Freya opened her eyes to see water floating on the other side of the pod doors in front of her. She sighed as it hit her that she had to equip her stuff underwater again. Taking a deep breath she cracked the door and felt the cold water rush in. It was much colder than the last time she had respawned under water. She raised her feet against the back of the respawn door and pushed out. She swam out of the pod, spun around and swam to the locker right next to her. The water was dark but she had left the red running lights on so it wasn’t too bad. She quickly equipped her stuff and flushed the water out of her uniform.

She took a deep breath and wrinkled her nose. The water smelled like sulfur. “I really need to do more research when I plan on deploying in water.” She told herself, as she gently pushed herself away from the locker.

“Listen up. I had your platoon leaders set up waypoints for your trip back to your unit. Stick together with your platoon mates and stay away from the city until you get back to your unit. For Treasia’s sake, stay out of sight. Do not give this ship’s location away. You won’t like what’ll happen if you do.” The Sergeant from Second Platoon said over the radio.

Freya waited until she was the last person on the ship before she swam after them. She looked at her mini map and saw that she had a set of waypoints on the opposite side of the river from the city. It gave her a clear path back to her platoon. She turned until her minimap showed her that she was pointed in the right direction before she started swimming for the shore.

She slowly broke the surface and looked around. She saw the others who had just respawned already on the bank climbing into the forest next to the river. The forest was very thick with vegetation, but someone had hacked a hole in it so there was a nice path. She turned around in the water and looked across the river bank to the city. The river was wide so she could only make out the shape of the buildings across the way. She turned back to the bank and climbed out of the water.

Once she was deep enough in the brush to hide herself from causal sight she took out her long barrel rifle and looked through the scope. She scanned the buildings across the way looking around for anyone who seemed even remotely interested in this side of the river. She spotted a few run-down buildings that butted up against the river. She looked in the few windows that faced the river, but she didn’t see anyone in them.

She scanned the edges of the river but, aside from the few buildings and a really long but run-down pier, there was nothing that really interested her. There was a long, rusted fence that ran the length of the river that had holes in it, but that was it. She didn’t see anyone in her scan. She put her gun away, turned back to the forest and headed towards her temporary squad.

Freya sent off an alert sensor and started her cloudforge to build a second one to be kept at the ready. She paused as her sensor cloud expanded around her, invisible to her sight but not her mini map. Her eyes flicked towards where her kill count used to be but ever since she had upgraded her HUD it had disappeared.

It had been a trade off with the identify ability on her new HUD. She could get it back if she got a wetware mod, but it would interfere with her Personal AI. The problem had something to do with memory management. It was also annoying as it made seeing if she had killed her target harder. She had gone with it because being able to see higher-ranking targets seemed worth the trade off and she could use her clouds to see if she had killed a target or not. She was not completely sure if it was a good trade off or not, even after the past few missions.

She ran deeper into the forest. Looking up, she smiled. The forest looked very similar to the forest near the first mission in the tournament. High above her, branches combined to block out a lot of the sunlight, creating a living canopy. Each step she took she could hear the crunching of dry leaves that came up to just past her ankles. The brush near the river was gone and, besides the huge tree trunks, the forest looked very open.

She quickly spotted her temporary squad that was led by the sergeant from econd Platoon and was heading east. They were taking cover behind the big tree trunks waiting for her. The sergeant motioned for her to go ahead of them and scout ahead. She nodded her head and quickly walked past them with her GMZ rifle at the ready. She had switched rifles as soon as she had turned away from the river, slinging her long barrel rifle over her shoulder.

She kept her eyes scanning her surroundings and only peeked at her mini map once in a while as she moved through the forest. Her mini map showed that the forest ended about a half mile to the south at what looked like a suburb. Her sensor cloud couldn’t see that far, as it could only scan about fifty feet around her. The cloud did give her a lot of information though as it tracked a few medium-sized animals and birds that were in the area. Nothing looked dangerous though so she ignored them. Her sensor cloud ran out before she got to the foot of the bridge where her platoon was guarding so she sent the second one out. Since she was so close to the bridge, she changed her forge to create a surveillance drone in case she needed it down the line.

Not for the first time she looked at all the other drones that Sergeant Gawain had made her buy. They weren’t useless, but she had just never had to use them in a mission yet. Her sensor and surveillance drones were much better than the ones he had her buy. She looked at the ground sensor she had never used. She knew that there had to be a use for it, but for the life of her she had no idea when she would use it. Sure she could deploy it to see where large rounds were hitting the ground, or she could use her eyes. There was a semi-useful one where for two minutes she could have a cloud that told her where shots were coming from, but only if they were passing within ten feet of her. On paper it sounded good, but in real life, where she had to wait five minutes to build a single cloud, it just wasn’t that useful.

