Freya low-crawled past the first building, not stopping to look right or left at the sandbag bunkers on either side of the building. They were at least twenty feet from her, but she was still concerned that they would somehow spot her. Once she was past, she stood up slowly and looked around. She was alone, but she was okay with that. The plan called for her to find a good overwatch position and keep an eye on Lurch and Monkeyman as they planted the explosives on the tanks. She had picked out a two-story building that overlooked the yard where the tanks were parked in the darkness, as the sun had set over an hour ago.

They had already planted the mines on both roads. She would have liked to plant more mines, but Monkeyman only had twenty of them. What was worse, only six of the mines had been anti-vehicle mines. She was a little worried that it wouldn’t be enough. Still, she told herself, they had to make do with what they had.

Once she was in position the others would make their way into the town. Lurch’s drones were in the air, so she and the others had a real time stream of what was going on. The goal was to get in and out without letting anyone spot them. If even a single person spotted them they would be in trouble. Even if they were able to kill the person who spotted them, whoever was watching their vital signs would know something had gone wrong and where.

She admitted she was having fun, but, as she climbed up the side of the building, she started questioning the mission. “This is a lot harder than I remember a Tier 1 mission being. Are we doing this right?” She asked herself, but as soon as that thought popped into her head she shook her head and told herself to get into the moment. Now was not the time to do anything but focus on the mission. She reached up and grabbed a handhold in the rough-looking stucco of the wall of the building.

As she raced up the side of the building, she amazed herself at how fast she was going and how easy climbing had become. It made her wonder if it was her stats or maybe the side of the wall was just that easy to climb. “Stop that.” She told herself, as she got distracted once more.

She easily cleared the top of the wall and, as soon as she cleared the roof, she pulled her big rifle off her back and used the scope to scan the area around the tank yard. She saw a few people, but they were only walking to and from various buildings and didn’t seem to be guarding the tanks. That made her feel like the yard was somehow a trap. She looked around using the scope’s function to see through buildings. She saw a few brightly-colored people shapes in the surrounding buildings, but they didn’t seem to be waiting to spring a trap. Most of them were laying down, while a few were sitting around and looking like they were eating. A few were gathered around something that didn’t appear on her scope, but from how they were sitting and their relaxed manner she guessed they were watching something on a holo screen.

Not seeing anything that stood out to her, she turned her attention to the rest of the buildings. Again, she didn’t spot anything out of the ordinary. She did see a few patrols of two soldiers walking around but nothing she was overly concerned over. She then turned her rifle towards the hill in the distance and looked for the gun emplacement she knew had to be there. Using her waypoint to help she found the hidden gun nest.

Her scope showed two people hidden behind the grass. One was laying down while the other was sitting next to him. The one who was sitting was holding something that didn’t show on her scope, but the way he had his hands she had a good guess that it was a tablet he was holding. It looked like he was watching something, and with the way his head was angled she guessed he was using the holographic function on his table.

She turned back to the yard and raised her fist and pumped it twice. It was the prearranged signal to let the other two people in her squad know it was safe to start their approach. She turned her rifle towards the outer edges of the town and spotted them advancing towards the town. She frowned and was instantly annoyed when she spotted that neither Monkeyman nor Lurch were crawling towards the town. Instead they were crouched over and running towards the town. While they were under active camo, it was always good practice to pretend that the enemy could see you. You could take more risks while under active camo, but to stand up like they were doing was a very stupid risk. Unless the mission required speed, she would never recommend their approach. Toast would have had her head if she tried something like that.

She quickly scanned the area, but the people in the bunkers weren’t paying attention. She sighed in relief as they passed by the bunkers and kept on going towards the yard where the tanks were parked. She noted that they must have been paying attention to the drone’s feed because they stopped and waited out a patrol without ever peeking around the corner of the building they were hiding behind. She still kept her rifle zeroed in on the two soldiers as they walked near her squadmates until they were gone.

She watched the feed on her HUD, not taking her eyes away from her scope, as she scanned the buildings looking for any signs of activity that would indicate an ambush. None of the brightly-colored people had moved, except a person who looked like they were going to the bathroom. She quickly moved her scope away not wanting to see that.

