Freya stepped into the light and found herself back in the ugly, grey camp. Looking around, she found it mostly deserted with only about four or five people standing around in two groups by the lobby door. One group had Sergeant Kruz and the huge woman who Mother had called Cannon standing in it along with one other person. The second group had two people in, but she didn’t recognize either of them. She looked around for where they would post the positions, but she didn’t see any place except for maybe the wall of the barracks that was about fifty feet away.

Not knowing where to go and not wanting to stand by herself she joined the group with Sergeant Kruz in it. Feeling out of place, she found a spot next to Cannon. The other person in the group was another sergeant with a mohawk that was dyed green. He had a black dragon painted on the right side of the shaved part of his head. He looked at her and gave her a wink before turning back to the conversation between Cannon and the sergeant.

“Wave missions are a stupid way to judge a person’s ability to join a spec ops platoon. That’s not what spec ops does.” Cannon was saying as Freya joined the group.

“And yet, that’s what Mother wants.” Sergeant Kruz replied, shrugging. Her body language was screaming how unconcerned she was with the upcoming mission.

Freya watched as the sergeant’s eyes found her. The sergeant smiled at Freya and spoke. “Ah, the Earther has returned early. Got everything ok?”

Freya felt a flash of irritation at the sergeant’s comment, but was left too flat-footed to reply with a good quip. Instead she went with ignoring the comment and replying politely. “Yes, thank you sergeant. I got everything just fine.”

She noted that the two other people in the group were looking at her. From their expressions they seemed to be judging her. Feeling like they wanted her to leave, she stayed where she was just to spite them. She smiled at the two others and looked to the sergeant, trying to act like she wasn’t seeing their expressions.

“Ah, the Earther has a spine. Good on you, you're going to need it.” Sergeant Kruz said with a vicious smile. “If you would excuse me, the boss is calling.”

Freya watched the sergeant walk away towards the barracks. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the mohawk guy nod to the big woman then walk over to the other group, ignoring Freya completely. Freya bit her lip, feeling depressed as she pretended to watch the assistant platoon leader step into the barracks. To her surprise, the big woman who was called Cannon didn’t leave for the other group. Freya turned towards the woman and looked her in the eye, trying to figure her out and failing.

“You’re going to need thicker skin.” The woman called Cannon told her as she looked Freya in the eyes right back. “They’re going to test you. You are a full Sniper, but you don’t act like one. You don’t have the arrogance of an academy baby, and you don’t have the eyes of a killer. They’re going to wonder what makes you so special. They're gonna wonder why you look so weak. You’re going to need to prove yourself to them. They're gonna want to see if you have it in you to be one of us.”

“None of us made it yet.” Freya told the woman, feeling defensive.

“I’ve been in a spec ops platoon on my last two deployments. I know what it takes to be here. I know who is already in and who isn’t.” Cannon told her. “Your two friends are both academy babies. They look weak, but they have a better chance at getting in than you do.”

“Sergeant Kruz found us at Pop’s and told us she was told to introduce herself to us.” Freya replied, feeling really irritated.

“Is that true?” Cannon asked, leaning back and looking interested.

“Yes.” Freya replied feeling slightly better, but still irritated.

“Well, don’t tell anyone else that.” Cannon said, shaking her head. “Just telling me shows how naive you are. Look, keep your mouth shut about that or they’ll try to sabotage you to get in. Let them underestimate you.”

Cannon nodded to the barracks and said. “She’s a good one. Been around for a long time. Lots of rep around the fleet. This…” Cannon said, waving her hand at the grey desert around them ‘...I have a feeling is going to be a bad one. Everything here is wrong.” Cannon said looking with angry eyes at the desolate area all around them.

Shaking her head, she turned back to Freya and kept going. “She’s going to push you hard to see if you have Tom’s backbone. Keep your mouth shut and do your job. If you aren’t able to, or don’t think you can keep up, leave. There is no shame in knowing you’re not up to this. The greater shame is faking it and being out there when the shooting starts.”

“Look…” Freya said, protesting. “...I was tapped to fill in for a spec ops Sniper on my last tour. I didn’t fail them then and I sure as hell won’t fail you all here.”

Freya was left breathing hard, feeling angry at the taller woman, as she finished her sentence. The other woman didn’t say anything, just kept looking Freya in the eye. The woman was quiet so long Freya felt like it was getting awkward when Cannon smiled. It wasn’t a nice smile.

“Good.” The other woman replied before leaving Freya for the other group. Freya had no idea how to take that as she watched the other woman walk away. Looking away from the other group she only now realized that she was by herself now. Feeling awkward, but not wanting to join the other group, she stood there feeling stupid until she heard Monkeyman’s voice calling out to her.

“Yo, ma Shiv. Ye ready to crush your enemies and hear their sig others’ lamentations?” He asked her, as he walked up to her. “Why you all alone?” He asked, sounding confused.

