Freya gently set her ship down in the hanger and began the shutdown sequence. Once she was done, she despawned and opened her eyes in a pod in the back of her ship. As soon as she did, she got an announcement. Slowly opening the pod door, she read the blue screen.

You have completed the Tournament.

Rewards are being withheld for the time being. Please report to Camp Iron Hand for further information.

“What the hell?” She muttered to herself as she absently equipped her working uniform. She looked up as the ramp in the back of her ship lowered by itself. She nodded her head when she saw Diaz, her crew chief, standing just outside the ship.

“Well?” Diaz asked. “How did it go? Did you guys win?”

“I don’t know. It says that the rewards are being withheld. It says I need to report to my camp for more information.” Freya replied.

“Oh, that could be very good or very bad.” Diaz said, unhelpfully. Freya absently nodded and sent a message to Toast with a bunch of question marks. He replied that she needed to get to camp ASAP.

“I got to go.” Freya said, looking up.

“Go get ‘em, tiger.” Diaz said with a smile. “Send me a message with what happened.”

“Will do.” Freya replied, as she started to run towards the hanger door.

“No running in my hanger, you damn meathead!” Diaz called after her.

“Sorry.” Freya said, slowing down to a fast walk. She palmed the lock on the door and when it opened she walked into the light.

She blinked as her eyes adjusted to the bright sunlight as she stepped into her camp. She smiled as she felt the post-mission high flow through her. When she could see, her high evaporated as she spotted her entire platoon standing at attention in front of a male gunnery sergeant. Both Sergeant Torres and the gunnery sergeant were looking at her.

“Fall in, Magic.” Sergeant Torres said, quietly.

Freya didn’t bother to respond as she ran for her spot behind Patterson. As soon as she got there, she glanced down to make sure her uniform was in good enough shape then she snapped to attention. While not moving her head she looked around with just her eyes. Everyone looked nervous.

“Now that everyone is here, I would like to introduce myself. I am Gunnery Sergeant Maceson. I’m the Company Commander of Seventh Company, First Division. I would like to apologize to you for withholding your rewards until I met with you. There will be a lot of changes to the platoon and I wanted your full attention before that happens. Firstly, let me be the first to tell you that your platoon has been promoted to First Division. You are now part of Seventh Company, and our new Fourth Platoon. I am very excited to have you join us, and I have been following your feeds both before and during the tournament. I like what I saw.” The new Gunnery Sergeant said slowly, looking back and forth.

“You may have noticed several of your battle buddies are not with us. That is because they did not measure up to First Division standards. I’ll let Sergeant Torres go over the personnel changes that will happen because of that. I will warn you right now, First Division standards are one standard deviation below average on mission points. There is no probation, like in Second Division. You fall below the line and you are out. There is no leniency here. This is the primary combat division on the Monarch. We only keep the best. If you are not one of the best, then you won’t last here.” He told them, still looking them over.

“That said, there are only a couple of you who are below the median. That is surprisingly good for a platoon that used to be in Second Division. Keep up the good work and don’t fall below the accepted mission points. Sergeant Torres.” He said, turning towards Freya’s platoon sergeant.

Sergeant Torres smartly did a left face turn and raised his hand to salute the platoon’s new gunnery sergeant. Gunny Maceson saluted him in turn. When he dropped the salute, Gunny held his hand out to Sergeant Torres.

“Welcome to the Seventh Company, Iron Hand.” He said,as Sergeant Torres shook his hand.

“Glad to be here, sir.” Sergeant Torres replied. He waited until the Gunny had walked about fifty feet or so away before he turned back to the Platoon.

“At ease.” He told them. Freya slid her feet out about shoulder-width apart and put her hands to the small of her back with her palms facing out.

“First, let me congratulate you on a job well done. That was one hell of a tournament and we rocked it.” He told them. “As Gunny said, we lost some people. Ostrich and Petey were released due to being below the accepted standards of First Division. You may also notice that Corporal Wilson is also gone. He has accepted a leadership position in Third Division. His reasons are his own and I will not hear any gossip on why he made his decision.” He told them, in a very serious tone of voice.