Thinking about it she almost missed where she had decided to part ways with her temporary squad.She stopped about a hundred feet from the foot of the bridge and waited for the rest of her temporary squad to catch up. There was another scout behind her. He was a private first class. She was not sure what level template the scout was, but he had a sniper rifle on his shoulder like she did. Behind him, the Sergeant from Second Platoon walked with his rifle pointed vaguely in the direction of the suburb.

“We’re near the bridge where my people are. About two hundred feet ahead is the road you need to pass over.” She told him over the radio.

“Copy that. Thanks for the escort, Magic.” The Sergeant replied.

Freya waved to them and turned north towards the river where the bridge started. The others continued on. She waited until the squad had passed her before she started towards her squad. Now that she was alone she realized that, while she was making much less noise walking on the dry dead leaves than she had in the previous mission, she was still making a lot more noise than she was comfortable with. It made her wonder just how much higher stats Toast had to have to walk nearly silently in the same environment.

On Freya’s mini map she spotted several of her platoon members guarding the bridge. From what she saw there were two people under the bridge, each of them on opposite sides, and six on top of it. There were several metal shields blocking the edge of the bridge with two auto turrets behind them. The bridge stretched out, on her mini map, behind them.

“Friendly incoming.” Freya called out on her platoon channel.

“Magic, you’re late. Get up here. I have a mission for you.” Sergeant Torres replied, over the radio.

“On my way, boss.” Freya replied and started jogging towards the checkpoint. Once she was out of the forest she spotted the members of the sixth squad. Netty waved at her from behind an auto turret. Freya nodded her head as she crept up onto the bridge.

Platoon bonus mission: A high value target has been spotted in the city. Travel to the waypoint with Fifth Squad and monitor the address. Call in support from First Division if the target is spotted.

“Okay, that is the mission.” Sergeant Torres muttered, sounding annoyed. “I’m sending a photo of the target. Stay out of sight and keep your head down. Go meet up with the squad and get moving.”

“Yes, Sergeant.” Freya replied nodding her head. It had been a really long time since she had gotten a blue box bonus mission.

She felt herself grin as she started down the bridge. She ran at a steady jog and passed Wilson. He looked up from some kind of machine. He looked depressed. Freya waved at him and he gave her a small, sad wave back. She saw Ostrich from the corner of her eye as she ran. He was working on a drone hologram. She had just enough time to see that he had a surveillance drone up before she ran past him. She looked at her mini map and saw that the drone was directly above them. That made her frown. The drone should be over the city-side watching First and Second squad in case of an attempted break out. She looked back but Ostrich had moved his screen so that she could not see it anymore. She hoped he was just waiting for some reason before redeploying it.

It took her nearly five minutes to get to the other side of the bridge. As she ran she looked out at the brown river water and the city in the distance. As she got closer to the hump in the middle of the bridge she could see more of the city. The more that she saw of the city the more she thought it was just as ugly the river.

“We should evac the city then bomb it from orbit and start over.” She thought to herself as she ran. She felt guilty as soon as the thought popped into her head.

She spotted Ed and his squad as she ran past their position. Ed’s squad was setting up metal shields for fall-back positions. She waved at Jacob as she passed him. He was in the process of putting a metal brace on one of the metal shields. He waved back. Ed was with Petey. They were setting up an auto turret. Petey just watched her run past, but Ed waved before yelling at Petey to get back to work. Freya struggled not to laugh.

She found Tater’s squad at the top of the hump. They had finished setting up their position and were hanging out. Bob reached out and gave her a high five as she ran past him. If Freya had to guess what they were doing, she would have said that Tater was waiting on orders from Torres to move forward and help reinforce First and Second squads. Taking the thought one step further she guessed that Torres was waiting on Ed’s squad to finish so that they could move up and take over guarding the hump. It was just a guess, but she thought she had it right.

“And Petey is holding them up.” She thought as she passed Dancing.

“Run, Magic, run.” Dancing taunted over her suit’s speakers as Freya ran past. Freya held up her finger in response, but she couldn’t help but smile. Dancing was a bit of a jerk sometimes, but she was good people. Freya heard the other woman laughing as she kept on running, leaving Tater’s squad behind.

She found Stenna first. He was behind a metal shield. He turned around as she got close to him. He waved at her with his left hand. His right hand never moved far from the trigger. Just past him, She saw Dusty. He was talking to Tike behind the metal shield. Both of them turned around as Freya slowed down. Beyond them, looming over the entrance to the bridge, were the two Mechs. One’s mech had scorch marks on it. Freya wondered how she got the battle damage.

Patterson was in the forward-most position right in the middle of the bridge, in between two auto turrets. His huge gun was resting on the metal shield. He kept his attention focused on what was going on in front of him. Mon and Toast were missing. Freya checked her mini map and saw that Toast was under the bridge to the right side and Mon was on the left. Almost as soon as she spotted them on the mini map Toast’s voice came over the radio.

“Magic, great, you’re here. Fifth Squad on me.” Toast called out over the radio.