On the feed, she saw Lurch cover Monkeyman while he started placing the explosives. To her surprise, he didn’t place them on the tanks’ tracks, but on the back of the tanks where she knew the engines were. The only problem was that she knew that the area around the engines was heavily armored. She knew from her skill training that the Marines did have some explosives that could penetrate a tank’s armor to get at the engine, but a person had to be very skilled to get permission to buy it. She didn’t have permission to use it, even though she had level ten on her bomb-making skills.

Once he was done, he and Lurch ran to the next vehicle. It was by the fourth tank that they came into some trouble. She saw a passing patrol turn suddenly and head towards where the tanks were parked. She targeted them, but didn’t fire as she saw both Monkeyman and Lurch slide under the tanks to hide. She kept her rifle aimed at the patrol, and got very worried when they stopped by the first tank. They stopped right by the back of the tank where Monkeyman had placed his explosives. They were hidden from casual sight, but if they looked she was sure they would find them.

She watched, confused, as one of the soldiers looked around suspiciously then took his backpack off. He pulled out something and passed it to the other person who was on patrol with him. She zoomed in on it and saw that it was a can of beer. She shook her head as she pulled back her zoom. She spotted that the first soldier had already retrieved a second can from his backpack. She then watched, amazed, as they stood there and drank their beer.

“What kind of military let’s their people drink while on duty?” She asked herself, stunned at what she was seeing. She shook her head in disgust as the first soldier pulled out a second beer and passed it to his partner, before pulling another for himself. Ten minutes or so later, the two picked up their cans and stored them back in the first’s backpack and moved on with their patrol. She wondered if this happened in real life or the October was playing with them because it was a sim mission.

“Well, I seriously doubt that this is a trap now.” She thought as the two moved out of sight of the tanks. As soon as the patrol was out of sight, both Monkeyman and Lurch crawled out from under the tank. She saw Monkeyman look in her direction and raise his arms to his side. She chuckled and shrugged making sure to exaggerate it so that he could see it in the feed. She chuckled again as Lurch slapped Monkeyman’s arm for compromising her position. Normally she would have been pissed at Monkeyman, but, seriously, after what she had just watched she doubted the army that was defending the town was competent at all.

It took them less time to set the explosives on the tanks than it did for the two enemy soldiers to drink their beers. She watched Monkeyman and Lurch head off to their next destination, which was a command vehicle. She had them covered for nearly the whole way, except for about thirty feet when they passed next to a building that hid them from her sight. She held her breath while they were hidden from her, but let it out in relief when they came out from behind the building.

For ten minutes, she watched them as they went around the town and planted the rest of the explosives on any vehicle that could possibly drive off-road in this environment. They had to hide a few times to avoid patrols, but none of the soldiers spotted them. Also she didn’t see any of the soldiers stopped for a beer either. Still, it stuck with her. What kind of person drank on duty?

When the last explosive was placed, Freya got out her rope, attached it to the quick release grappling hook and placed it on the side of the room. She looked at her feed to see if there were any patrols around her, but didn’t see any that were close enough to be a concern. She dropped the rope down the side of the building and rappelled down. She yanked on the rope and it released from the hook and dropped down. She rolled it up and put it around her left arm and neck because she didn’t want to waste time putting it back in her backpack.

With an eye on Lurch’s drone feed, she made her way out of the town towards the hill. The next part of the plan was to meet up at the foot of the mountain and climb up together. She ran through the mostly empty streets, not seeing anyone. She did have to stop once as a patrol passed on the street in front of her. She heard them talking as they got close to her. They were talking about women and she had to smile when she heard what they were talking about.

“Boys.” She thought amused. She shook her head as they passed the intersection near where she was hiding. They never looked in her direction as they walked even once. As soon as they were far enough away, she raced across the street and continued on her journey.

She met up with Monkeyman and Lurch just outside the town, hiding in the grass stalks. She spotted a few bent stalks near where her mini map said they were hiding. It wasn’t enough for the casual person to see a trail, but to someone like her it stood out pretty badly. She sighed sadly and moved past the bent stalks and into the grassland.

She quickly met up with the two. She stopped and looked around, not seeing anything around them. Then she slapped Lurch’s helmet and mimed bending a grass stalk then pointed back the way they came. He crunched in on himself and looked sorry. It made him look so pathetic that Freya had to hide her smile behind a frown. She pointed her two fingers at her eyes to tell him to watch it for now on. She was relieved when he nodded. She nodded in return.

