Freya opened her pod door and quickly got dressed. As she did she looked over at her rewards. It was awful. She got 3 E-points and one skill and mod point each. She got a bunch of bonuses, but that just bumped the total up to ten E-points and added one more skill and mod points to her total.

“God, I hate tier one missions.” Lurch said from behind her. She twitched slightly as his voice startled her. She quickly hit the equip button on the locker in front of her and equipped her uniform.

“Geez. Wait until I’m decent before talking to me.” She told him. As she spoke she noted that he was gazing off to the left looking preoccupied. Looking at him she didn’t think he noticed that she had just been naked a few seconds ago. She felt some relief run though her as he looked confused when he focused back on her.

“I’m sorry?” He replied, still looking confused.

“It’s okay.” She replied smiling back at him.

“These rewards suck Tom’s Thumb.” He said as the confused expression disappeared from his face.

“Tier one missions.” Monkeyman said coming up to them. “What can you do?”

“Let’s just get another mission. Maybe a harder one this time. I hate wasting my time.” Lurch said with a sour expression.

“They’re all tier one mission no matter what missions we choose. Everything is locked for now.” Monkeyman said with a shrug.

As soon as he finished his sentence Freya got an alert telling her she had a priority message. “Hang on I just got a red message.” Lurch told them.

Freya looked through her red box message to see both him and Monkeyman looking distracted like they were reading something on their HUD. “Me too.” She told them as she accepted her message.

“Same here.” She heard Monkeyman reply as she read over the message.

From: Sergeant Syku

You have been invited to try out for the Special Operations platoon Honey Badgers. All information about this platoon has been classified. Included in the classification is the fact that you have been invited to try out. Any information breach will result in the perpetrator being shelved immediately and face a full court martial. If you wish to try out then please meet on the seventh floor, room 07 as soon as possible. This is a volunteer only platoon.

“Wow. I assume you guys got the same message as I did?” Monkeyman said looking at them. As soon as he finished speaking he flinched. “And I just got a warning. Okay, no talking.”

Freya looked at him surprised. She didn’t know what was going on and she had so many questions. The biggest was if the message was real. As far as she knew none of the named platoons could invite people for another five weeks or so. She watched Monkeyman turn away from them and walked towards the stairs. Full of questions she followed.

They didn’t say anything as they kept walking up the stairs. It was a long flight up to the seventh floor. She had never been that high in the Marine concourse before. She thought about it as she walked up the stairs. The highest she had ever been was the sixth floor. Exiting out the door to the seventh floor Freya was nervous at being in what was basically Gunnery Sergeants country.

They passed what looked like an armor store, but instead of armor she saw floor models of weapons and information systems instead. The place was large, but deserted. She didn’t even see an android waiting for customers. The store was a good size store that took up at least two storefronts on any other floors below it. She did see in the far corner a small selection of armors, but they were in what looked like a discount section. The whole place was just so different than what she saw in the other stores in the lower floors that it felt weird to her.

They passed through the octagon shape of the concourse and found themselves walking in the long straight part of the concourse. The first door had a bar sign on it that had a warning that said it was restricted to Gunnery Sergeants and higher. It made her think of Gunny Thompson and what she was up to now that they weren’t on the Monarch anymore. She wondered if the Gunny had stayed in.

There were a lot of doors on the seventh floor. At least Five hundred and fifteen if the numbers on the side door were to be believed. Freya stepped around Monkeyman who was closest to the railing so that she could look down as she walked. She didn’t know why she was surprised at how high they were from the ground, but she was. It was a long way down. That made her think about climbing freestyle down the side of it. It made her smile at the thought, but it didn’t seem too hard to her.

“I’m weird.” She thought to herself as she looked away. She caught Monkeyman smiling at her like he knew what was thinking. She rolled her eyes in reply which made him laugh.

Room 7 was only about fifty feet from the end of the floor. The door was marked with odd numbers on the side where her and her three friends were walking down. So that meant that room seven was only four doors from the end of the floor. The door was a plain green with just the number on it. There were no other identifying marks on it.

