locked as the ant-ship fire was far too strong for her to realistically try to manually pilot it. Roughly a minute later, she felt the gravity intensify as the ship fired its maneuvering engines. She forced herself to breathe through the heavy gravity as the ship violently slowed down. She saw blackness edging around her vision as she struggled not to pass out, then it was over and the dropship popped open. She stumbled a couple of steps as she struggled to adjust to being out of the dropship and on the planet.

“That had to be the roughest OTIDS ride I’ve ever had and that includes training.” She thought to herself as she tried to get herself under control.

A second later she raised her GMZ rifle and looked around. Her OTIDS had landed inside what looked like the food aisle in a shopping center. She saw a bunch of people running away screaming. None of them had any weapons. She looked up and saw that she had come through the roof. She smiled at the sight.

She made her way out of the shopping center, turning on her boosted active camouflage as soon as she left the store. She ran as fast as she could, following the waypoint towards the nearest rendezvous point. Just outside the store, she saw that she had to make her way across a busy parking lot. The parking lot was filled with both cars and people. Under her active camouflage she raced through the parking lot. She could hear police sirens in the distance and she wondered if they were coming for her or one of her platoon mates.

According to her mini map she was on the far west of the city. She had about ten miles to cross before she reached the waypoint. As she ran she looked over her path. The fastest path had her running past a hospital and a college. It also had her running either near or through a mall but that was closer to the spaceport. She would have to hide a few times undercover to charge up her batteries so that her boost would not fail her. She had no overpasses to hide under nor did she see any sewers that she could hide in.

She eyed a few places like a few stores she had to pass and a four-story medical office. She even looked at the mall. She had to stop at least two times so that her batteries to her generator could charge up. She looked a few places and dropped her own waypoint on a medical building near the hospital that was on her route.

She had just made it out of the parking lot and onto the street when she heard the sounds of gunfire in the distance. It only lasted a few seconds before it died down. She hoped that whoever it was survived. Roughly a minute later she saw SWAT vehicles fly overhead. It was the second armed response after the initial police response. It would take anywhere from five to thirty minutes for the military to start to respond to their attack, according to the training they had received. The first sign of trouble came when she saw military vehicles traveling down the same road she was on towards the spaceport. Cursing, Freya ran faster.

She ran with an eye on her battery life. When it dropped to fifty percent she started to look around for a place to hide. She saw a recycling bin behind a store. Smiling, she opened it and, seeing that it was mostly empty, she jumped in and turned off her boost but left her active camouflage on. It wouldn’t help keep her hidden from the spy satellite, but it would make it harder for anyone to see her with their eyes. She raised the lip a bit to keep a lookout. She waited until her boost recharged fully before she opened the bin and restarted her journey.

About a mile from the store where she had stopped she spotted her first roadblock. She hid behind a car as she checked out the police roadblock. It was a standard police roadblock with barrels blocking the street and four police cruisers behind the roadblock. Their roadblock was good for stopping civilians, but it was worthless when it came to someone with a bit of military training. Freya snuck past the roadblock without any of the police ever being the wiser. As she did, she heard some gunfire in the distance that lasted a couple of minutes before it died down.

Once she was past the roadblock she started running again. Half a mile down the road she came across the second police roadblock. Like the one before it she easily snuck by. The problem was that it was slowing her down and costing her valuable boost time. She had to stop at a public bathroom and hide in a toilet stall until her battery charged up. She opened the door and cursed silently when a woman who had been about to open the door stopped as, from her perspective, the door opened up on its own. Freya quickly dodged the woman and ran as fast as she could down the road.

She hoped the woman would not call the cops for the door opening on its own, but she couldn’t count on it. Freya ran faster. Two blocks later she came upon the first military roadblock. They had two trucks parked in a Vee in front of portable metal shields. The two trucks had gunners who were actively scanning the street before them. She was pleased to note that she didn’t see any auto turrets. Freya took it all in, then, making sure she had enough boost left, she crawled toward the roadblock. Once she was close enough she climbed over the shield, trying to be as quiet as possible.