“That being said, I am currently reviewing new candidates for our platoon. I will make a decision by the end of the day and you can expect to see them when we next meet. There is also a leadership position that has opened up. One has agreed to step down as First Squad leader to take charge of Sixth Squad and will now be third in platoon command. Done will move to First Squad to take over. Dusty, you will take over as squad leader for Second Squad.” He told them.

Freya fought to keep a smile from her face as she heard the good news. She was sad that Wilson was gone, but happy that both One and Dusty got promoted. She was also very glad that Ostrich and Petey were gone. She felt a little guilty about feeling that way, but she couldn’t deny that she felt happy to see them go.

“That leaves a mech pilot position open. Mon, you will take over the Second Squad primary Mech pilot position. Netty, you will take Mon’s spot as back-up pilot. This is a good opportunity for both of you, but be warned - there are no second chances. If you fall below the first standard deviation, then you are out. I would suggest a lot of practice for the both of you before our first mission as a platoon in First Division.” Sergeant Torres told them.

“There will be other changes, but that's the major ones I wanted to cover before I let you go. Oh, that reminds me. I have a list of skills you need to buy before you go crazy. Gunny also wants everyone in the platoon to have advanced combat driving and the squad leaders are required to buy their squad-specific vehicles. For First and Second Squads, that’s a light, fast attack jeep. For Third and Fourth Squads, it's a standard Armored Personnel Carrier that will carry your entire squad. Toast, you and one other in your squad need to buy two-man scout quads with a full active camo suite. One, I’m sorry, but you need to buy a command post with a repair port in case the Mechs go down.” He said, looking apologetic.

“One last thing. Gunny wants to meet with a few of you after we are done here, so don’t everyone go running away. Sergeant Leni?” Sergeant Torres asked, looking at his second in command.

“Platoon atten...chen!” She called out. Freya and the rest of the platoon snapped to attention. She noted that Sergeant Torres looked surprised, but he seemed to go along with it.

“The following people, report - front and center.” Sergeant Leni said in a strong voice. “Corporal Gentry.” One broke ranks and marched to stand in front of Sergeant Leni. Freya wondered what One did to get on Sergeant Leni’s bad side.

“Corporal O’Bannon.” The Sergeant called out again. Toast broke ranks like One had and went to stand at attention in front of Leni.

“Private O'Malley.” Freya froze as the Sergeant called her name out. A curse slipped from her lips as she too broke ranks to stand at attention in front of Sergeant Leni. Several things she did that were technically wrong went through her head as she took her position besides Toast.

“About face!” Sergeant Leni order. Freya raised her right foot so that her toe touched the ground. Putting her weight on the right toes and the back of her left foot, she spun around. Once she was facing her platoon she lowered her right foot and placed it beside her left one.

“Platoon! I come before you with grave news. I am here to report the death of one of our platoon members. It’s with great sadness that I have to report that Private O’Malley, known to us at Magic, has died in the line of duty. She did not survive one of her crazy ideas. Do not fear though. We have found her replacement. Platoon, welcome Private First Class O’Malley to the platoon. The first beer is on her.”

While the rest of the platoon cheered, Freya felt Sergeant Leni’s breath on the back of her neck. “You drank my beer, now I’ll drink your’s.” She whispered to Freya. “Congratulations PFC O’Malley.”

“Platoon, I have come before you with more sad tidings. Corporal O’Bannon, known to us as Toast, has died. Reports indicated that he shot himself when Private, now PFC O’Malley, said her dreaded words - ‘I have an idea’.” Sergeant Leni told the platoon. This time the laughter was much louder. “Please welcome Sergeant O’Bannon to the platoon. The second beer is on him.”

When the cheering died down, Sergeant Leni continued. “I have one last sad announcement. Corporal Gentry, known to us as One, has also died. She died in the cockpit of her Mech, trying to one-up our little Private’s kill count. Sadly, One failed and she died a fiery death. It was a good death. Odin was pleased. Please welcome Sergeant Gentry to the platoon. The last drink is on her.”