Freya looked around, but didn’t see any else coming to the door making her more nervous. She was worried about the reception on the other side of the door. Would it be like Sergeant Gawain’s platoon or would it be more like her old platoon. She knew she wouldn’t be accepted by everyone because she was born on Earth, but she hoped it was at least as many as the Iron hand had accepted her.

Thinking about the Iron hand made her question the name Honey Badgers. It sounded soft to her, but then she didn’t know what a honey badger was. Before she could do a quick search on the ships info servers Monkeyman walked forward and put his hand on the lock and unlocked the door. He turned his head and gave them a smile before he turned and walked into the light. Once he was gone Lurch quickly moved to do the same. Giving up, for now, on figuring out what a honey badger was Freya followed the two.

You have entered Camp Badger. You have currently have basic guest rights to the main camp. You are not allowed outside the camp nor are you allowed inside any buildings without permission from a Honey Badger squad leader or above. You are being monitored at all times in the Compound while a guest of the Honey badgers.

Freya smiled at the notification as her eyes adjusted to the camp. Her smile quickly faded as she got a look at what the camp looked like past Monkeyman and Lurch who were stopped standing in front of her. Looking beyond them she saw two buildings. One was a simple single story barracks and the second building wasn’t really a building. It was just the archway of a lobby door. The two buildings were situated in the middle of a dusty grey desert like environment. Looking up the sun was a whitish blue color that washed the color out of everything making the camp look extremely deary. It was the most bleak environment she had ever seen for a camp.

“What the hell?” Lurch muttered looking around.

“Looks like home but less deary.” Monkeyman replied.

“Less deary?” Lurch replied, sounding surprised.

“Yup.” Monkeyman told him, turning around. Freya could see him smiling.

“Excuse me.” Someone said from behind Freya.

Freya quickly stepped to the left and looked behind her. She saw a large woman who had to be six feet tall and had the physique of Dog from her old platoon. She also stopped to look around. Her smile that had been on her face quickly faded and she frowned, matching Freya and her friend's expression.

“This just gets better and better.” The woman muttered, shaking her head as she started walking forward past Freya’s friends.

Freya watched the woman for a second before looking at her friends. Monkeyman had a big stupid smile on his face as he watched the woman walk away. “No time like Beeka time.” Monkeyman said not looking at them and following the woman.

Freya blinked in confusion then looked at Lurch who only shrugged. Shaking her head she followed Lurch who chased after Monkeyman. In the distance she saw the doors open to the barracks and two people walked out. Recognizing one of the figures to be the Sergeant who had come up to them in the bar to feel them out and to steal Monkeyman’s beer. Seeing them Freya relaxed. She didn’t know why she felt like she was in the wrong place up until the moment, but now seeing the Sergeant she felt better.

A few seconds later she heard footsteps behind her. Turning around she blinked in surprise at the small crowd that was now following her. Behind them she could see white flashes as more people entered the camp. The flashes were going off nearly constantly.

Turning her head back to look forward she had a strange thought. “Where did all these people come from. The concourse on the seventh floor was empty. I know I would have seen all these people behind me. Did I miss it? No, I know there was no one there.” She thought to herself.

“Another door, perhaps?” She asked herself trying to come up with an explanation. “There was only one door to Camp Iron hand, but we were only a platoon in the Second division. Did we get a second door or maybe more doors when we got promoted to First div, and I just didn’t notice?”

“No that doesn’t make sense.” She replied to herself as she got closer to the two Sergeants who had stopped between the door and the barracks. The large lady in front of them had already reached them and stopped with her arms crossed in front of her.

By some unspoken consensus Freya and her two companions also stopped by the huge Marine and waited by the unsmiling Sergeants. Freya took the time to examine them. She examined the Sergeant she didn’t know first. She was a short woman with asain features. She had straight black hair with light brown tips. Her light brown eyes were bouncing around looking at what Freya guessed was the people coming up from behind them. On her chest her name plate declared her to be Sergeant Syku.

