Freya fought the yawn as she waited for the rest of the platoon to slowly form up for morning muster. No one was talking except for a few mumbles of good morning. Corporal Wilson was the only one of the command staff standing in front of the platoon and he seemed to be as tired as the rest of the platoon.

Toast walked in with One. Freya noticed something different about the two. They seemed to be closer. She looked over to Mon, who was standing at the far end of her row, to see if he noticed but he was looking down at his feet. She looked back, but the two had split up. One went to stand next to Dusty while Toast stopped to stand next to her. He gave her a nod before he turned to look forward. She looked back at One, but she was talking quietly with Dusty.

“Am I imagining things or is there something there?” She asked herself, as she turned to look at the door when Sergeant Torres and Sergeant Leni walked in.

Freya frowned as she noticed Sergeant Torres’ expression. He looked pissed. Sergeant Leni had a neutral expression on her face that Freya didn’t like. She glanced at Toast, who was looking at her, worried.

“Not me.” She whispered to him. He gave her a disbelieving look. Before she could defend herself, Sergeant Leni barked for attention.

“Platoon atten...chen!” Sergeant Leni called out. The Platoon snapped to attention.

“First let me welcome everyone back from their vacation. I hope everyone had a good time. Now, the bad. I understand some of you are confused about the bye week. Some of you even went above my head and sent a few messages to Gunny. Let me tell you that will never happen again. There is a chain of command that starts with your squad leader. If he or she doesn’t have the answer and allows it, the next person to go to is Corporal Wilson. If he allows it, then it goes to Sergeant Leni and then me. People, you are never to send a message to the Gunny unless I or Sergeant Leni tell you to. Is that understood? “ Sergeant Torres told them in a loud whisper.

“Yes, Sergeant!” Freya yelled with the rest of her platoon.

“Now, for those of you who wanted to know, we will be getting the max rewards when the fourth mission is completed with the max bonuses. We don’t have to do anything to get them. It’s going to be rewarded to us as soon as the rest of the battalion completes the mission.” He said, looking each of them in the eye.

“The fourth mission is a reconstruction mission. While we are sunning ourselves on a beach somewhere, the rest of the battalion will be setting up roadblocks and guarding civilians. There is very little action and a lot of grunt work. The standings for this mission are locked, so no one can improve their tournament ranking except by someone else screwing up. That means that the only way you can improve is if someone else drops in standings. The reward system is top-down instead of the usual upward system. That means that everyone starts out with the maximum rewards possible and then points are taken as they make mistakes.” Sergeant Torres explained.

“For those of you who still don’t get it: everyone in this company gets a chance to improve ranking because you are not there to make those mistakes. If someone above you drops in the standings, then you will rise because you aren’t there for them to take away points from you. This is a free pass to move up in the tournament without sacrificing anything.” Sergeant Torres said, his voice rising.

“Is everyone clear on this now?” He asked the platoon.

“Yes, Sergeant.” The platoon responded.

“Just so you people know - the rewards on top-down missions suck. There is no building rewards and the e-point rewards are just a little better than a tier three mission.” He told them, his voice getting softer as he calmed down.

“Moving on. The fifth mission is a full battalion mission. We will be assaulting multiple cities on multiple continents. This mission ends when we complete all objectives. The timetable is anywhere from two to five weeks. Our company’s job in this mission will be forward recon and assault. The company will be given the hardest missions and expected to succeed at all costs.” Sergeant Torres told them.

“The plan will be fluid and will change based on the enemy response. The overall mission will be to liberate seven key cities. The first city we will be hitting is New Calhoun. It is the largest city on the planet and the largest economic center. There are several military bases there that will need to be neutralized, as well as a space port.” He explained.

“Our first job is to take an anti-ship weapons battery. It is at the heart of an army base. It’s well defended. We will be going over what we are going to do and how we are going to do it when we get to the holo training buildings. Sergeant Leni will be in charge of your training. I’ll be around to supervise.” He told them.

“Sergeant Leni, anything to add?” He asked, turning towards the platoon’s second in command.

“I want to see Ostrich, Petey, and Bob after we are dismissed.” She said, looking out over the platoon.

“Corporal Wilson?” Sergeant Torres asked, turning around to look at the corporal - who shook his head no.

“Very well. People, after you are dismissed, get some energy drinks before you go to the training building. I want to see more energy than I’m seeing now. We only have four days to get in as much training as we can. We are going to need it. Sergeant Leni, if you would.” He said, coming to attention.

“Platoon atten...chen!” Sergeant Leni called out. The Platoon snapped to attention. “Dismissed!”