Freya quickly found her way back to her position, as soon as Sergeant Leni dismissed them. Her face was very warm, but she was ecstatic. She was a PFC now. That meant that she got at least a million-points in under a year. She did not remember how many she had before the tournament, but she knew it couldn’t have been a lot. She knew that she was only rank 11 before she went into the last mission in the tournament, but had no idea how many E points she had to have received to get promoted. Still, that was 89 ranks for just one mission. She struggled to figure out what she did to get that many in such a short amount of time. She really wished they would release the rewards for the tournament so she could see just what she did to deserve her promotion.

She looked up to realize that Torres had been speaking. She quickly listened in. “So, again, if you have not had your rewards released that means that Gunny wants to talk to you. Please make your way to my office in the barracks. Everyone else, I’ll see you at the cookout. Dismissed.”

Freya looked around as people broke ranks. Mon came up to her and gave her a big hug. “Congrats on your promotion. You deserve it. So what is your standings?” He asked her.

“They haven’t been released yet.” Freya said, feeling a little nervous.

“Hey, don’t worry. It’s just because Gunny wants to talk to you. It can’t be all bad. Want me to hang out until you're done with him?” He asked her.

“No, you go ahead. I’ll meet you at the cookout.” She told him. He gave her a quick kiss.

“Thanks, hun. I’m going to get with One to see what she has to recommend for skills. I can’t wait to pilot my Mech in a real mission.” He told her, his eyes shining.

“I thought you didn’t have enough money to buy one yet?” She said, frowning.

“You should see the rewards we got from the tournament. It’s better than the reenlistment bonus you get for re-upping. With the tournament rewards and the mission rewards, I have more than enough to buy my Mech.” He told her, nearly vibrating with excitement.

“How many ranks did you go up?” Freya asked, curious to know if she was the only one to rise so high so fast.

“Twenty-eight.” He told her with a big smile. “I am also ranked in two different ranking boards. This is the first time I’ve ever been ranked in a mission. I ranked in secondary Mech pilots and non-leadership, position PFC. Granted,I’m not very high, but still I’m on the ranking board. I bet you get ranked in at least one of the ranking boards for this mission.”

Freya blinked as she processed what he had said. She had no idea how many ranking boards she had been in, but she knew she had been ranked in at least four or five rankings after each mission. She thought everyone got ranked. She smiled at him and nodded, trying to let her discovery that he hadn’t been ranked in any other missions not leak out onto her face.

“Hey, I got to go. Dusty. Hey, Dusty. You heading to the training facility?” He said as he turned away from her and walked towards where Dusty was talking with Dog. Freya watched him go with a small smile on her face. He was cute when he was acting like a boy.

“Hey PFC, Gunny want to talk to you too?” Toast asked, coming up from behind her.

“Yes, Sergeant.” She said, giving him a sloppy salute with a big smile on her face. “Congrats, Sergeant.”

“Knock it off, PFC.” He said, with a smile on his face.

“Yes, Sergeant. As ordered, Sergeant.” She said, as she fell in beside him.

“Shut up.” He said, shaking his head. “How many rankings did you go up?”

“At least 89.” She replied, still amazed at her promotion and a little bit scared as well, as she realized that people were going to accuse her of cheating.

“I went up by at least twenty-two.” He told her. “You know, when I first met you, I was worried that this would be my last tour of duty. Now I’ve got six more years until they force me out. Well, unless I screw up. Look, Magic - I want to thank you. You’re crazy and your ideas are even crazier, but you’re a good marine. I’m glad to have met you back in Sergeant Gawain's tryouts.”

“I’m glad to have met you too, Toast.” Freya said, feeling her cheeks get warm again. “Toast, people are going to think I cheated. I went up at least 89 ranks to get promoted. They already think I’m a hacker. This isn’t going to look good.”

“No, they won’t. No more than usually. Look, the cost of my ranks are twice, if not more, times what yours are. On top of that,you and Gunny were the sole survivors in a successful objective. Hell, we never even got to the objective area. Only the two of you did. That right there is probably why you got such a huge E-point bonus. Anyway, let’s see our new Gunny. Once he releases our rewards, then we can see why the huge bump.” Toast told her.

“Toast…” Freya asked, as another thought popped into her head. “...why did One get promoted to third in command and not you?”