The second was the Sergeant from the bar. Freya didn’t remember the woman's name off the top of her head, but a quick look at the name that was written on her chest declared her to be Sergeant Kruz. She was a pale woman with short brown hair that came down to just below her ears. She flashed Freya and her friends a smile before her eyes focused on something behind them. Freya turned around to see what she was looking at and saw a large crowd that was slowly walking towards them. At a guess Freya put the amount of Marines walked towards them at around fifty or sixty.

“Welcome to Camp Badger. I’m Sergeant Skku. You may call me Mother. I am the Commander of the Spec Ops platoon Honey Badgers. To my left is Sergeant Kruz my second in command. I know meeting this early is very unusual. Some of you may guess what it means. I would ask that you not talk about that until after the tryouts are complete. In fact everything about this platoon from it’s make up to its mission is classified.” Sergeant Syku told them when everyone arrived.

“We will be doing the classic wave mission for our first mission. After that mission I will begin the cuts. If you find yourself cut, you will not speak about anything that happened here. For all intents and purposes you were never here. Once you are cut you will find yourself spawning in the general respawn pod bay without any time passing since you entered the camp. If someone asked you why you are respawning there you will reply that it is classified and you cannot talk about it. If they persist, let the October take care of the situation. Is that clear?” The Mother asked. Freya replied yes with the rest of the people gathered.

“Good. For this mission you will be in the standard fire team make up. The means one fire team leader and three others. If you are not the fire team leader then deal with it. I assign the leaders, not you. Do your job or leave. Sure as Tom’s sunny smile I will not have any CP chasers in my Platoon. Understood?” She asked them.

“Question, Ma’am.” The big woman that Freya had followed asked after everyone had replied to the Platoon leaders questions.

“Cannon?” The Platoon leader asked.

“Yes, ma’am.” The big woman replied. “Can you tell us what’s up with the enviro?” She asked, waving at the grey dusty environment around them. “This has to be the worst looking camp I’ve ever seen. No disrespect intended, Ma’am.”

Mother smiled and replied. “That’s classified until after the try outs.”

The big woman nodded in reply, her arms still crossed over her chest. Freya noted that the woman was tapping her fingers on her forearm like she was typing something even though she was not looking away from the platoon leader. Freya noted out of the corner of her eye that Mother also noticed.

“Sergeant, while I like people who show initiative in my platoon, I suggest that you stop what you are doing right now before the October notices and fines you. If that happens then you won’t be in my platoon. You read me?” Mother asked with a forceful tone of voice. But Freya noticed that the platoon leader had a big smile on her face when she spoke.

“Per command…” Mother continued, looking away from the woman called Cannon. “... all sim missions will be modified for Ketica engagements. I will not speculate, nor will anyone here, as to why that is so. If you do not know who they are then you have some reading to do. I strongly suggest you do so before the mission starts. Once this meeting is complete you will have thirty minutes to get the proper weapons and supply that you need before the mission starts. Anyone late or those who fail to get the correct weapons systems will be automatically dropped. Sergeant Kruz?”

Sergeant Kruz nodded to the Platoon leader before she took a step forward towards the group. Freya frowned and thought about what Mother had said about the change in enemies. She had the small unit tactics skill that involved aliens, so she knew what the Ketica were and some tactics on how to fight them. She reviewed them in her mind as the Sergeant started to speak.

They were a race of aliens who focused their tech on biology instead of the common human tactics of using fire and pointy things. The enemy wasn’t weak. In fact the only engagement the humans with them had been over a hundred years ago in a war with the Earth empire. Humans had lost that war badly. It had been one of the reasons why the colonies had risen up against Earth.

Freya went over what she had learned about the enemy from her skill training and shudder. The enemy used bio constructed warriors and support beings to fight. While the warriors were nasty, the biggest problem in combat were the support beings. The biggest threat in that group, according to what she had learned, was the respawn denial spheres. Those beings which were the size of a basketball could prevent a Marine from respawning. If a person died in their radius, which varied in size, then that person’s respawn data inside any storage device on the planet would be corrupted. If that data was corrupted then it was impossible to respawn that person.