The platoon slowly dispersed. Toast walked beside Freya as they left the muster room. They were some of the last people out. “So how was your vacation?” He asked her.

“Went to Meou. We did some surfing and fishing. It was awesome,” Freya replied. She was about to ask him what he did when she heard Sergeant Leni start yelling at the three people still in the Muster room. She looked back and saw Ostrich, Petey, and Bob standing at attention while Sergeant Leni stood in front of them, leaning in while she yelled at them.

“Let’s get out of here.” Toast said, pulling her away from the angry sergeant and the three misbehaving Marines.

“Yeah.” Freya muttered, turning around and walking as fast as she could towards the cafeteria.

Freya sighed as she took off her helmet and closed the door to her room. She liked the fact that she had a living room now. She had bought a coffee table and a couch to fill the empty space and she was glad that she had as she put her helmet on the floor next to the couch and sat down. Training had been hard and fast. Breaking into a military base was surprisingly not that hard. What was hard was that the base was huge and had a lot of wide open spaces. An attacking force had to travel pretty far over the wide open spaces to get to well defended buildings. Even with two Mechs it was a slaughter-fest. She hadn’t died that many times as the fifth squad acted as forward scouts and sniper response. That couldn't be said for the platoon. The death toll had been over ninety percent with multiple respawns.

She kicked her feet up on the coffee table as she activated her music and let the day's events fade away. She was still relaxing when she got a message from Petty Officer Diaz. Frowning she clicked on it. The first part of the message was the Crew Chief asking her if she wanted to take the extra armor off and if she wanted the new sensor system removed. Freya messaged her back telling her that she wanted them both removed.

The second message was a bit odd. The Petty Officer asked if she wanted to hang out in the Navy concourse for dinner and beers. Freya smiled and replied that yes she would love to, but she told Diaz that she had plans that night that she couldn’t get out of. She asked her if she was okay doing it the following night. She smiled when Diaz sent a message back that it was perfect. Feeling much happier, Freya stood up and started getting undressed. She really did have plans and she was really excited about them too.

“And what is this called again?” Dusty asked, looking down at his tan uniform and brown coat that had huge gold square buckles.

“It’s based off of an old Earth show.” Freya told him happily, as she handed him a huge faux-Egyption helmet.

“Which one?” Mon asked. “They remade that show several times.”

“It’s the first one and the best one, in my opinion.” Freya told him happily, as she grabbed her helmet.

“What’s the plot of this again?” Dog asked, as he adjusted the uncomfortable uniform.

“We are a ragtag fleet of ships running from a race of androids that have destroyed our homeworlds.” Freya told him.

“Just so you know, there are only twelve habitable worlds and we are searching for the seventh, which is Earth.” Mon said, putting on his helmet. “How do I look?”

“Like a fighter pilot.” Freya said with a smile.

“No offence Magic, but why only twelve planets and why is Earth missing?” Netty asked, looking at Freya.

“The original was made before people left Earth, so they hadn’t figured out terraforming tech or had any idea what kinds of worlds were out there.” Mon said, smiling. “I like the latest reboot where the androids have been taken over by alien lifeforms.”

“Is that the one where everyone turns out to be an infected android and they mate with the humans to become a hybrid species?” Netty said.

“Oh, is that the one where they are being chased by the Terran Empire?” Dog said excitedly. “I grew up watching that show. I loved it.”

“That’s the one.” Mon said, smiling.

“I never saw that one.” Freya said, frowning.

“Oh, sorry.” Dog said, looking embarrassed. “I bet it wasn’t popular on Earth.”

“Oh, that’s not what I meant. I meant that we were too poor to pay for streaming services. I just never saw that one.” She told them, not feeling angry that the bad guys were people from her home planet. “Honestly, I’m pretty sure people from Earth would be dicks about something like that if they found out. My people, on the other hand, wouldn’t have cared.”

“We going to do this?” Dusty said putting his helmet on. “I want to fly a space fighter ship.”

“Sure, just let me set the program up.” Ferya said, as she selected the show she wanted and who would play the main characters. She of course selected herself to be Starbuck. For Mon she chose Apollo. Dusty she selected to be Boomer. Netty got to be Athena. Dog got to be Jolly. She had to change the storyline a bit because the original Athena didn’t become a Viper pilot until much later in the series. Smiling, she activated the Rec program. She turned around and skipped back to the group. Dusty smiled and shook his head as he looked at her. Mon grabbed her arm and together they led the way into the rec room.

“Launch all Vipers.” Commander Adama called out and Freya pushed the throttle forward. The Gee g-forces slammed her back into her seat.

“Why the hell do we have to wear these stupid helmets and no armor?” Netty complained over the radio.