She looked at Monkeyman who raised his hands in surrender then pointed at Lurch. She rolled her eyes back at him. He waved her forward. She suspected that he was trying to change the subject, but she moved forwards to lead them up the hill anyway.

On her mini map she saw them both following her. She looked back at the feed that was still going on her HUD and noticed that Lurch had it focused on the town and not the hill. At first she was confused and nearly stopped to make him focus on the hill, before she realized why he was focusing on the town. He was keeping an eye on the bombs they planted to make sure no one found them. The gun emplacements didn’t really matter as much as destroying the tanks did. She had to agree with his reasoning.

On the way up, she stopped when she could to look up at the gun nest in front of her with her scope. The two inside the nest really didn’t seem to be paying any attention whatsoever, every time she peeked at them through her scope. She stopped about three hundred feet from them and waited for the others to get closer. She raised two fingers and pointed at the nest. Then she pointed at her rifle. Monkeyman tilted his head to the side. She took it as he was asking if she was sure that she could hit them both without alerting the others. She gave him a big grin and an exaggerated nod yes. He shrugged his shoulders then he nodded.

Smiling happily, she laid down on her belly and flipped the switch that turned her rifle from ballistic rounds to the energy beam. Taking her time, she carefully aimed at the one who appeared to be awake. She carefully aimed at her target's chest. He was behind some sandbags, but she knew that wouldn’t matter all that much to her energy beam. It could penetrate a tank's armor. A couple of sandbags wouldn’t bother it too much. She fingered the energy beam timer knob all the way to the left, so that it would fire the minimum amount of time only. Once she was sure it was completely turned to the left, she took a deep breath then let it out slowly until she was completely out of breath. Then she pulled the trigger.

The gun vibrated a little bit in her hands, but didn’t make any sounds. The soldier who was sitting with his legs crossed fell forward and didn’t move. The one who appeared to be sleeping never moved as she moved her target reticle over his sleeping form. This time she aimed for the head. Once she had it lined up, she let all the air out of her lungs again and pulled the trigger. The gun vibrated and he jerked once then was still. She scanned the nest for a few seconds, but neither of the soldiers moved after that. In fact she noted that their colors dimmed now that they were dead.

She lowered her rifle and nodded to her squadmates. Monkeyman raised two fingers up. She took it as he was asking if she had killed both. She nodded and smiled. He smiled back and waved her towards the nest. She frowned and pointed off in the direction of the next nest. He shook his head and mimed breaking something with both his hands then pointed at his rifle. She took it that he wanted to destroy the guns in the nest. She nodded her understanding and stood up before walking towards the nest.

It took her about five minutes or so to get to the nest, mostly because Lurch was still really slow. Still, she didn’t see any activity in the other nests or the town behind them that would have told her that someone noticed what they were up to. At the nest, Monkeyman grabbed the guns from the bodies, but to her surprise he didn’t break them like she thought. He instead took off her backpack and placed them inside. She smiled as she realized he was looting them.

“Much better plan than breaking them.” She thought to herself, as she scanned the surrounding area for enemy activity. She didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, but she kept guard as Monkeyman went about looting the dead. When he was done, he tapped her shoulder to let her know then he went left towards the next nest while she went straight up the hill.

The next part of the plan they had come up with was for Freya to put herself between two of the gun emplacements and start shooting. The goal was an old military classic of confusing the enemy into firing on their own positions while flanking one of the positions from the side. It put her downrange of two enemy positions, but she was under active camo and could hopefully move out of the way in time to not be killed.

She found the waypoint that Lurch had put on the hill. He was by far more accurate with putting waypoints on a mini map than she was. She scanned the gun nest in front of her and saw the same discipline being observed as the last nest she had targeted. That being said, one of the soldiers was sleeping while the other was awake, but standing a few feet away from his gun. That was not what she expected. She had already killed two soldiers, so she expected the enemy command would have alerted them to the fact that someone was sneaking around killing them.

“They had to know that they lost two of theirs. Why aren’t these people expecting us?” She asked herself as she moved her scope over the sleeping soldier. She could see his chest rise and fall, so she knew he was still alive. She just couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t awake and ready for them.

