Freya led them northeast, away from the armored bus that they had called in an artillery strike on. She was heading towards the next waypoint that Toast had posted. Stopping at an intersection she looked both ways. Both her mini map, with input from her sensor drone, and her eyes showed the entire street was deserted. She waited until Patterson ran up behind her and gave her a tap on the shoulder before she ran across the street. They were going a bit slower now than they had when they were tracking the signal, mainly because they had no new signal yet. Tike’s device hadn't found anything yet.

She waited until the entire squad crossed the street before she continued on. She was passing a coffee shop, thinking how good tea would taste at that moment, when red icons appeared on her mini map. She froze and held up her hand. She took cover between two cars and raised her rifle. She looked behind her, to make sure the squad had stopped, before she peeked over the car in front of her. She saw about twenty or so enemy troops walking down the same sidewalk she and her squad had been following.

She lowered herself down and slid under the car that was behind her, then aimed her rifle towards the sidewalk. She only had to wait about thirty seconds before the first enemy passed her position. He glanced in her direction, but didn’t spot her under her suit’s active camo. The soldier passed her and kept going. The soldiers passed her one by one and Freya kept the barrel of her rifle pointed at each one as they passed. After about a minute, the last one passed her position. She checked her mini map before she popped up and watched the enemy troop pass the rest of her squad without noticing them as they continued down the street, oblivious.

Freya took a deep breath and couldn’t stop a smile from forming on her face. “That was awesome.” She thought to herself, as the adrenaline flowed through her veins. Toast hesitantly dropped down from the branches of a small tree that was growing in the sidewalk. He moved his fist in a circle then pointed towards the waypoint. Freya nodded back to him and started leading her squad towards their destination. She did note that the enemy soldiers were heading in the same direction as where the armored bus had been.

Freya had to stop a few times and take cover as they encountered other patrols while they headed towards the next waypoint. None of the other patrols passed so close to them as that first patrol had, though. Freya was walking across a cement-filled park decorated with statues and had started questioning when they were going to engage another patrol, to track their communications back to what was hopefully the divisional command center, when they reached the waypoint. She stopped at a spaceship-looking statue and looked back at Toast and the rest of the squad.

“I think we found the place.” Tike said with her armor’s speakers, when they formed up on Freya.

“So when do we ambush a patrol?” Freya asked, as Toast looked around.

“Too many patrols around here. Let’s move a bit to the east.” Toast whispered. A new waypoint appeared and Freya led the way. They crossed the park and Freya led them down a side street.

Freya had to stop about halfway down the side street as her mini map showed another patrol coming towards her. She raised her hand and hid behind another car. According to her mini map, the patrol was coming down the opposite side of the street. She peeked over the car and spotted the patrol coming towards them. She crouched down and waited. She decided not to slide under a car because she was tired of doing it every time she hid from a patrol.

She watched the first soldier pass her across the street. There weren’t that many cars on either side of the street and, from where she had hidden, she had a clear view of the patrol as they passed between two cars. Looking away from the patrol, she noted that Patterson was hiding under an overhang by a store. Tike was hunkered down behind a fire hydrant and Toast was hiding behind a van-like vehicle. She looked up and saw the sun high above them. That made her think about the time and she checked it, noting it was four minutes and some change past noon.

She was thinking about asking Toast about stopping somewhere for a lunch break when her mini map pinged her. She looked up and cursed as she saw the icon of a drone. Eyes wide, she turned around and peeked over the car. She cursed again as she saw the patrol freeze. Freya watched in horror as, almost as one, the entire patrol turned to look across the street at them.She raised her rifle but before she could bring it up Patterson stood up with his big gun and unloaded onto the patrol.

“Pull back!” Toast yelled, as a new waypoint appeared on Freya’s mini map.