“And why energy pistols and not rifles?” Dog said, adding to Netty’s complaining.

“Shut up and launch.” Dusty told them over the radio.

Freya smiled as she flew down the launch runway watching the lights flickering red and white as she passed them. The ship even made the engine sounds from the show. She nearly squealed in glee at the experience. She felt a bump and then she was out past the Battlestar and in space. She looked around and saw the others as they got launched into space.

“Damn, that was fun.” Mon said as he flew over to join her.

“Wow.” Netty said, sounding amazed. “Is it like that for real, Magic?”

“Oh, no.” Freya said, laughing. “It's much more fun in real life.”

“Let’s stay in character, people.” Dusty, or rather Boomer, said over the radio.

“Here they come.” Freya said as the silver, flat ships swarmed in as pairs of three.

“See, wasn’t that better than a night out at Chivia’s?” Freya asked as they changed back into their uniforms.

“I got to admit that was a lot of fun.” Mon said as he equipped his uniform.

“I got more ships than you.” Netty said to Dog.

“Yeah, but I got more kills on the ground than you did.” Dog replied, as everyone headed back to the barracks.

“And I got to finally beat Magic in kills.” Mon said as he threw his arm around her.

“Just because your character thought of the plan doesn’t mean that you get all those kills. Forcing the Basestar towards a planet that was about to explode doesn't count.” Freya replied, rolling her eyes.

“Yes, it does.” Mon said with a teasing tone of voice.

“No, it doesn’t.” Freya said, mimicking his tone.

“Guys?” Mon asked, turning around to the rest of the group.

“Let him have it, Magic.” Dusty said, rolling his eyes at them. “It’s probably the only time he will get to say that.”

“Hey.” Mon retorted, in a mock serious tone of voice.

‘It’s true and you know it.” Dusty said, sounding tired.

“Well, okay. That’s true until I get to pilot my mech. Then you’ll see something that is more amazing than my girlfriend stealing an assault ship and blowing up a battalion.” Mon replied.

“Ohhh. I’m your girlfriend now?” Freya said, touched.

“Well, yeah.” Mon replied, giving her a kiss.

“Okay, I’m heading to bed.” Dusty said, shaking his head.

“Yeah, I’m out.” Dog said, as he followed Dusty.

“I’m going to puke. Bye, guys.” Netty said, in a flighty tone of voice as she too followed the others.

Freya grinned at Mon who grinned back at her.

Freya sighed as she walked out of the barracks. Sergeant Leni had pushed them hard during the training that day. So much so that Freya had died several times during the holo missions. The worst part about it was that she had to lay there and wait for the mission to be over. Sergeant Leni hadn’t let them get up and pretend to respawn.

“Two days down. Two to go.” Freya muttered to herself, as she touched the mission lobby controls. An invitation to enter the Navy concourse appeared on the screen. She tapped it and accepted the invite. She held her hand up to the lock and the door opened. She stepped into the light.

She stepped out into what looked like the first floor of the Marine concourse except bigger and everyone was in civilian clothes. “I stick out like a sore thumb.” She thought to herself as she looked around.

She noticed that even the shops looked different. The ones around her were food stores. She shook her head at the sight. In the center of the concourse was a park where people were sitting on the grass or jogging on a small paved path. There was even a small pond in the center with brightly colored birds that some of the Navy people were feeding from the edge.

“There’s my favorite corpse wagon driver!” Someone yelled out, turning a few heads. Freya looked around and spotted Diaz. She looked very different than she did when she was in the hangar. She was wearing a brightly colored dress with red shoes. The biggest difference was that she had dyed her hair at least three different colors.

“Diaz.” Freya said, smiling at the woman. “You look colorful.”

“Thanks.” Diaz said, spinning around so that her skirt flared out. “Come on, I need to show you off. I’m going to make so many credits off this.”

“Wait, you asked me to hang out with you to make some credits?” Freya asked, uncertainly.

“Eh, don’t worry. I’ll spend it all on getting us drunk and well fed.” Diaz said, grabbing her arm and pulling her towards what looked like a glass elevator.

Freya had to smile as Diaz talked incessantly about the Navy concourse and all the shops. The Navy concourse was very different from the Marine one. For one thing, there were no camps. There were barracks or there were single-room apartments. That was it. Most people rented apartments, but there were a few people who liked to live in the barracks. Also the barracks was open twenty-four hours, seven days a week, unlike the Marine’s barracks outside of a camp, which were closed during the day.

“And here we are.” Diaz said, happily.

“You guys have a Chivia’s too?” Freya said amazed.

“Best bar in the concourse. Of course we do.” Diaz said, dragging Freya along inside.