She turned around to look at the other nest. This time both the people in the nest looked like they were sleeping. She raised her head from her scope, stumped at just how bad the enemy was reacting. She raised her rifle once more just to make sure she wasn’t seeing things, but, sure enough, both the soldiers in the nest were sleeping. Shaking her head in disgust, she turned back to the only person awake and targeted him. She waited until she saw that both Monkeyman and Lurch were in position on her mini map and dropped the only soldier that was awake. He fell onto the sleeping soldier who woke up only to die when she pulled the trigger for a second time. She quickly turned around, expecting the others to wake up, but they never did. She pulled the trigger two more times on the sleeping forms.

She immediately noted that the battery on the rifle icon was blinking red on her HUD, telling her that it was empty. She took a few seconds to pull off a new pack and replace it. While she was doing that she looked at her mini map. She saw her squadmates rush into the nest, but hold their fire. She watched Monkeyman poke around in the nest for a few seconds before he climbed out of it.

She waited where she was for them to come to her. She knew they had to be just as confused as she was. It didn’t take them long to reach her. Monkeyman’s backpack was bulging with what she hoped was all the weapons he took. He tilted his head and pointed at the next nest. She ran her finger over her throat. He nodded his understanding towards her.

She gave him a confused look then looked around, raising her hands to her sides. He shrugged back, then pointed towards the last nest. The plan had been for her to sneak around the third nest so that she was between the third and fourth nests and repeat what she had done previously. While she was doing that, the others would have circled round the outside of the hill and flanked the third nest. They had planned on blowing the tanks for the last nest or if they got in trouble beforehand. Now Freya had no idea what to do, since no one appeared to realise that they were under attack.

She tilted her head at Monkeyman then pointed at herself before she pointed at the top of the hill. He looked behind him then turned back around towards her. She shrugged and patted her rifle. He smiled and shrugged. He looked back at the top of the hill then shrugged again before he looked back at her, waving his hand to indicate that she go first. She nodded and moved towards the hilltop.

She settled down on her knees and raised her rifle once she reached a spot near the top of the hill. On her mini map, the other two made their way towards the last nest. She scanned the nest and was slightly relieved to see that both soldiers were awake. The only problem was they were both sitting in their nest not paying any attention to what was going on outside of it. She snorted as one of the soldiers put his gun down to pick up his backpack.

She moved her rifle to target the other one. She snapped off a quick shot and took the first one down. She quickly moved her rifle towards her second target. He was still sitting on the ground with his backpack in his hand, but she noted he was looking at his dead friend as she snapped off a second shot. He had just enough time to drop his backpack before her shot took him in the chest. He fell over and didn’t move.

Her squadmates charged the nest, but slowed when no one attacked them. Monkeyman dropped into the nest for a few seconds then climbed out. Freya watched as the two walked slowly towards her position on her mini map as she sat back on her legs to take pressure off her knees. She turned around towards the town and looked down at it through her scope. It was too far for her to see anything inside the buildings, but she didn’t see any activity from the enemy that would have told her that they had noticed that their gun emplacements were gone. She dropped her rifle to her lap and sighed.

“Now what?” Lurch asked as he and Monkeyman walked up to her.

“Blow the tanks?” Monkeyman asked, as he sat down beside her.

“Sounds good. We can also head halfway down the side of the hill and snipe anyone who looks like they are in charge after the bombs go off.” She replied looking up at Lurch, who was still standing.

“We can always disable the vehicles that don’t get blown up and go back and get my mines. I don’t think we are going to need them.” Monkeyman said looking down at the town.

“If we do that, I want to go back and get my sensors. They cost me… well, not a lot, but, still, I don’t want to waste the credits if we don’t need them.” Lurch replied.

“You guys don’t think that might piss off the October, if we do that?” Freya asked them. “Look, I’ll cover the credits if they don’t get used. I don’t want to get on the bad side of a ship.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Lurch said, finally sitting down beside her. “I really don’t want the ship thinking that we’re not taking these missions seriously.”

“You’ll really cover the cost if we don’t use them?” Monkeyman asked, giving her a look that she couldn’t interpret.

“Yeah, no problem. I got a pretty good bonus for my last mission. Just don’t break the bank and we’re good.” Freya told him. He smiled and nodded.

“Enough mushiness. Let’s get to work.” He said, looking away from her and standing up. Lurch followed and they both reached down to help her back to her feet.

“So do we blow the explosives before or after Magic takes all the vehicles out?” Lurch asked as they hiked down the hill, not bothering to keep quiet anymore.