Freya saw Tike give Dusty something before she turned around and jogged to where Toast was standing under the bridge. Freya put her right hand on the cement edge of the bridge and vaulted over. She landed in the slick mud next to the bridge nearly ten feet down. Her feet went flying out from under her and she fell on her back. She felt herself sliding down the slick river bank. It happened so fast that she never had time to arrest her momentum and slid right into the river.

“Now that is going to be on the stream.” Tike said, laughing, as Freya surfaced from the water.

“Man, I think that is the funniest thing I’ve seen you do, and I’ve seen you get run over by a tank.” Patterson sai,d between laughs.

“You okay?” Toast asked as he slid down the embankment. His movements were a lot more controlled than hers had been.

“I’m good.” Freya told him as she stood up, trying to act normal while she was dying inside due to embarrassment. Her butt hurt a little bit, but she was not going to show any weakness in front of them.

“You sure? That fall looked painful.” Toast asked her as he helped her up the slick hill.

“I’m good, Toast.” Freya said, getting more embarrassed and a little angry.

“Okay.” He replied as he looked at her. Freya noted that he didn’t look convinced. She hoped he would just drop it and move on.

“What’s the plan, boss?” Patterson said, finally changing the direction of the conversation.

“Let’s get going. We need to be inside the city and in position as soon as possible.” He told them, as he reached the top of the embankment with Freya.

Under active camo, they made their way into the city. Freya noted that the city streets were almost deserted and most of the stores were closed. She did see a few people out and about, but the few people she saw were all hurrying to where they were going. She could feel the civilians' fear as they jogged through the city.

Toast kept them on the back streets for the most part. She spotted a few police cars here and there, but nothing military. It took them almost fifteen minutes to get to where the waypoint was. The waypoint was pointing to a three-story hotel on a corner of two streets. The building was tan in color just like the rest of the buildings. The only difference, besides its height, was the tacky sign above the front door. The door itself was in the corner of the building.

“What are you thinking?” Toast asked her, as they stopped near an alleyway near the hotel.

Freya assumed he was asking where she thought the best place to set up a sniper nest was. “One on that building. It covers both streets and has a clear line of sight with the front door. The second one in the back in case the target tries to sneak his way in or run when the cavalry arrives.” She told him after taking a few seconds to look the situation over.

“Sounds good. How do you want to split the squad up?” He asked her.

Freya frowned and looked at him not sure where he was going. “He’s the squad leader. Why ask me?” She thought to herself as she looked back towards the hotel and thought about who should go where.

Both streets were empty of people but had cars parked on either side of the street. The back of the hotel had a parking lot for guests and it was mostly full of cars. The street in front of them had a bunch of stores aligned with the street, not leaving much of a walkway for pedestrians. The front of the hotel had a bunch of windows but according to her mini map Freya noted that the back was mostly solid wall with a few normal-sized windows.

Drawing a blank Freya asked herself a question. “What are Patterson and Tike? They are there to guard the sniper. So, Patterson with his big gun needs to be where the bigger danger to the sniper is going to be.” Freya reasoned out in her head.

“You and Patterson in the front. I should be in back with Tike.” Freya told him.

“Why?” He asked her.

Freya gave him a look as he wasted their time. “You’re going to need Patterson because there most likely are more people in this area.” She told him.

“Why me in the front?” He asked her.

Freya struggled not to show how annoyed she was in front of her boss. “Shorter distance. I’m a better shot than you so I should be in the back in case we need to start some trouble.”

“I agree.” He told her. “Let’s get to it, folks.”

Freya forced herself not to roll her eyes as she turned around to lead Tike down the street towards the back of the hotel. In the back, she found a two-story apartment building that had a great line of sight towards the left side of the building and the back. From there, Toast and Patterson were positioned so they could cover the right and front sides of the building. Freya was headed toward the entrance to the apartment building when Tike stopped her.

“This way.” She told Freya. Tike led her towards the back of the building, took off her backpack and pulled out some rope and a metal object which she fixed to the end of her rifle. She then fed the rope into the metal object and raised her rifle. She fired her near-silent gun and the rope flew up and onto the roof.

Grinning at Freya, Tike smiled and waved at the rope. “After you.”

“You know that people can see the rope.” Freya said as she grabbed the rope.

“Then we need to climb fast.” Tike said, not sounding put out at all. Freya grimaced and pulled herself up the rope.

She quickly climbed up to the roof and clambered over the ledge. She looked around but didn’t see anyone. She turned back only to see Tike climb up onto the roof. As soon as she was on the roof she pulled the rope up and coiled it near the ledge.

“In case we need a quick exit.” She told Freya.

Freya could see her squadmate’s grin through her face shield. Shaking her head, she moved to the middle of the roof and placed her long barrel Desus on top of a metal pipe. She laid down on her stomach and started scanning the back of the hotel for their target.

“In position.” Freya called out over the radio.

“Same. Maintain radio silence. Call out if you see the target.” Toast replied over the radio.

“We're going to be here a while.” Tike said, laying down beside Freya. Freya thought she sounded depressed.