The Chivia’s on the navy side looked much worse than the marine one. While both bars had walls that you could write on, the navy’s was covered in graffiti to the point people had started to write over each other. On the marine side, they had the decency to not do that. Apparently the navy didn’t.

The Chivia’s on the navy side also had a pit ,when Freya looked down into it, she laughed. Instead of tanks, the navy had spaceships. They were basically the same as the tanks in the marine bar with a few exceptions. First, and most obvious, was that they were shaped like spaceships. Both tanks and spaceships allowed people to sit in the middle of them, but the spaceships had two smaller guns on either side of the ship instead of one big cannon in the front.

“We’re over here.” Diaz said, as she came up to Freya. She had two beers in her hand. Freya took one and smiled. It was the same thing they drank on the marine side. She followed Diaz up to a table on the third floor, where a bunch of people were sitting around drinking and eating.

Diaz introduced her to the people around the table. She quickly forgot most of their names. Her first impression was Diaz’s friends were all nerds. Her impression turned out to be true when Diaz called a few of them doctors.

“The PhD kind, not the MD kind.” Diaz said, smiling.

“Oh, hey I got my doctorate in FTL communications.” Freya told her friend.

“A smart Marine. Who would have guessed it.” A snotty woman who was sitting with her back to the wall said.

“Monica, guys. This is Magic, as in my Magic. The one who's ship I work on.” Diaz said, with a huge smile.

Monica, who was taking a drink from her bottle, spit her beer out and all over the food. “Sorry.” She muttered to the table.

“Oh man, I watch you all the time.” One of the guys said, standing up. “Your last mission was so amazing.” He held out his hand and Freya shook it.

“The things you do… It’s crazy.” Another woman with dark hair said shyly.

“I’m your biggest fan.” Monica said with wide eyes.

Freya felt her cheeks start to burn. She awkwardly said her thanks. Diaz pulled her down and ordered new food and a pitcher of beer. The awkwardness slowly fell away as the group got used to her. They didn’t let her pay for anything.

To her surprise she found that she was having a lot of fun with Diaz's friends. Monica was a biologist who was doing experiments on drug and DNA treatment resistant prions. Ted, the guy who said he watched her all the time, was a mechanical engineer like Diaz who worked as a crew chief on an assault ship. Another was an astrophysicist who worked to make sure that the Monarch was going in the right direction. He was currently studying a weird section of space that should have a black hole but didn’t. He was trying to figure out why it didn’t.

The last woman had her doctorate in xeno-communication technology. It was a branch off what Freya had studied. The woman basically studied alien communication technology. Freya had to stop herself from just talking shop with the woman and ignoring the rest of the group. She found xeno-communication fascinating.

“We should do this more often.” Freya said, drunkenly, after she said goodbye to her new friends and followed Diaz out.

“You must come back when you have the time.” Dianna called after them. Dianna was the xeno-communication technologist.

“I knew that you would hit it off with them.” Diaz said, as she walked beside Freya.“You’re good people, for a marine. Us eggheads have to stick together, even if one of us is a bullet-catching marine.”

“You already called me that.” Freya said, drunkenly.

“Oh, I’m too drunk to think up good marine names for you.” Diaz said, giggling.

“So did you win a lot of money on me?” Freya asked, as they stumbled into the elevator.

“Can’t bet money on the Monarch. She gets pissed. No, we bet meals. The others had to buy us all our drinks and as much food as we could eat.” Diaz said, as she made a shushing motion with her finger.

“You said you were going to win credits.” Freya said, frowning.

“Sorry. I wanted to impress you.” Diaz said sadly.

“You don’t have to impress me.” Freya said, shaking her head.

“You're like the awesome Jock in school, except you’re female, and I’m the nerdy girl.”Diaz said, giggling again.

“Wait! Are you hitting on me? I have a boyfriend.” Freya asked.

“Nah, I’m into Ted the astrophysicist. He’s so thick-headed. I wanna hit him over the head sometimes you know. His cute little head.” Diaz replied, drunkenly.

“His cute balding head.” Freya teased.

“It is cute, isn't it?” Diaz said, happily.

“We need to do this more often.” Freya said, as the elevator stopped.

“Yeah, but you marines are alway, go, go, going. You people never have time to hang with us navy folk. You more than the rest.” Diaz said, as she followed Freya to the lobby door.

“Sorry.” Freya muttered, sadly.

“No, it’s okay. Hey, I’ll see you when you go on your next mission.” Diaz said, waving, as she drunkenly turned around and stumbled back to the elevator. “Oh, and thanks for hanging out. It was a lot of fun.”

“I enjoyed it. See you, Diaz.” Freya said as she stepped into the light.