“Is that a movie quote?” Freya asked, ignoring his question.

“Kinda.” He said with a big smile. “Hey, I got a Taggart short barrel to replace my primary weapon. You think that’s going to be good enough for the wave mission?”

Freya looked up his weapon on her screen and blinked at just how many different types of Taggart rifles were out there. She wished they were allowed to equip weapons in the camp so she would be able to look it up by its image, but the Marines had very strict rules against equipping weapons when not on a mission. She added ‘short barrel’ to the search engine, but this time it came up empty. The search engine did ask her if she spelled any of the words wrong, and added ten different suggestions with the name of Taggart in it.

“What kind Taggart did you get?” She asked him, not looking away from her search screen.

He told her the model number, so she looked that up and quickly found his new rifle. It was a medium to short ranged full-automatic machine gun that fired heavy, ballistic, explosive penetration rounds. Oddly enough, it stated it was a quiet weapon to fire. When the rounds hit the target, then it would be loud. The weapon’s spec page said the sound was only about 30 decibels when fired. 30 decibels was slightly louder than a quiet whisper, which was amazing for a gun like that. The sound jumped up, though, when it hit the target to about 100 decibels, which was as loud as some power tools that were used to cut metal on fishing boats back home. The weapon’s spec page also mentioned that it required someone with high strength mods to wield it, though. She didn’t even have to check her strength mod to know that, even with her new higher strength stat, she wouldn’t be able to fire the weapon with any accuracy.

She listened to Monkeyman as he described his gun in great detail when she finished reading. He went on to explain how he’d been wanting to buy one since he got enough strength to use it, but couldn’t justify the credits and skill points he would need to spend changing out his perfectly good rifle. That was until now. He went on to describe all the mods he added and the reasons why he added them. She smiled when he went on to explain the expensive aim assist he bought to change out the stock one the rifle came with.

“The whole thing cost me 800 credits and enough skill points to pay for at least one college class, but it was worth it.” He told her, winding down.

She refrained from telling him that her pistol cost just as much and that she hadn’t spent a single skill point. That did make her a little worried about not knowing anything about her new gun. Not that she had ever spent any skill points on any weapons she bought until she was forced to. Still, she was curious, so she did a search on her handgun, and she found more information that the android had left out. For one thing, her hand gun was very durable and could be fired in all environments. Apparently it was rare to find a gun that could fire ballistic rounds in zero G environments. It was also rated extremely high on it’s penetration power. She found that it could puncture through a foot of steel easily. That meant that it would easily penetrate heavy armor with a single round. Not that heavy armor was made up of steel. She smiled when she realized the handgun had more penetration power than the first rifle she bought when she was still a recruit.

“Hey, guys.” Freya heard Lurch say from behind her. Turning around, she spotted him coming towards them from the camp’s door.

“Hey Lurch, I got a new gun. It’s a Taggart with a Cog 187 auto assist.” Monkeyman said, sounding like a kid who just opened his favorite present on Christmas.

“Whoa, nice. How much did that set you back?” Lurch asked, sounding just as excited.

Freya lost interest in the conversations as both boys gushed over the new gun Monkeyman bought. Looking around her, she noted there were a lot of people coming into the camp now. There were now three groups, with hers being the smallest. She started to listen in on the other people's conversations around her. Besides the normal testosterone-driven bragging, the people around her were very curious about the platoon and their upcoming mission. There was also a lot of talk about who was going to be in leadership positions. She heard at least two people talk about Cannon and how they thought she might be either a fire team leader of even a squad leader.

She knew about fire teams from her small unit tactics and knew that spec ops platoons were made up of anywhere from two to four fireteams that were combined into two to four squads, led by squad leaders. The make-up of the spec ops platoon depended on what their job was. There were many types of jobs under the umbrella of spec ops platoons. They did everything from assassination of high value targets to full on assaults behind enemy lines - again on high value targets.

The biggest mission she remembered was the sim mission with the spaceport, which her last platoon had to capture with little to no damage to the command center. Normal platoons could do that mission, but it was mostly left to experts. She also remembered Jesus’ extraction and assassination platoon, where they flew in on an assault ship on that one sim mission and jumped through the windows to capture their targets.

Remembering how good Jesus’ platoon was made her worry about what kind of spec ops platoon this was. She knew there was no way she was good enough for an extraction and assassination platoon, at least at Jesus’ old platoon’s level. Sure, she could do the shooting required for the assassination part, but she doubted she would be as good at the extraction part. Looking around, she quickly tossed the thought that this would be an extraction-assassination type platoon as she saw just how many people were trying out. Unless Mother was thinking of cutting more than half the people here, Freya didn’t think that this platoon would be anything like Jesus’ old platoon.