What was worse was that the spheres didn’t have to be in range of the dropship either. Someone could be killed a hundred miles away from any respawn pod and still have their data be corrupted even though there are no spheres anywhere near the respawn pod. Over a hundred years after the war ended, as far as Freya knew, no one had figured out how they hacked and corrupted the data. The range seemed limited to the ground thought. So if a marine zeroed fighting inside the sphere's influence then they would have to respawn on the troopship and be dropped back down to the planet. It was a hassle, but not the end of the world.

“Combat and platoon positions will be posted before the mission starts. Do not come to me or the Boss with questions once you are dismissed. We are not here to hold your hands. You are here to impress us. We will have a command staff meeting five minutes before the mission starts with those who we placed in leadership positions. If you are not in a leadership position you are not welcome.” Sergeant Kruz said, looking around meeting everyone’s eyes.

“The rest of you will muster in front of the lobby door and wait for the mission to start. Those of you who have dropships, make sure to have all your fluid contracts up and running before the mission starts. We will be picking one of you to be our primary pilot. On this mission we do not require any assault ships so focus on drops ships if you have one.” Sergeant Kruz said, taking a step back to stand beside the platoon leader.

‘Very well, that is all. Dismissed.” Mother told them.

The group quickly broke up. Freya turned to her friends and asked. “You guys know anything about the Ketica?”

“Nope.”Monkeyman said with a smile.

“A little.” Lurch said, frowning. “I did a research paper in the academy on them, but that was a long time ago.”

“I got the Alien small tactic skill.” Freya told them. Then she relayed what she knew about their strength and weakness. “Monkeyboy, your rifle is not going to cut it. You need something that shoots a high penetration round. Preferably ballistic rounds because their exoskeleton has a good defensive measure for beam weapons.”

“It’s Monkeyman, and thanks.” He replied. “My launcher is a beam weapon. Do I need to replace it?

“Not sure. You’re going to need to check on that. Sorry.” Freya replied, shrugging her shoulders.

“Damn.” Monkeyman said looking down.

“I need to go. I have to find a contract to fill up my BatK. Meet back here in a half hour?” Freya asked. Lurch nodded and looked distracted. She assumed he was reading up on the Ketica.

“High up, ma shiv.” Monkeyman said with a big smile. Freya rolled her eyes, groaning mentaly, and followed the crowd towards the door.

“This is the best you can do?” Freya asked, looking at the android on the seventh floor shop she had passed not ten minutes ago before she entered Camp Bager.

“There is a shortage of BatK fluid on the market right now. To be honest this is the best price you’re going to be offered at any shop. It’s only ten percent over market price. We aren’t going to make that many credits off of this.” The android told her.

Freya looked back down at the contract and frowned again. It was slightly more than twice the price for respawns from her old contract. She still got free respawns, but her platoon or anyone who respawned on her ship would have to pay a much larger price. She rubbed the bridge of her nose and tried to think of a way to lower the price.

“What if you charge me instead of giving me free respawns.” She asked looking up at the android.

“The cost would go down for everyone, but not by a significant amount.” The android replied. “Here, let me show you.”

The contract that was resting on the counter changed and Freya looked at the new price. It was better than the last contract, but not by a lot. “Would the price of respawns affect my chances of getting to be the primary pilot?” She asked herself. “It has to be. RIght?”

“If I may.” The android said, suddenly making Freya look up at him. “Most of your weapons are fine with the new simulated enemy you will be fighting. You will need to upgrade your pistol and the beam part of your E.S.I Multi heavy ASO. I can give you a discount on your pistol and mod your rifle for free along with your contract if you agree to pay for your respawns.”

“How much of a discount and what kind of mod?” Freya asked looking up at the android again.

“I can go as far as ten percent off your pistol and the mod is a simple high intensity focus lens for the rifle.” The android replied.

“Make it twenty percent and you have yourself a deal.” Freya said with a smile.

“I cannot go that low, but I can meet you in the middle at fifteen percent off.” It told her.

