Freya grabbed a beer from Mon after she walked up to him at the platoon cookout. She looked around and smiled at the craziness that was going on. Someone had brought speakers and music was blaring out while most of the platoon was dancing with various degrees of success. Freya smiled as she spotted Netty looking at her feet, bouncing up and down completely out of sync with the music. Dog, who was on the other side of the dance floor, wasn’t even bothering to dance. Freya shook her head as Dog flexed his biceps and roared. He had been doing that since she got there - flexing in different directions as he spotted someone new to flex at. The only one who looked like he knew what he was doing was Dusty.

“Hey, bae, can you pass me my herbs?” Mon asked, pulling her attention away from the dancing Marines.

She got up from the cooler and went over to the bag where Mon kept all of his spices. Pulling out four of his usual spices,she handed them over to him as he put down his spatula. She watched him season the fat steaks he had bought for the cookout. Freya had never had steak before in her life, but considering how everyone had an opinion on how to cook it, she knew she had to try it.

“Smells good.” She thought to herself as she watched her boyfriend shake the spice containers. She had passed the word as One had asked her to, but Torres had sent out a message to everyone giving them a time for them to be there, so most of what she passed on was irrelevant by then.

She looked into the grill and spotted a couple of silvery packages sitting on the coals of the charcoal. According to Mon they were something called gutcho potatoes. Apparently they originated from Earth, but some kind of bacteria had killed their ancestors off until they had to alter their genetic code. What came after was called gutcho potatoes.

“You’re eyeing those potatoes pretty hard there.” Mon said, making Freya look up at him. She smiled at him and shrugged then looked back down, wondering what they tasted like. Once, when she was a lot younger, she had been given cauliflower, and while they were both white she hoped that the potatoes tasted better.

“All right, everyone, we’re here.” Torres' voice said, pulling her gaze away from the grill. She looked up and saw Torres and Leni walking towards the cookout with three other, unknown Marines.

“Dusty, is everyone here?” Sergeant Torres asked, looking around.

“Everyone is here, boss.” Dusty replied. Freya blinked in shock at Dusty’s new nickname for Sergeant Torres.

‘Good. I have our new platoon members here and some news.” Sergeant Torres said, coming to a stop by a picnic table. He put his foot up and waved towards the two new platoon members.

“First, this is Private Knowles.” He told them, waving at a very beautiful woman to his right. She was short, only about five feet or so tall. She had dark brown hair that was tied in a ponytail that really stood out against her tan skin.

“She’s our replacement for Ostrich and is our new drone operator.” Sergeant Torres told them, as the woman gave them all a small wave. Freya noted that the private didn’t shy away from the combined attention of the entire platoon. “She’s an academy grad from McMillians and has been in First Division since she graduated from basic at the start of the deployment. I had to trade away one of our buildings for her, but I’m damn glad for it. She’s ranked fourth in Private ranking boards and 8th in Drone Operators. That means we now have the the first and the fourth highest board ranking privates in the tournament. Well, that is, until Magic got promoted.”

“Tom’s Toe! You were ranked first in the Private bracket?” Mon whispered, sounding shocked. “How many boards did you make it on?”

“A few.” Freya whispered back.

“Magic.” Sergeant Torres called out, looking around until he found her. “Get with Knowles and give her a rundown on what's been going on.”

“Aye, Sergeant.” Freya replied, speaking in a loud voice so that it would reach him.

“And this is PFC Daniels. He’s our heavy weapons specialist replacement. He will be taking Pete’s place, and this is PFC Sunnar, our second back-up Mech pilot. He will be in Sixth Squad under One. Any questions get with Leni after this.” Sergeant Torres said, as the three left his side and headed towards the platoon.

“Now, some good news and some bad news. I traded most of our new buildings to get access to the First Division concourse. I did it so that we would not have to spend any money out of our war chest. That means that everything that is free will stay free and we have a nice chunk of change left over for emergencies.” Sergeant Torres said, with a ‘what can you do’ look on his face.

Freya's attention was drawn to the new drone operator as she walked up. Knowles gave Freya a small wave then her eyes darted towards Mon who she gave a small smile at. She quickly looked back towards Freya, but the damage was done. Freya felt a sting of jealousy flash across her body as the woman peeked back at Mon once more. She looked up at One who returned the smile with a goofy one of his own. Freya felt her anger ratchet up at the sight. She quickly looked back at the approaching woman.

“Hi, I’m Mandy. You must be Magic.” Knowles said, looking Freya in the eye and holding her hand out to shake.

“Freya.” She responded to the new woman as she shook her hand. She had to give the new girl points on not paying any more attention to Mon, even though he was looking at the new woman with big, wide eyes.

“I know.” The woman gushed. “You invented the new surveillance drone didn’t you? I think they’re amazing. They said you took a bunch of old drones and created them out of the spare parts. Is that true?”

“Magic is amazing. That’s the least of what she’s done.” Mon said, making the new girl look at him. Freya felt her face turn red in embarrassment, but it quickly faded as the two stared at each other for a second or two too long.