She had a slight scare when one of the soldiers on one of the turrets looked down at his sensor and swung his gun in her direction. She unfroze when he looked up again, looking bored. Whatever alarm had gone off didn’t seem enough to make him check out a potential threat. She slid past the roadblock and kept on going.

She found the next roadblock five blocks down the road. This one was a full military roadblock with two auto turrets along with the standard two trucks with gunners on top. Freya examined the roadblock and frowned. She looked at her mini map for a way around it. She turned away and backtracked to a side street, then followed it to a smaller street that was kind of heading in the right direction.

Two miles down that road, she came upon another well-built, military roadblock. She looked around at the houses on this street. They looked to be occupied by military personnel. She bit her lip and looked up at the rooftops and the enemy soldiers on them. While less guarded than the street, it would still be hard to sneak past them.

“Now would be a great time to call in some kind of air support.” She thought to herself as she turned and started to climb up the side of the brick building. It wasn’t a hard climb but she was glad for her agility and strength mods. She knew that before she joined the Marines there was no way she could have climbed the building. Once on the rooftop she saw a bunch of enemy soldiers with heavy weapons that Patterson would have been proud of guarding the street below.

Silently, she crept by them until she was on the far side of the building. She then free climbed down to the cross street below, just past the roadblock. Smiling, she checked her battery life and frowned. She had already used twenty percent of it. Her frown deepened as she realized that it didn’t match up to how long she used the boost.

“I must have used my Personal AI to increase the boost and didn’t realize it.” She thought to herself, as she ran down the side street towards the road she wanted.

She found an empty truck with its back door unlocked. She took a risk and climbed in the back to turn off her boost. A few minutes later, with her battery full, she climbed down from the truck and started running again.

“This is taking a really long time. I need to go faster.” Freya thought to herself as she ran. About a half a block later she started to hear gunfire again. This time it sounded closer and it lasted until she reached the next block before it died down.

She checked her mini map and found that she was getting really close to the rendezvous point. She looked up as she heard two planes race by her. There was a loud boom that seemed to shake the city a few seconds later. She was hearing almost constant gun battles going on now. She had a bad feeling about the chances of success for the mission.

She ran as fast as she could down the street until she spotted the waypoint she had been running towards. What she saw stopped her cold. The place was overrun with signs of a battle. There were burnt out cars, craters in the street and dead bodies of both military and civilian people on the ground. She recognized at least one Federation Marine body lying on the ground. She checked her mini map for the next closest waypoint. Finding a new rendezvous point, she turned back the way she came and started running. The entire time she could hear the sound of battles that came and went.

After ten minutes of constant running at nearly full speed, she found herself at the second waypoint. She hadn’t seen any more roadblocks. She reasoned that she was inside whatever defensive circle the enemy military had set up. The waypoint led her to a small warehouse. It was a large, ugly, tan cement building with spaces for trucks to park to be loaded up with goods. The parking lot was mostly empty with a few trucks in the back lot. She didn’t see any civilians in or near the building.

She crept closer until she spotted two Federation Marines on her mini map. “Friendly incoming.” She called over the radio.

“Magic, thank Treasia. Come on in. We’re just about to move on the spaceport.” Wilson, sixth’s squad leader and third in command of the platoon, replied on the radio.

“I see her. She’s coming in from the West.” Netty said over the radio.

Freya looked at where her mini map said the two were and spotted Netty hiding behind some plastic boxes. Further in she spotted Wilson, who had taken cover behind some machinery. Freya crept under the loading dock. “I need a couple of minutes to recharge the batteries for my active camouflage.” She told them.

“Okay, tell me when you’re ready. I don’t think anyone else is coming.” Wilson replied over the radio.