As Toast yelled for them to retreat, Patterson shifted his huge gun, strafing it side to side. On her mini map, Freya watched as more than half the enemy patrol turned black. She stood up to support him. Right away she noticed an enemy soldier had Patterson in her sights. She didn’t hesitate and fired blindly at the enemy soldier. To her surprise she knocked back the soldier. She gave the battle site a quick glance and ran towards Toast and the new waypoint.

Patterson kept his suppression fire up as she ran by him. She stopped about fifty feet away. She spun around and unloaded on the car where the few remaining enemy had taken cover. She saw Patterson in the corner of her eye turn and run towards her. She kept firing until her battery ran dry. She ducked down and changed the battery out then started running again when Patterson opened up with his huge gun.

This time she didn’t stop until she hopped a fence and ran toward someone’s backyard. She passed Tike, who was standing beside the fence covering both her and Patterson. Freya reached the backyard where Toast was waiting and covering them. There was a loud boom and Freya turned around. She saw Tike on the ground near the fence. Patterson, who was about ten feet behind Freya, ran back and pulled Tike onto his shoulder. With his big gun in one hand and the other holding Tike on his shoulder, he ran towards them.

Freya spotted an enemy come around the corner and take aim at the retreating Patterson. Her round knocked him backwards and out of sight. Patterson ran by her and kept on going. Toast yelled for her to retreat. Freya didn’t hesitate and followed the other two.

She found Patterson by another chain link fence. He tossed his gun over the fence as Freya caught up to him. Not pausing, Freya leaped over the fence and turned around with her hands up to catch Tike. Patterson handed the limp Tike to her before he leaped, using one hand to aid him over the fence. Patterson picked Tike out of Freya’s arms and started running, only pausing to pick up his weapon along the way. Freya remained behind as Toast broke cover and ran for the fence. He too leaped over the fence using one arm to guide him.

As Toast leaped over the fence, two enemy soldiers ran down the driveway with one in front of the other. Freya lined up a shot and pulled the trigger once. She smiled as both soldiers dropped. She quickly looked back at her squad but they were all facing the wrong direction. She cursed to herself and turned back around to cover the rest of the squad. She glanced at her mini map but there were no more red icons on it and the icon for the enemy drone was missing.

She turned back around and ran towards the rest of her squad. “My drone is not picking up any enemies and we are out of range of the tracking drone.” She told them as she caught up with them.

She looked down at Tike as Toast finished using a Medi pen on her. It woke her up. Tike looked around at everyone and stopped when she saw Toast. “What happened?” She asked him.

“You took a near miss from a grenade.” Patterson told her. “Knocked your brains about a bit.”

“Can you move?” Toast asked her.

“Yeah.” Tike replied, standing up slowly.

“You have a signal?” Toast asked, after she stood up.

She reached down and tapped her wrist and then looked back up at Toast. “I got it.” She told him. “I got a signal coming from the ambush and a signal coming from over there.”

Freya followed Tike’s hand towards the north east.

“Let’s move.” Toast said. “Patterson, watch her. If she gets fuzzy give her another medi pen.”

“Gotcha, boss.” Patterson replied with a thumbs up. Tike looked back at Patterson and shook her head.

“What happened?” She asked him again.

Patterson looked at Toast then pulled out another medi pen from his belt. He nodded to Tike. “You got a concussion. Let me give you another pen.” He told her, as they all waited until he was done.

“Feel better?” Patterson asked her.

“Yeah, head feels like it's full of cobwebs though.” TIke said, as Patterson pulled out the empty medi pen and put it back into his belt.

“You got knocked around by a grenade and got a concussion.” Patterson told her again. Toast looked at Tike for a few seconds before turning towards Freya.

“Let’s get going. We don’t have time to waste. Their reinforcements can’t be that far away.” He told her. Freya nodded and started leading them to the next waypoint.