“Let’s go over there and we can talk about the new drone.” Freya said standing up and stepping between the two. She pointed off to a table and started walking in that direction. She looked back and gave Mon a look. He was still looking at the new girl, but he caught her look and his goofy smile vanished to be replaced with a guilty one. Freya looked back at the woman who was not looking at Mon anymore.

As Freya and her group were talking, Sergeant Torres hadn’t stopped talking. Most of what he said Freya missed, and she only realized that he was still talking when the platoon started laughing. She looked back over at her Platoon Leader and saw him wiping away tears as he laughed.

“I kid you not. That is exactly what he said.” Sergeant Torres said, shaking his head as Freya found her seat. She motioned for the new girl to sit with her. She turned back to pay attention to Torres as he started speaking again.

“Okay, so the new large building is going to be a pool. Moving on.” Sergeant Torres said as a couple of people chuckled again.

“I’ll put up a list of medium and small buildings and we can vote on them before I let you people go. When we get back, get ready for some serious training missions. I got word that both First and Second Division are going to be on this real world mission that’s coming up. I don’t have much, but from what I understand it’s going to be just like the tournament. A full on invasion with a replacement of the central governing body. I don’t have all the details, like I said, but there they are having a briefing soon. Hopefully I’ll have everything ready for when you guys get back.” Sergeant Torres said with a smile.

“The rules of the First Division concourse are don’t be stupid. I want you to remember that you are representing the platoon whenever you leave this camp, and what people think of us. You’re all adults. Remember that the Monarch is always watching. That is all. Leni, you got anything?” Sergeant Torres asked, looking over at his assistant.

“I have an idea on a medium-sized building. I was thinking of getting a satellite college building. They give one free digital class free per quarter, and have reduced prices for the rest. What do you people think?” Sergeant Leni asked, looking out at them.

“As long as we get a platoon bar, then I'm good with it.” Bob from Third squad said, jokingly.

“Oh, that sounds good.” Tater, Bob’s squad leader, replied. “You got my vote.”

“No platoon bar. That’s out.” Sergeant Torres said, sounding amused. “There is no way our new Gunny will go for that.”

“Is this normal?” The new girl whispered to Freya, making Freya flinch in surprise.

“What?” Freya asked, confused.

“Everyone talking like that, and no one is getting in trouble?” Knowles asked.

“Yeah, it’s pretty normal.” Freya said with a frown. “Was your last platoon not like that?”

“No one would ever talk to Sergeant Jhanson like that. That is just asking for a fine or worse.” Knowles replied.

“Sergeant Torres is pretty relaxed, I guess. Just if he gets serious, it all stops.” Freya said, thinking on what the new Private said.

“I want to see Magic after the cookout.” Sergeant Leni said as the laughter died out. “That’s all for me. One, you got anything?”

“For those of you who have never been to a First Division concourse, come talk to me before you leave. There are a lot of unwritten rules that you need to know about before you piss everyone off.” One said, looking over at the platoon.

“Good point. Let’s make that an order. Get with One before you leave. I’ll be checking with the Monarch before you go, so fade out on her.” Sergeant Torres said. “Mon! Is the meat ready?”

“It’s ready.” Mon said with a big smile. Freya felt her heart arch when his gaze found Knowles before he quickly looked away.

“Let’s eat!” Sergeant Torres called out.

“Hey,can you check my drone load out?” Knowles asked quietly, as the rest of the platoon got up to form a line in front of the grill.

“Sure.” Freya said, feeling her heart breaking.

Later when Netty came by with two plates for her and the new girl, Freya had to admit Knowles knew her stuff. She had an extensive set of drones and could put three different drones out at once. She also had two new drones that were based off of Freya’s design. The first one was for detecting incoming enemy ships. It didn’t have a video feed, but instead could feed into someone's minimap on their HUD. She also had a drone that was a stripped down version of the surveillance drone, but instead of surveillance it was strictly for written communications. There was even a voice-to-chat option for the drone operator. Freya really wanted that second one.

In the end, Freya had to admit that, while she was good at drone deployment, Knowles was better. Considering that it was her template, she should be. It was just hard for Freya to see someone better than she was at a job she had been doing since she joined the platoon. It also proved to Freya just how bad Ostrich was at his job.

It was also hard for Freya not to like the woman. She was open and honest, while at the same time very competent. She didn’t make Freya feel like an idiot, nor did she say anything about how bad Ostrich had been doing. She just skipped over the awkward pause whenever Freya mentioned him in regards to not doing whatever task Knowles asked about. She was even nice when she corrected Freya on protocol of when to send up a drone while out on patrol. It turned out that Freya almost always had the right of way to send a drone out while on patrol. There were a few times when that was not the case, but for the most part it was obvious when Freya shouldn’t send one up.

Freya left her meal mostly untouched during the conversation, while the new girl ate when she could. “You guys have cookouts like this all the time?” She asked Freya.

“Not all the time, but fairly often.” Freya said as she finally got to her potato. It was an odd vegetable that had a brown skin surrounding it. The skin tasted awful, but the white fluffy part in the middle tasted really good. It was even better when Netty, who was sitting across from them eating, poured some butter on it.

