"I don’t want to go back.” Freya said, sitting on her beach chair, holding her beer so that the condensation didn’t drip on her skin. In front of her, Netty was in the process of building a sand castle while Dog was talking to the bartender in a tiki hut. Beside her Knowles chuckled. Like Freya she was wearing her beachwear. Unlike Freya she was wearing a black one piece suit.

“Three words. Real world mission.” Knowles said from behind her sunglasses.

“Yup. I can’t wait to get out of this digital world and back into the real world.” Mon said from the other side of Freya. He had his swimming trunks on and was drinking from a pink coconut. It had colorful vegetables popping out from the top and a big, swirly straw. Freya had bought it for him as a joke. It had backfired on her when he ordered a second one, telling her that it tasted good enough that he didn’t care what it looked like.

Freya blinked as Netty came running up to them. “Magic, come swim with me.” She said, holding her hand out to her.

“Is the water cold?” Freya asked, taking Netty’s hand and letting the other girl pull her up to her feet.

“Nah, it’s New Hawaii. The water is bathtub-warm.” Netty said with a grin.

“You guys coming?” Freya asked.

“No, you guys go. I’m going to stay here and finish my pink, fruity drink.” Mon said, holding up his pink coconut.

“Knowles, you coming?” Freya asked the other woman.

“Nope.” Knowles replied.

“Why not?” Netty asked. “You haven’t been in the water the entire time we've been here.”

“Swimming on my homeworld is a bad idea. I will swim if the Marines ask me to, but otherwise I’m staying on dry land.” Knowles told them, adjusting her sunglasses.

“Good thing Magic doesn’t land in water anymore or you would be out of luck.” Mon said, chuckling.

“Thank Tom’s gray hair!” Knowles replied, emphatically. Everyone laughed but Freya. She just gave them all the stink eye.

Freya ran after Netty and jumped into the ocean, diving into a two-foot wave as it rolled onto the beach. When she surfaced, Netty jumped her, pushing her under. Surfacing, Freya snarled and retaliated. Not long after that, Dog came running in, splashing them as he fell backwards into a wave.

She had no idea how long they had been in the ocean, but, when she surfaced after both Dog and Netty ganged up on her, she looked to the beach to see that they had drifted down the coast a bit. Looking back, she could see that Mon had taken over her beach chair and was talking with Knowles. She frowned then cursed at herself, telling herself that she was imagining things. Dog roared behind her and she felt his entire weight land on her, pushing her under. She stayed under and moved behind him. Grabbing his foot, she pushed her legs upward and around his neck before using the crook of her elbow to collapse his leg at the knee. He went under, surprised.

She kept him immobilized for a couple of seconds then let him go so he could surface. She surfaced only for Netty to jump on her from behind. Netty’s arm slipped over her chest and pulled her backwards. Freya pushed off with her feet and grabbed Netty’s hand at the same time. She twisted the hand, which caused Netty’s arm to weaken just before they both went under, with Freya now in control. Underwater, Freya slid her hand behind Netty’s knees and pushed upwards causing Netty to spin upside down under the water. Freya let her go and surfaced. She quickly wiped the water from her eyes and looked around. Dog was floating about ten feet away and didn’t look like he wanted to attack her. Netty finally surfaced and the fight seemed to be gone from the other woman.

“Ok, I’m done getting my butt kicked by you.” Dog said, sounding amused. “Are all scouts good at close quarters fighting?”

“Don’t know. I just had a few extra skill points.” Freya said, keeping an eye on Netty just in case she surprised her.

“No one has a few extra skill points. Except maybe Mon, but he’s weird.” Netty said, floating in the water.

Netty saying his name made Freya look back toward their beach chair, but both Mon and Knowles were missing. That made Freya frown. She was telling herself that she was being paranoid when Netty asked if anyone wanted to go to the jacuzzi one last time before they had to leave.

“I’m out.” Freya told them, shaking her head. “I think it’s time for me to dry off. You guys go ahead.”

“I’m up for it.” Dog said, looking at Netty.

“Nah, Magic is right. It’s time to dry off.” Freya heard Netty say, as she waded towards the shore, occasionally being lifted up as a wave rolled forward.

Freya arrived back at her chair and was using her towel to dry off when Mon came walking up with two pink coconut drinks in his hand. He gave Freya a smile and held one of them out.

“I got you one too.” Mon said, with a big smile on his face.

“Thanks.” Freya said dryly, slightly relieved.