Freya waited until her batteries had recharged fully before she informed Wilson she was ready. “Magic, you go first. Scout all the way towards the spaceport. Here is a waypoint. It’s where One is going to meet us so that we can take the command center. Once you’re there, call us on the radio if it's clear. If not, set a new waypoint and send me the coordinates once you find a good place to start it off.”

“Roger that.” Freya said, before turning her boost on and running towards the new waypoint. The way was clear all the way up to the edge of the spaceport. There was a road that surrounded the spaceport and she spotted an armored vehicle driving around patrolling. It would need to be taken out before the others got there.

She called Wilson on the radio and told him what she saw. He told her to hold off and wait for the rest of the squad before taking on the patrol. She looked around and found a good spot for a sniper’s nest on one of the buildings. A tree had grown very close to a single story building she was looking at. The tree was covering part of the roof giving her some good concealment to hide once the shooting started. She nodded to herself and climbed up. Worst case, if she had to retreat she had a few ways to run. She could drop down behind the house and make a run for it. She could jump to the tree and use it as cover if they figured out where she was shooting from. Or she could break one of the many windows and hide inside the building for a little while.

She climbed up on a slightly slanted roof that was covered in leaves and took up position behind the slant so that she could see the road. She scanned the area and found the patrolling truck. She used her long-barrel gun and zoomed in on the cab of the truck.

Her new HUD informed her the driver was a Private First Class and the passenger was a Corporal. They had a gunner that was sticking outside the top of the truck who was also a Private. She told Wilson that she was in position. He was quiet for a few minutes before he came back that he and One were on their way. Freya confirmed she’d received him and zoomed in on the enemy gunner, mentally picking him as the first target.

She wished that One could have used her Mech, but with them landing in the city it would stick out too much for it to be feasible to use in battle. She was slowly following the truck with her rifle, when she started hearing sounds of a battle behind her.

“Coming in hot.” One said over the radio. “I got at least a squad behind us.”

“Roger. Keep going.” Wilson replied.

Freya frowned as the truck that she had been following suddenly stopped and turned around. “They hear you. Taking the truck out now.” Freya said as the truck completed turning around.

“Take it out.” Wilson ordered her.

Freya pulled the trigger and the gunner flopped over. There was a new hole in the turret armor. She quickly changed targets and pulled the trigger as the driver sped up. A heartbeat later and he was leaning over the steering wheel and the truck started to turn to the left. Freya quickly targeted the last soldier, who was on the radio. She pulled the trigger and he slumped to the side. The truck slowed down and came to rest as it hit the side of a building.

“Truck’s dead.” Freya called over the radio.

“I need help. I’m coming up on your position in a second, Magic. Can you slow these bastards down?” One called over the radio.

Freya swung around on the roof and looked to where her mini map was showing One coming towards her. She nodded to herself as she scooted over to get a good angle on the road One would be coming up in a few seconds.

“I’m in position. I can see the intersection, but not much after it. Last thing I can see is a blue micro car.” Freya told One.

“Good enough.” One said. Freya watched as four Federation Marines on her mini map ran rather fast down the street. Seconds later they passed the intersection.

“I see you.” Freya said absently as she waited for the enemy. A couple of seconds later she spotted what looked like a golf cart full of enemy soldiers. She had less than a second to register the odd sight before she pulled the trigger and took out the driver. The golf cart turned on its side and the squad spilled out. She picked off the one with the biggest gun. Her HUD informed her that she had just killed a Private First Class. It also pinged a Lieutenant that was just getting up off the ground. She switched targets and dropped the Lt. The other three soldiers were quickly gunned down by One and her makeshift squad.

“Clear on my end.” Freya said as she scanned the downed golf cart looking for any movement.

“Clear.” One said as she and her squad relaxed.

“We are incoming in ten seconds.” Wilson called out. Freya checked her mini map and saw that Wilson and Netty were running full tilt down the road. She didn’t have an angle for a shot on them. She looked around but, aside from climbing another house, she wouldn’t see them until they reached the intersection.