“This is so good.” Freya muttered and Knowles laughed.

“You guys don’t have potatoes on Earth?” She asked Freya.

From the corner of her eye, she saw Netty look up suddenly. “All the potatoes died out a long time ago.” Freya said, feeling guarded.

“We don’t have them on my home planet either. I’m from an indy planet, if you hadn’t guessed.” Knowles said, waving her hand at herself. Freya looked at the woman, confused.

“My skin color, and my height?” She told Freya. Freya shrugged her shoulders, not understanding.

“Indy worlds, like high industrial worlds?” Knowles prompted. “Weak ozone layers and high gravity? Dark skin and short people?”

“Sorry, I didn’t know that.” Freya told her.

“It’s all good.” Knowles said with a smile. “We have to import most of our food, but potatoes are really common because they’re easy to grow. They also don’t take up a lot of room. I knew a house that had them growing on their roof. You can grow them anywhere. I grew up eating the things at dinner every night. It gets old fast.”

“There is a lot of pollution where I grew up, so you had to be very careful what you ate. We rarely ate anything that grew outside of green houses, and there was never enough room to fit everything that needed to be planted in there.” Freya said, not sure if the girl was being honest or insulting.

“Sounds like you had it worse than we did. We had pollution, but we couldn still eat stuff that we grew. You just had to add chem treatments every few months to keep the soil clean.” Knowles replied, shrugging. “I grew up eating mostly government dole food supplements.”

Freya grimace. “We tried to stay away from them, because they caused cancer and diabetes.” Freya replied.

“Oh, that sucks.” Knowles said, looking horrified. “What kind of government gives out food like that?”

“Earth.” Freya relied. This time it was her turn to shrug.

“You two are going to make me cry.” Netty said from across the table. Freya looked over at her friend and was shocked to see the girl was almost in tears.

“It wasn’t bad all the time.” Knowles said, sounding defensive.

“Sorry.” Netty replied, looking down at the table for a few seconds before she looked up again. “How did you get to go to an academy?”

“Federation scholarship. I tested out on the ASAVB, so they gave me a free ride as long as I enlisted afterwards.” Knowles said, pushing her empty plate away from her.

“Wow, you must be smart.” Netty said, putting her elbows on the table and cupping her chin in her hands.

“I’m not smart enough to build a groundbreaking new drone out of spare parts, but yeah, I’m smart enough.” Knowles replied. Freya noted that the new girl was looking at her from the corner of her eye when she said that.

“I didn’t build it out of spare parts.” Freya said, feeling embarrassed. “I just used different copyrights and mixed them together until it worked. I didn’t build anything. The tech was out there, it was just never used in a drone before.”

“You’re right, the tech has been out there for sixty-plus years, but no one thought to make it small enough to create a drone. Sixty-plus years, Magic, and no one thought to do what you did. Don’t sell yourself short. What you did opened up a whole new and exciting world for drone operators.” Knowles said, looking feverish. Freya looked away, feeling more embarrassed than before.

“Anyway. Magic, I was wondering what you and Mon’s plans are for the next four days. I was hoping you would want to go traveling again. Dusty can’t go because he has meetings, but I want to get out of here and relax.” Netty said, breaking the awkward silence.

“Sounds fun. I want to explore First Division’s concourse before we go.” Freya said, grateful to Netty for breaking the silence.

“It’s just like the Marine concourse, but smaller.” Knowles said, waving her hand dismissively. “You guys have a travel building? That is awesome. Can I come with? I can pay my way.”

“Sure.” Netty replied, smiling. “The tickets are taken care of from the war chest. Hey, Magic, can we go to Nolopol? They have air surfing. Air surfing, Magic. It looks amazing.”

“Ok, that sounds fun, but let's check out what else is out there before we settle on a place to go.” Freya said, not liking that Knowles had invited herself along.

“Great.” Netty said, standing up. “You go talk to Mon, and I’ll go talk to Dog. This is going to be awesome.”

“Talk to me about what?” Mon asked as Netty raced off. He put his arm around Freya’s shoulder as he sat down behind her. Feeling suddenly claustrophobic, Freya pushed his arm away without thinking, suddenly annoyed at him. As soon as she did, she knew she made a mistake. She turned around to apologise to him, but his expression was full of hurt and anger.

“Netty wants to travel to a Nolopol sim.” Knowles said into the silence, as Freya struggled to say something.

“They air surf there.” Mon said, seemingly getting over Freya pushing him away. “That looks awesome.”

“Magic!” Sergeant Leni yelled, from somewhere in the crowd. Freya ignored the call and didn’t look away from Mon, but he refused to look back at her. His entire attention was focused on his plate. “Magic!” Leni called again, this time sounding much closer.

Freya sighed and got up. She gave Mon one last look, but he didn’t look up at her. She turned away and made her way through the crowd towards Sergeant Leni. She felt a deep, dull pain in her chest, and she didn’t know how to fix things.