Knowles came back a few minutes later with her towel wrapped around her waist telling them she had been to the bathroom. “They're really gross, so make sure to wear your shower shoes.” She told them.

“Get a grip, Freya.” She mentally told herself, smiling at the other woman. “Nothing is happening between them. Mon is with you.”

She looked at the clock on her HUD and frowned. “Hey guys, we only have an hour left before we need to report in. The mission starts in a couple of hours. Maybe we should head back now.” She told them.

She wasn’t all that surprised when they all agreed. As the others started to head back to their rooms, Freya stayed back with Mon. When the others were out of hearing range, she leaned in and whispered to Mon, “Wanna meet up back at the barracks before we need to be at the debriefing?”

Mon looked surprised then his expression turned down. She knew before he opened his mouth what his answer would be. “Can’t. I need to head to the Mall and buy a few things before the meeting. I promised Dusty that I would buy them before we left, but I forgot. Can’t let him down.” He told her.

“Later?” She asked him, suggestively.

“Maybe.” He teased with a smile.

She followed him into their room and started packing. She didn’t have much so she was ready when he was. She did change back into her working uniform before meeting up with the others. Once everyone was ready, they went back to camp.

Freya spent the next hour in her room. She turned on her music feed and took a shower. Then she opened some of the classes she had bought way back before the tournament and started working on them to pass the time. To her surprise she got so engrossed in doing her assignments that she lost track of the time. The only reason she wasn’t late was because Toast sent her a message telling her that the command squad would be at the debriefing room five minutes before the rest of the platoon. Closing out her class, she made her way down to the conference room.

Everyone was already there when she walked in. Sergeant Torres was standing by the holo table looking over what looked like their first training mission. He looked up at her as she walked in. Giving her a smile, he turned back to look at the map again.

“Good trip?” Toast asked her, as she walked up to him.

“Yeah, we went to New Hawaii.” She whispered to him, as she stopped next to him.

“Oh, I love that place.” Toast whispered with a big smile. “If I make it to Gunnery Sergeant, that’s where I want to get my citizenship at.”

“I might follow you there.” Freya replied back, making Toast chuckle.

“Okay. This is what we got. No major changes from the training missions. We set this staging area up and then we guard it. Magic, they have changed the landing zone. Take a look here.” He told her, pointing to where the new landing zone was.

It was just on the opposite side of where they had it on the training mission. Freya didn’t see anything wrong except it was closer to where the fighting was expected to be. Freya knew what the plan was from all the times they did it in the training missions. The plan was for both the Seventh and Eighth companies to take Crow’s Heights, which was a huge manufacturing city. It was where most of the large printing facilities were. Taking the city away from the locals would take a huge chunk of military weapons and supply away from them.

Freya made the corrections on her tablet and saved it. Freya thought Torres must have been nervous because he went over a lot of things they already knew by heart. Freya had to really refrain from rolling her eyes when he asked her for her flight path to make sure it was correct. She handed it over and waited until he approved it before she took it back from him. She was never more glad when he let them go take a seat as the last member of the platoon reported for duty.

“In one hour, we leave on the platoon's first real world mission.” Sergeant Torres said, looking down at his feet. “For some of you, this is not your first time, but for others this will be the first time being in a hot zone. Remember your training and you'll do fine.”

He paused and looked up at them before he leaned back and sat on the edge of the holo table. “I’ve been on dozens of real world missions and let me tell you they never go the way we think they’ll go. The government may collapse as soon as they pick us up entering their solar system, and there won’t be any fighting to do. Just boring garrison work while the government transitions into an acceptable one. Or they might hide their army in civilian clothes and we get to fight an insurgency war. Let me tell you insurgency wars suck.”

“The big brains at the war college think what will most likely happen is that the government will put up a fight and we will have to fight them in a traditional war. If that happens,be glad. Either way, expect that plans will change and things will go the way of FUBAR.”Sergeant Torres told them.

“We are the Federation's Marines. We fight for the Federation, for the Corps, friends and family back home, and the people beside us. We never give up. We never stop fighting, no matter who we are fighting or what has happened.” Sergeant Torres said, with a lot of emotion.

“Our mission is laid out for us. Take the planet. That’s it. We take the planet and let the big brains above us fix what has been broken. We follow our orders and do our job.” Sergeant Torres said, his voice getting softer.