Freya remained silent for a few seconds thinking it over then shrugged and smiled. “Fine. You have yourself a deal.” She told the android.

“We have only four choices of pistols that fit your criteria.” The android said putting one pistol after another until it had four pistols on the conutner.

“This is a Douglas Markest 2020 Semi automatic pistol. You can slot it with a ballistic Xrock ammo rod for twenty rounds or a PSG ammo rod for ten rounds. It is lightweight and comes with an Elvian assisted aim mod.” The android said waving its hand over the leftist most pistol. Freya picked the gun up and felt how big the gun was. It was as light as the android as told her, but she didn’t like how big the grip was. She unloaded and reloaded the gun, noticing the three step process. It was more complicated than her Hades she currently owned and while it wasn’t a deal breaker she wasn’t a fan. She did wonder if she could mod the grips to be smaller as she put the gun back down on the counter.

“This second pistol is a Massimo HIP 7. This is a semi automatic beam weapon that has a Corlax purified battery and a quick slot charger. It can fire fifteen rounds before the battery needs to be replaced. It comes standard with Intella 101 assisted aim mod.” The android said motioning to the second pistol. Freya picked up the second gun and frowned. While she was happy with the smaller grip the gun was much heavier than the first one. She unloaded and reloaded it. She really didn’t like how she had to lower her weapon to remove the battery before reloading it back in. It also didn’t feel right in her hands so she quickly put it down.

“This is a Wingols 90-90. It is heavier than the other guns, but comes modded to carry HPSG ammo rod which gives you the most superior penetration power out of all these models. It is of course semi automatic with a twenty round magazine. I noticed that you don’t like the larger grip. With this weapon you can mod the grip to be much smaller for easier handling. With the HPSG ammo rod the gun is recoilless. The price of the gun is higher than all the rest, but most people like the ability to load a HPSG ammo rod. I will size the grips to be smaller for this display model.” The android told her.

Freya picked up the gun and felt how much heavier the gun was than the others she had tried. It wasn’t too bad, but it was noticeable. She wiggled the gun from side to side to get a feel for it and nodded at how well balanced it was. She aimed through the tiny holographic scope and noticed that it didn’t come with an auto aim assist which she put in the plus column. She ejected the ammo rod and noticed that while it was as thick as her thumb it was only about four inches long. She quickly slid the rod back in and nodded at how easy it was to reload the gun with a two step process.

“The last pistol is a SRC 3910. It has a very smooth action and it is rated the most accurate gun in its class. It comes standard with the highly rated Eleaming auto assist mod. It comes standard with the MRock ammo rod, but you can mod it to a higher penetrator round at the cost of a less accurate shot. It has a full auto function, but has a higher recoil than the weapon you currently possess.”

“What kind of Ammo can I mod the weapon for.” Freya asked as she picked the gun up. It felt really nice in her hands and a lot less heavier than the 90-90. She unloaded the gun and reloaded it. It was slightly more complicated than the 90-90 but not that far off.

“You can mod it for any ammo up to but not including the HPSG ammo rod.” The android told her. Freya looked down the barrel through the holographic scope and frowned at the auto aiming circle.

“Can I unmod the aim assist?” She said as the circle remained locked on the counter as she moved the gun.

“Unfortunately, no.” The android told her. “It is built into the weapon. I can upgrade the mod to the more advanced Adv Eleaming auto aim assist as it is just a more advanced program app. It will make the aim assist more intelligent.”

Freya frowned and put the gun back down on the counter. She really liked the SRC, but the aim assist really bugged her. She looked over at the other three guns and eventually picked up the Wingols 90-90. It was heavy, but it felt better than the two other guns. She liked the heavier penetration power of the bigger ammo rod, and the easy reload function of the gun. She looked longingly at the SRC, but chose the 90-90 instead.

Five minutes later and 800 credits less she left after signing the contract. Along with the gun and the mod for her rifle she also bought more supplies as well as a bag of consumable sensors to replace the ones Lurch had used. She checked the time and noted that she still had ten minutes to kill. Not seeing any stores of interest in the area she was in she went back to the camp.