Tike seemed to get better after a few minutes and gave Freya a better waypoint. Toast motioned for them to move faster, so Freya started to jog towards the new waypoint. About a half mile away, Freya stopped and turned around when her mini map pinged her telling her it picked up a drone. Freya ran back the way they had come, motioning for the rest of her squad to run. Toast didn’t even question her as he led them down a new street that was almost going the same way they came. He led them through several streets before he slowed down. Freya kept an eye behind them, but nothing ever showed up on her mini map. Nor did she spot anything with her eyes.

Toast dropped two new waypoints that were very similar to the ones he had made when they were targeting the other command center. She led them to the first waypoint before she turned sharply and led them to the next one. The waypoint ended at what looked like a scrap yard. She stopped just outside the yard and waited as the others came up to her position.

“I got it.” Tike said after a few seconds. “There is a lot of communication traffic coming from that direction.” She told them, pointing south east. Then a new waypoint appeared on Freya’s mini map.

This time she was ready with a surveillance drone. She sent one up as soon as she got the new waypoint. She added in the coordinates and fed the feed to everyone who she sent it to last time. The waypoint was pretty far away and out of her drone’s travel range, but she compensated by sending the drone up higher and having it zoom in on the target.

The waypoint was pointing at a parking garage. The top floor of the parking garage had a bunch of sending antennae and a single receiving antenna. There was no one on the top floor though. There were a few tanks surrounding the parking lot and a bunch of troops standing watch around the streets and sidewalks.

“Now that looks like a divisional command center.” Patterson told them, sounding satisfied.

“Agreed.” Toast said absently.

When no artillery strike happened right away, Toast had them move into the scrap yard and take up positions to defend themselves, in case a patrol stumbled on them. Feya was getting antsy with the delay until she heard the sharp crack and then a loud boom. It was followed by several more cracks and booms.

Looking at her feed, Freya smiled as she watched the parking garage crumble as shells landed on it. She smiled as she watched people try to run away but One and Done were using very big shells and they left large swathes of destruction in their wake. The bombardment continued for what seemed to Freya a very long time, but, looking at the clock on her HUD, was only about fifteen seconds.

When the smoke and cloud of dust faded, there was nothing left of the parking garage and the surrounding buildings but rubble. There was no sign of the tanks that had been parked around the parking lot. Freya was not sure if they had been destroyed or had been buried in the rubble. Either way they were out of the war for good.

Freya got a mission update telling her that her squad’s mission objective had been completed. Then she got another objective to return to their platoon, but the waypoint was not near the bridge. It was about a mile into the city. Either the platoon had been pushing into the city from the bridge or they would now start a push and they were expected to meet up with them. Either way, the squad had to move and, with Toast motioning for her to take the lead, she started towards the next waypoint.

Making sure that they wouldn’t run into another patrol, Freya kept an eye on her mini map as she headed towards the center of the city - which was the fastest way towards the new waypoint. They stopped about an hour later to take a break and drink some nutrition drinks. Freya led them to the back of a teen community building near some dumpsters. She made sure they were upwind of the dumpsters even though they were all in sealed environments inside their armor. She then took off her backpack and pulled out a carton for lunch. Freya was surprised to find that she was thirsty enough for another drink carton, after she downed the first one.

She was about halfway through her second drink, when she got an alert telling her that her Batk, her cloning fluid, was running low. Her printing fluid was also low, but not as low as her Batk. She frowned as she thought of how many people had to die for it to be so low in only a few days since the mission started.

“Toast, the Batk fluid is running low on my dropship.” She told him using the speakers on her suit and avoiding the radio.

“That the stuff to print weapons and ammo or the stuff to make clones?” Toast asked.

“Clones, but the printing fluid is getting low as well.” She told him.

He cursed and rubbed the back of his helmet. “Okay, you’re going to have to suicide and head back to your ship. Tell Torres what’s going on. He’ll get Gunny to order a drop. Meet us at the waypoint as soon as you get topped off.” Toast said.

“Ha, ha.” Patterson said pointing at Freya. “You have to buy the first round at Chivia’s.”