“She has a higher level in her rank. She’s been gun-decking her promotions to stay a Mech pilot.” He replied as they got closer to the barracks.

“Gun-decking?” Freya asked, confused. She had heard that term before, but she had no idea what it meant.

“Sandbagging, ah... deliberately doing stuff to keep her levels down. It’s hard for us to leave behind everything we’re good at to be a leader, but as the saying goes ‘Marines don’t need more grunts, we need more leaders.’” He told her. “You’ll see one day, if you stay in long enough.”

“Why don’t we just keep the leaders we have in place?” Freya asked as they go to the door.

Toast didn’t answer right away, as he opened the door so that she could go through first. “A couple of reasons. First, there are more than enough programs out there that can predict what we are going to do that the only way to stay ahead is constantly putting someone new in charge. Also, we are very gun-shy of doing things like the empire did. No one wants it to go back to some incompetant, rich jackhole buying his or her commission and treating the soldiers under them as cattle. Did you know that, back in the day under the Earth empire, there were fourteen different commissioned officer ranks and only nine enlisted ranks. That’s not including the five warrant officer ranks. They were the only ranks that someone who had been an enlisted grunt could aspire to.”

Freya was about to ask another question, but they arrived. Sergeant Torres’s door was open and she could see Gunny Maceson was sitting in Torres’ seat. He looked up and smiled at them. “Hello, all. Toast, could I have a word with you first. Then I’ll chat with you, Magic, when we are done. Have a seat, you did nothing wrong. I just want to go over a few things with you.” Gunny Maceson told her with a gentle smile.

Freya nodded, looked at Toast and gave him a hopeful smile. He gave her a reassuring smile in return. She watched him enter the office and close the door. Freya looked around the lobby then went to stand by the wall. She did not lean on the wall though. One of the quickest ways to get in trouble in the marines was to have someone see you leaning against something like a wall. That and have your hands in your pockets. For some reason, the marines really hated when their people did that. It was ok for other people to do it, but it was not ok when marines did it.

To keep herself occupied, she turned her music feed on, opened up her search engine and read what was going on in the real world. There were a couple of political corruption scandals going on in the Federation Council. The biggest story was that some world that had just achieved Paradise status was now under investigation for unfair something or other. Freya swiped left on the story and kept going.

There were some stories about the pollution getting worse, but to Freya that was very old news. The pollution was always getting worse on Earth. She found an article about some alien race entering Federation space and getting near some colonial planet before leaving without doing anything really bad. Of course the talking heads were baying for the Federation to do something. Frankly, Freya thought they should just leave well enough alone. You never knew about aliens - they could be weak or stupidly strong. Calling for economic measures or, worse, calling for military action could backfire like no one's business. Still war was what she did.

She tagged the article as interesting so that she could keep an eye on what was going on around colonial planet New Hong Kong. She switched topics to the tech pages and started looking for articles about advancements in communications.

Even though she had only been gone for a few weeks without reading anything, there was a lot going on in the FTL communication field. Someone had come up with a new algorithm to map out FTL particles. That was bad for her as she knew it would eventually lead to someone intercepting the communications from the drone she invented to its recipient. Still there were a lot of particles that existed only in the universe beyond FTL.

That led her to an article about a breakthrough in communicating with an alien species that lived on a planet that allowed humans to visit. Someone had figured out how to translate the intensity of the light that the aliens gave off into something a human could understand. The article was about the technical aspects of the device that some Phd had come up with that could translate in real time, back and forth. Freya was so engrossed in what she was reading that she didn’t see the door to Sergeant Torres’s office open and Toast walk out.

“Next.” Toast called out, sounding amused.

Freya cursed and quickly closed out of both her music and the article that she had been reading. She did take the time to save it to her to-be-read files though. She looked up and saw Toast smiling at her. He gave her a thumbs up before he turned and headed deeper into the barracks. She absently wondered if he was going to get something to eat or if he was headed towards his room. She took a deep breath, then stepped into the office, closing the door as she did so.

Inside the room, she noted that Sergeant Torres was standing behind Gunny, who was seated at the Sergeant’s desk. She hadn’t seen Sergeant Torres in the office when Toast went in. She wondered when he got there. “Was I that zoned out that he walked right by me? That can’t have looked good.” She thought to herself.