“We can expect a theological-type government and that may mean fanatics. Expect the crazies to come out in this fight. We may see evidence of genocide. If so, we do not take revenge. We are Federation Marines. We are not the cops. We gather evidence and pass it along the line. Sometimes we are given permission to take out the targets and sometimes we aren’t. It’s not up to us. The Federation expects us to do our job. Gunny expects us to do our job. By Tom’s nut sack, everyone on this ship expects us to do our job. We do our job and move on. If anyone participates in any form of war crimes, expect to be sent up for a court martial with the possibility of deletion. I will report you myself and I expect everyone here to report anyone participating in any such activities. Understood?” Sergeant Torres asked, looking around.

“Yes, Sergeant.” Freya replied, along with the rest of the platoon.

“Bring it in, people.” Sergeant Torres said, waving at everyone.

Freya took a knee with the rest of the platoon in a semi circle around Sergeant Torres and Sergeant Leni. “In a few minutes, you will board your OTIDS to be prepared to be spawned on the planet. We’ve done this before, except this time it will be for real. Hands in.” Sergeant Torres said, putting his hand out. Freya put her hand on top of Toast’s.

“For life, love, and happiness. For the Federation. For the Corps. For the person standing beside you. For the Iron Hand! OORAH!” Sergeant yelled out.

“OORAH.” Freya yelled out, with feeling, along with the rest of her platoon.

“With me!” Sergeant Torres called out as he led the way towards the lobby doors.

Freya stepped out of the light and into the hangar. Petty Officer Diaz was waiting for her a few feet from the door. She snapped out a salute as soon as Freya noticed her. Freya returned her salute with a smile.

“Ready for ship inspection, Ma’am?” Diaz said, in a formal tone of voice.

“I am ready, Petty Officer Diaz.” Freya replied, nonplussed at the formality coming from her crew chief.

“Ok, let's get to it then, my favorite corpse-wagon driver.” Diaz said, letting formality fall.

“What's up with all the saluting and things?” Freya asked, as she fell in beside Diaz and they walked towards her ship.

“Tradition and a bit of good luck.” Diaz replied, shrugging her shoulders. “I’m not a superstitious person, but why rock the boat? This won’t be a sim you’re heading to. You’ll be flying this thing for real as soon as you spawn in.”

“Sure, make me nervous before I go.” Freya complained.

“Sorry.” Diaz said, shrugging. “It’s different for us, you know. We will be up here waiting on you guys while you guys do the dying down there. I like you, and I think you’re a good pilot. That is, if I look past you being a Marine. This will change you. I’ve seen it before. The sim’s do a good job training you, but it’s nothing like what you’ll experience down there. Stay safe down there, Freya.”

“I will and thanks, Diaz.” Freya replied, touched that Diaz used her real name.

“Now that the emotional crap is over, let's get this inspection over with.” Diaz said, sounding just like her old self.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Freya completed her last check off then leaned back in her chair in the cockpit and closed her eyes. She examined her feelings. She felt both nervous and excited. She was right now in charge of a real, live dropship and in less than an hour she would be physically back in the real world for the first time in what seemed like a lifetime. She would be breathing real air again. She would feel real wind again. Air that was not Earth’s. Wind that never blew on Earth. To her surprise she was more excited and scared to be in the real world than she was to face war.

“You okay in there?” Diaz asked over the radio.

“Yup, just taking it all in.” Freya replied, opening her eyes and starting her engine. Somewhat to her disappointment it felt like it normally did when she started it up.

“It’s a real dropship. Shouldn’t it feel different?” She asked herself. Shaking the feeling off, she clicked her mic on.

“Monarch, RDS B127.” Freya said to flight control.

“Go ahead, B127.” Flight control replied back.

“Request permission to open cargo bay doors.” She asked them.

“Permission granted, B127.” Flight control told her.

Freya smiled as the doors below her opened up. She maneuvered her ship so that it was facing downwards. She missed having the mechs with her. They would be going down in their vehicle OTIDS. Since they were setting up a staging area, there was no need for the mechs to be with her. For the first time in what seemed forever, she was going to drop without anyone with her. She felt strangely lonely.

“Monarch, RDS B127.” She said once she was in position.

“Go ahead, Magic.” The flight controller replied.

“Request permission to get some.” Freya said with a big smile.

“Permission granted. Get some, Marine.” The female flight controller said, chuckling over the radio. “Just beware of traffic in your area. The mission is now live.”

“Understood, Monarch.” Freya said, then boosted her engines and coasted out of her hangar.