She gave him the finger and stood up. “You guys need anything before I go?” She asked them.

“Nah, we’ll just loot your corpse.” Patterson replied. Freya wished he didn’t have a dark face shield on his helmet so she could look him in the eye.

“Just for that, you owe me a round at Chivia’s.” She told him.

“Wait, what did I do?” Patterson said as he looked at Tike then to Toast.

“You were a dick. That’s why.” Toast said, sounding tired.

“That an order?” Patterson asked, sounding annoyed. Freya blinked at how fast he took it to the next level. She had been joking.

“No, that was a vote and you lost.” Tike said, surprising Freya. She had not expected her to back Toast up.

“Let’s get going people. I got point. Patterson you got the rear. Tike, how you feeling?” Toast asked her.

“I feel fine, now.” Tike replied.

“Okay Magic, get going. Everyone else, let’s go.” Toast said, standing up. Freya sighed as Tike walked up to her and motioned for her backpack. She handed it to her then activated her suicide mod… and woke up in a pod on her dropship.

She looked out at the dark water in front of her pod and sighed again. Her clock told her she had been down for about fifteen minutes. She took a deep breath and cracked the pod doors, letting the water in. Her pod quickly filled as she fought not to shiver in the cold water. What was worse was there was a sulfur smell to the water. Once she was completely submerged, she swam out and found the nearest locker. She quickly equipped her armor then sent Sergeant Torres a message telling him that she was in the dropship and gave him the level of the Batk and the printing fluid.

As she did, she looked around at all the people who were now swimming out of her ship. She didn’t recognize anyone. “There is some heavy fighting somewhere.” She told herself as the rest of the pods started to fill up with more Bakt.

Warning, all respawns have been canceled. The respawn ship is out of cloning materials. Until such time as the ship can get resupplied no more respawns will be available.

Freya read the notice and frowned. They still had enough for a few more rounds of respawns. Looking at the console on her ship she guessed she had enough for about two more rounds of respawns. Maybe three if they were short people. The last calculation she made with only respawning short people made her smile. She did note that the list was unusually long though.

To: Private O’Malley

From: Sergeant Torres.

Gunny has got a supply drop scheduled for your dropship. It will drop out in the ocean about a half hour from now. Cancel the respawns, get to the area and wait for the drop. We are pushing into the city, so you can deploy back in the river, but please park the ship closer to the second bridge near the city-side so the respawns can get back into the battle faster. Report back to your squad when you’re done.

Along with the message were the coordinates for the drop. Freya nodded her head then felt foolish as she realized that she was alone on her ship about thirty feet down in the river. She looked over at the closest pod, but it was still dark as the clone was in the process of being printed. She checked the time and found that the clones were set to be complete in a little more than a minute.

“No point in wasting Batk.” Freya thought to herself as she waited for the clones to be completed. As soon as the first pod opened up and the occupant vacated it, she swam into it and despawned.

And found herself standing behind her seat in the cockpit. She quickly sat down and canceled the next round of respawns, saving the Batk. She checked the camera in the back and saw that the latest respawns were in the process of swimming out of her ship. Once the last one was clear, she closed the back door and drained her ship of the water. She had to wait until the last swimmer had moved beyond the danger area of her engines before she could bring the power up.

She had to wait as one of the recently respawned Marines had a problem swimming to the shore. Freya shook her head as she watched the PFC doggy-paddle his way out of the danger zone. Chuckling to herself, she powered up her main engines and spun the ship around slowly. Once she was facing the right way, she boosted the engines to ten percent and made her way towards the bay then from there to the ocean.

She got to the waypoint with about ten minutes to spare. She floated above the bottom of the ocean and reread the protocols to refuel her ship. She had learned how to do it back when she learned how to fly, but she had not done it since. It was mostly automatic. Fly the ship as close as possible, within five feet of the drop, and let the systems do the work.