“Have a seat, Magic. First, let me tell you that it’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m a big fan of what you have been doing and I really want to help you to go even higher. I’m sure the sergeant will agree with me - you are one our best and brightest. The higher you go, the higher the platoon will go. That brings me to training. Next, let me apologize for all the skills outside your Template that you had to buy because of a failed excuse of a marine. Let me tell you, the sergeant has orders to get the best damn drone operator that he can find, so that you don’t have to wear three hats all at the same time.” He told her and Sergeant Torres nodded behind him.

“I’ll tell you, unlike Second Division, it’s easy to bump someone off your platoon. Everyone serves at your platoon sergeant’s command, in the First Division. This is not a training division, this is a combat division. That being said, we still do a lot of training to keep our edge. I read what your last Gunny had to say and I agree with her one hundred percent. You need training. Your situational awareness is horrible. Your dropship deployment tactics are, while very creative, delaying troops getting back to their platoons. Water landings should be a last-ditch tactic. It always delays troop reinforcement. That and it’s really unsettling to open your pod underwater and equip yourself. There is always a chance of accidental death when you do that. It’s rare, thankfully, but it does happen. In that vein, I have a very long list of skills I need you to get. If you don’t have enough skill points to make it happen, then you can work on it as you progress. I don’t want to see you take anything more outside your template until you complete my list. Understood?”

“Yes, sir.” Freya replied, not sure what she was feeling. She felt grateful that they thought she had been doing Ostrich’s job, but she didn’t think she had. Sure she had a drone that could communicate better from behind enemy lines, but that was just good scouting. Right?

“Now, the reason I blocked your rewards from showing up on your HUD, is because I want to explain a few things and tell you that you are not in trouble. Your last Gunny gave you a huge gift, one that, if I had been in her shoes, I would have done the same. But the problem is that you are too inexperienced not to get shafted by it. Here, read this - but don’t worry it won’t affect you. I had to add an addendum to your record so that you won’t get in trouble.” He told her.

Leadership Failure

Warning: you have dropped four standard deviations for poor performance as Assistant Company Commander. You have been demoted one hundred levels.

“What?!” Freya said, stunned.

“The joys of being a leader.” Sergeant Torres said with a snort.

“You have not been demoted.” Gunny Maceson reassured her. “But it does give you an idea of what is in store for you if you stay in the Marines.”

“The Marines are hard on their leaders. If you screw up, it could mean your career.” Sergeant Torres said with a smile. “It's why people like me love people like you.”

“Yes. Getting back on topic.” Gunny said, giving Freya’s sergeant a look. “The problem was that she never demoted you after your company respawned. The good news is that you got a huge amount of E-points. The bad news is that the Monarch judged you as an Assistant Company Commander and not a scout. I had to request that you be judged only on being a scout for the objective, so not to get you penalized for being something that you weren't. The Monarch agreed to rejudge you, but she is keeping the original as a warning in your records.”

“You're getting a crap ton of Command points that way.” Sergeant Torres told her.

“Yes. There is that. The addendum reads as follows.” Gunny told her.

Addendum to Leadership Failure

Private O’Malley received her promotion to Assistant Company Commander on the basis that she was one of two survivors in a simulated tournament mission. She was not aware of her additional duties. As such, she is not responsible for not fulfilling her command responsibilities. Private O'Malley will only be judged on her duties as a Named Platoon member and not as an Assistant Company Commander.

Private O’Malley’s new mission points are now three standard deviations to the right.

“You get the bonus command points as an Assistant Company Commander, but you lose the E-points as well as the skill and mod points for the full objective. You still get the full rewards, from command points to everything else that goes along with them, with the objective of taking the base on the island, but you get nothing else afterwards. Gunny Thompson should have demoted you back to your original spot as soon as everyone respawned to take the rest of the island, but she didn’t. I won’t even speculate on why she didn’t, but it happened, so this will go into your service record. Don’t worry, if they read the reprimand then they will also have to read the addendum that has been added. No one will be stupid enough to think a low-level private had the experience to be an Assistant Company Commander. No one will hold it against you.” Gunny Maceson told her with a reassuring smile.