“I’m going to go loud with my next few shots to draw them out. I want to see who takes command. It’s up to you guys when to set them off.” Freya told them.

“Before then. It will cover your shots and still draw them out.” Monkeyman told her.

“That defeats the purpose of going with ballistic shots.” She thought to herself, but didn’t bring it up. She still planned on switching to ballistic rounds though. She knew it would make a bigger punch in the vehicles when it hit them. She could always switch back to her energy setting if one of the tanks somehow didn’t get taken out by the bombs they planted.

“Here is good.” Ferya told them, as they came roughly halfway down the hill. She raised her rifle to look around. From where they were she saw a few vehicles in her scope. Not all of them, but then she didn’t expect to, as some were on the other side of buildings that she had no angle on from the hill.

“Fire in the hole in five.” Monkeyman said, standing a few feet from her. She targeted an armored personnel carrier’s hood as he started counting down. When he got to zero she fired. The sound of the gun going off was drowned out by the explosions of the tanks being destroyed. She moved her scope over towards one of the tanks and saw that the back of the tank was gone. It just had jagged pieces of metal about halfway towards the turret. She smiled at the destruction as she moved on to look for another vehicle to kill.

She found a squad scout class vehicle by following a couple of enemy soldiers. She put a round into its hood before she moved to target the soldier who had climbed into the gun turret. She put a round right through the armored part of the turret, killing him. She then put a round into the windshield where the driver sat. She had no idea if she killed him as the inside of the vehicle immediately started filling up with smoke.

“Found one of your guys who looks like he is in charge. Dropping a waypoint on him.” Lurch said, surprising her. She saw a waypoint drop on her mini map and moved her rifle towards it. She saw what he was talking about immediately. The guy was standing in the middle of the road waving his hands at a bunch of soldiers. She sent a round at his chest and he dropped, making the soldiers back away from the street.

“Got another one. Dropping a waypoint now.” Lurch told her.

This time the guy was leading a bunch of soldiers towards where the tanks had been. She had no idea why, but she did note that he did a lot of waving and pointing. She put a round through the guy who was in front of him because she couldn’t get a good shot on him as he ran. She shot high on the guy’s chest near the neck. Both he and the guy who was doing the waving and pointing dropped.

A squad class scout vehicle drove into her field of view with a gunner already on the turret. She took out the gunner before she dropped a round into the hood of the truck. The truck crashed into the side of a wall and she took out the rest of the squad as they left the vehicle. The last one dropped as he was running away from the fight.

“Got one.” Monkeyman told her. “Dropping a waypoint.”

This time her HUD got a hit and told her that she was aiming at an officer. A captain. She put a round in his chest without a thought. Then her HUD pinged two more officers that were standing next to him. She got the one on the left, but the one on the right dove into a building. It was still too far away for her to see him inside the building.

“I got him.” Monkeyman said beside her. She heard a loud roaring sound then her face shield went dark as a bright light lit up the night. Almost at the same time, the front wall of the building the officer had run into exploded.

“Reloading.” Monkeyman called out. Freya kept an eye on the building, but didn’t see anyone leave it. “Firing.” Monkeyman called out a few seconds later.

This time, Freya closed her eyes and looked away as the night was lit up again. When she turned back she saw the front part of the building had collapsed. She looked at it in amazement. The building had been a single story building. Now more than half of it was just rubble.

“Got a target. Dropping a waypoint.” Lurch called out.

She found the waypoint and the target. Her HUD didn’t identify her target as anyone important, but she still sent a round his way before switching to an APC that was moving towards the hill. She put a round in the hood, and, since there was no one in the turret, she put a round in both the driver and passenger side windows before moving on. Monkeyman called out that he was firing again, so she closed her eyes and looked away. The night lit up as the bazooka fired. When she looked back, another building was wrecked.

“They’re setting up mortars. We need to go.” Lurch called out, sounding stressed.

Freya immediately lowered her rifle and stood up. She looked around and spotted Monkeyman reloading his bazooka. Lurch was already running off to the side of the hill not running up or down. As she started to follow, she noted that Monkeyman stopped trying to reload and carried his shell in his left hand while he held his bazooka in his right. She absently wondered how heavy that bazooka was and how many points Monkeyman had dropped into his stats.