“You in the clear?” One asked him.

“I don’t see anyone behind me but I’m sure the spy sat has its eyes on us.” Wilson replied.

“Then we gotta make this fast.” One told him.

“I agree. Magic, hop over the wall and find a good spot to set up. Make it fast. We’re moving as soon as Magic gets set up.” Wilson told the rest of the Marines.

Freya slid down the roof until she was hanging from it. She looked down and then let herself drop. Once she was on the ground she ran up to the wall and, not stopping, scaled it. Once on the other side, she scanned the area as she pulled out a mobile sensor grenade and pulled the pin. She tossed the grenade into the air as she started to run. It exploded in a quiet puff and a cloud of what looked like dust moved against the wind towards the spaceport. Soon, even the dust was gone but Freya’s mini map lit up as it scanned the area in front of her.

Freya found herself in a parking lot full of weird, large vehicles that she recognized were used to move spaceships towards the lift in the center of the spaceport. The parking lot was surrounded with a flimsy, aluminum fence. Just past the fence was a building that was attached to a very large hangar bay. Beyond that was a large, six-story building shaped in an H-pattern, that had to be the command center. The horizontal part was completely made up of what she assumed to be tinted, blast-proof glass. She could see people moving around behind the glass. She sighed as she looked at the blast-proof glass. There was no way her rifle could penetrate that.

The command center was at the edge of the port. There were hundreds of various square landing pads. Most of the landing pads were empty, but there were a few that were occupied by gigantic cargo shuttles. In the center of the spaceport was the lift. From her briefing she knew that it was basically a gigantic repulser. When turned on, it would push one of the massive cargo ships upward with enough lift to clear the atmosphere and send it into orbit. It was hideously expensive to build and one of the mission failure criteria was that it had to be undamaged after the mission ended. From what she had read, taking the lift out could cause massive problems with the planet's economy.

She was still getting oriented to the area when her sensor grenade spotted at least a full company of enemy soldiers guarding the front of the building. They were backed up by two tanks that she could see. Just inside the building were four auto turrets that her sensor could pick up. Cursing, she called what she saw over the radio.

“Do they look alert to you? Like, do you think they are expecting an attack right at this second?” Wilson asked.

Freya looked through her scope at the soldiers. She was surprised to see that they didn’t look alert at all. In fact she could see at least one person lying down under one of the tanks. She shook her head at the sloppiness.

“No, they’re just relaxing.” She replied to Wilson.

“Great. That means that the spy satellite is not focused on us.” Wilson replied. “Get into position, everyone. We go over the wall on the count of three. If you have them, get your tank killer out. Target them first. Everyone else, take out those auto turrets first then the soldiers. Make it fast or we’re all dead.”

Freya ran towards the fence and cut it down with her knife. She quickly ran towards the hangar bay as her mini map showed Wilson and the rest of his attacking squad jumping over the wall. She laid on the ground by the corner of the hangar just as there was a flash of white light. The tank to the far left exploded and black smoke started pouring out. Less than a second later, there was a second white flash and the other tank was boiling smoke as well.

Freya found a soldier that her HUD marked as a staff sergeant as her next target. He went down as she pulled her trigger. Once he was down she had a clear shot at one of the auto turrets and it started to fire on her people. She pulled the trigger and it fell to its side, out of commission. There was a third flash of light and two turrets were sent flying. A grenade went flying over the enemy soldiers and the last turret was taken out.

Freya turned her sights toward the rest of the enemy soldiers. Picking the highest ranking soldier, she pulled the trigger. Before she could target the next one the enemy soldiers tried to make a run for it but were gunned down. Freya kept her scope on the building but she quickly peeked at her mini map. It showed all the enemy soldiers were now black instead of red. It also showed that her makeshift squad had a single member that was also black.

“Let's get going, people. We need to take out that building before reinforcements get here.” Wilson told them. Freya watched on her mini map as the members of her makeshift squad ran past her.