“Now, with that out of the way, I can release your rewards. Before I do, do you have any other questions?”

Freya walked out of the barracks and the blue screens were still popping up tell her that she had Leveled up again. She stopped feeling overly emotional about the write-up. She knew that Gunny Thompson hadn’t meant it to hurt her, but the words ‘added to your service record’ still rang in her head. She knew she was being childish, but she did not want that in her service record. It was like a black mark that she couldn’t get rid of. She took a deep breath and started to read her blue boxes.

The first thing she read was that she had been investigated because of her crash landing. After reading all the legal speech, it came down to saying that it was in no way her fault and there was nothing she could have done to prevent being shot down. The investigator even praised her ability to land on the water and complete the mission against impossible odds.Reading that made Freya feel better. She hoped the report made it into her service record like her leadership failure thing did.

She skipped most of the boxes that told her how awesome she was and went right to the ranking boards.

Final Company tournament Rank

11th best company in the Battalion based on mission points and bonuses of platoon members.

Reward: One large and one medium building to each platoon’s camp. 20,000 credits to each platoon's war chest.

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

Reward: One large building to platoon’s camp. 10,000 credits to platoon’s war chest.

Final Platoon tournament Ranks

31st best platoon in the Battalion based on mission points and bonuses.

Rewards: Bonus increased to personal rewards by 1% for each platoon that was higher in rank before the tournament started. Current increased 17%.

Highest ranking platoon in the Second Division.

Rewards: Bonus increase to personal rewards by 1% for each platoon in Second Division that was higher in rank before the tournament started. Current increase 8%.

Final Personal tournament Ranks

Ranked number 1 in the Private Rank only bracket.

Ranked 11th in all non-leadership positions bracket.

Ranked 1st in dropship pilot bracket.

Ranked 3rd best Hacker in tournament.

Ranked 8th in 2nd Scout template non-leadership bracket.

Ranked 27th highest kill count in tournament.

Ranked 243rd in Assistant Company Commander Bracket.

Status Screen

Name: Freya O’Malley

Rank: Private First class Level: 4

Template: 2nd Scout

Enlisted points: 1,020,989

Credits: 50,948

Skill points: 4,102

Mod points: 4,103

Weapons:

Desus MOA Magnetic heavy rifle

Mega Colax purified battery Six heat sinks NG rod ammo.

Armor:

Wrath EC Tier 5 (modded to tier 3)

Massimio Friction assistance Veddarius battery Cloudforge Sensor alert Seven drones Memory Expansion Module

Side weapons:

GMZ 127 energy rifle

Colax purified battery

Hayes 2020 pistol

Two Mrock pistol ammo rods

Asy Minor short barrel energy rifle

Colax purified battery

Basic combat knife

Ship:

Goozden 127 light armored Respawn Dropship

Causnix Mac 127 Recurve Engine Active camouflage Six respawn pods Vehicle dock Mech reloading printer Shand’s Auto Cannon

Wetware mods

Health

Level: 85

Health Regen

Level: 85

Strength

Level: 76

Perception

Level: 300

Agility

Level: 300

Dexterity:

Level: 300

Memory

Level: 200

Processing speed

Level: 225

Personal AI

Level: 37

Skills cont:

Zero G Maneuvering

Level 5

Advanced Shipboard Tactics

N/A

Spaceborn Vessel

Systems

List

Martial Arts:

Líng Zhònglì Zhàndòu

Level 5

Master

Skills:

Enhanced sensing

Level: 2

Tracking

Level: 5

Acrobatics

Level: 5

One time infantry Drop ship

Level: 1

Special Warfare

N/A

FTL Communication

Phd.

Engineer

Master

Advanced Drone Operator

Level: 12

Piloting

Level: 18

Silent Walking

Level: 5

Silent Combat Running

Level: 5

Advanced Targeting

N/A

Hacking

Level: 5

Zero G. Combat

N/A

Bomb Making

*Non template skill*

Level 2

Hardware mods: Suicide mod

Medals: Gold E Sharpshooter Badges: Cyber warfare