It did warn her though that it was rigged with explosives and would self-destruct if the IFF (identify friend or foe) signal was faulty. The explosive was big enough to take out her ship and everything around her for about a half-mile radius. She checked her IFF signal and it came back as good. She still worried about it though. She could only imagine the trouble she would get into if the ship went up in a ball of flames.

She sensors alerted her as the drop came in from the Monarch. Her sensors tracked it as it fell from orbit. If her ship hadn’t told her it was her drop, she would have thought it was just junk from the battle falling from orbit. The drop landed right on target and she moved her ship towards it. She bit her lip as she got close and the drop demanded her IFF. Her ship automatically gave it. She relaxed as the drop accepted the signal.

The drop looked like a box that was about ten feet squared. It was black and all the sides looked identical, but her sensors told her which side she needed to access to refuel her ship. She carefully floated her ship closer to the drop and, using her maneuvered engines, she got within five feet of the drop without causing damage to either her ship or the drop. Smiling, Freya activated the refueling processes.

Almost immediately she got an alarm from her damage control sensor. It told her that she had a fault in the automatic refueling process. She shut the system down and booted it back up, but the same fault appeared on her damage control screen. Cursing, she pulled out her flight book and looked up how to manually refuel her Batk and printing fluid. As she did, she opened the vents and flooded the ship before she opened the ramp on the back. Glad now that she didn’t let anyone else respawn, even the short people, Freya despawned and respawned inside one of her pods.

A few minutes later she was in her armor and swimming above her ship to a compartment where the Mech ammo pod attached. She took some time to look around at the darkness of the ocean floor. She was pretty far down. Her armor was giving her times for decompressing if she wanted to swim to the surface. She shook her head at how long it would take her to safely rise back to the surface. That made her wonder if the pod had decompressed her body before she was downloaded.

She found the compartment and opened it, pulling out a hose that was stored within. She pulled the hose towards where her book had said the attachment was for the hose. She found it right where the book had said it was, but there was a scratch across it. She frowned as she attached the hose and twisted the handle hoping for a lock. To her relief the scratch didn’t compromise the lock. She brought the other end towards the drop. It took her a few minutes to find the lock, but as she went to attach her hose it asked for her authentication code.

The only code she knew was her IFF code. Hoping it was the right code she typed it in. She inputted: P, 1, 20, R, 9, 15, t, 19. To her relief, the drop accepted her code and the lock opened. She found two attachments inside the lock. One she guessed was for Batk and the other was printer fluid. She only had one hose and she had attached it to the Batk port on her ship. She found the right port and attached her hose. As soon as it was attached the hose wiggled then became rigid. She placed her hand on the hose and felt the vibrations as the fluid was sucked into her ship.

It took about ten minutes to move all the Batk fluid to her ship. Then she had to flush the hose and switch the attachment on her ship before she could switch the attachment on the drop. Once she was done, she could feel the printing fluid moving inside the hose. As she was waiting, she looked out into the darkness of the ocean. She was too far down to see any sea creatures even with her dark vision, but the ocean floor still had a stark beauty to it. It was something she had never expected to see in her lifetime. She felt privileged and proud to see something like it.

“It’s only a sim.” She told herself, but the awe didn’t go away.

Once she was done, she put the hose back and was swimming back to the ramp when she noticed water bubbles coming from the drop. Scared that she had somehow accidentally started it’s self-destruct sequence she swam as fast as she could to her ship. She quickly closed the ramp, pulled herself into the closest pod and despawned.

As soon as she found herself in the cockpit she threw herself into the pilot's chair and turned on her engines. Only then did she look at the drop. According to her sensors it was melting. Her sensors also told her that the explosives were already deactivated. She took a deep breath as she realized that her ship was safe and it must be an action that the drop had been programmed to take when it was empty. Even so she didn’t wait around for it to finish melting. She turned her ship back towards the bay and pushed the power up to thirty percent.