There were more than enough people for a large assault platoon, but it felt wrong to her. It took her a second to figure out why - it was the amount of heavy assault people that tipped her off. She spotted that there were a lot of people standing around in working uniforms that indicated that they were heavy assault when they went on missions, but there wasn’t enough for a full assault platoon. There were too many people in working uniforms of medium and light armor-users. She guessed that at least one fourth of the people who were trying out were not heavy assault armor-users. That was far too many people not in heavy armor for an assault platoon, even if that platoon was a spec ops platoon.

“So, what type of spec ops platoon is this?” She asked herself, looking around with a frown. She was more than aware of what Cannon had said about how everything was wrong. Looking at the platoon she started to see why, and what she was seeing was starting to make her nervous.

“Ok, time’s up.” Mother said in a soft voice that somehow carried. “If they aren’t here then they’ve been cut.”

Freya blinked and looked around to find her group had at some point grown to nearly ten people. While it was hard to tell people's ages in the Marines, Freya had long learned how to tell how old a person was by their eyes. She was finding that, while a marine didn’t age on the outside, their souls did. One look in someone’s eyes told her generally if they were old or not. Not that she could point and say that person had been in the Marines for five years while that person had been in twenty. No, it was more like ‘that person has seen some really bad things’ old. She wondered if that was what Cannon had meant with her comment about killer’s eyes. Looking around at her group, she found most of them looked young and, to her, lacking that hardness in their eyes.

“Does that make me old?” She wondered to herself, as everyone turned to the Platoon leader when Mother spoke.

She tore her attention away from the group to look at Mother. Standing beside Mother wasSergeant Kruz, who tossed a small metal ball to the ground. The ball landed and, contrary to her expectation, it froze the moment it hit the ground. A holo field flashed out from the top of the ball and a list of names written in black appeared on it.

At the top of the screen, it listed Mother and Sergeant Kruz as platoon leader and assistant platoon leader. Under that were six names that were listed as squad leaders. Below each squad leader's name was a column of names, broken up into three fire teams with four people in each. The first name listed in the fire teams was listed as being the fire team leader.

Freya frowned when she found her name. She was in the first squad, third fire team, but she wasn’t listed as a fire team leader. Her name was second on the list. Below her were Monkeyman and Lurch’s names, in that order. Her new fire team leader, at least for this mission, was Cannon. The biggest thing she noticed was that the box with her name in it was red, and was indicating that she was a pilot. She noted she was the only pilot listed. That made her wonder if she was the only one or if they weren’t listed because she beat them out for the position. Before she could continue with that line of thought, Mother started speaking again.

“Squad leaders and my pilot with me. Fire team leaders, get with your people and get organized. Mission starts five minutes after my meeting with the command staff is done.” Mother told them. People immediately started moving to do her bidding.

Freya gave Monkeyman a smile before she ran towards where the squad leaders were clustering around Mother and Sergeant Kruz. She stopped towards the far side of them and waited as Mother ignored her command staff to watch the rest of the platoon organize themselves. Sergeant Kruz also watched, but she looked amused as opposed to Mother who had a flat expression on her face.

A few seconds later, Mother frowned then turned to look at Freya and the rest of the command staff. “Ok, let me be clear. I don’t need six squad leaders. I do need a third. I’ll pick my intelligence leader from one of you people. That being said, neither I nor my second will be with you on this mission. We will be observing your leadership styles.” She said, as she looked at all the squad leaders.

“This wave mission is a normal wave mission, with the normal five bases, except with Ketica as the enemy. For this mission, this platoon will be protecting all five bases. I’ll place one squad in each base except the center base, which will have two squads in it. Drake, you have the only pilot in the platoon. What base do you want to deploy your squad in?” Mother asked, looking at a short, dark-haired man.

“I’ll take the center, if it’s okay with you.” The man said, talking very fast. He turned to the other squad leaders with a big grin. “I’ll need another with me. Can’t keep the center all by myself.”

“I’ll come.” A woman with short, blonde, curly hair said. “More command points when you get your head shot off.”

“Ahh, don’t be like that.” Freya’s squad leader said, making a fake sad face.

“Okay, that leaves Second Squad for the northwest base. Third, northeast base. Fifth southwest, and Sixth, southeast.” Mother said, nodded to herself.

“Okay, that’s it. Mission starts in five. Plan your own defenses and brief your squads. Magic, send me your flight plan when you and your squad leader figure out where you're gonna deploy. Dismissed.” Mother said, turning around and leaving with Sergeant Kruz.

“Dropping us right into the fire without warning.” One of the squad leaders said, as soon as Mother was out of ear shot.

“Right where I like it.” Drake, Freya’s squad leader, said with a big smile.

“So, I take it that were dropping with OTIDS?” The curly, blonde-haired squad leader asked.

“How many pods do you have on your ship?” Drake asked, looking at Freya.

“Six.” Freya replied.

“We’re dropping then.” He said, turning to look at the other squad leaders. “Anyone else have a better idea?”

No one spoke and after a few seconds Drake smiled again. “Anyone have anything to add before we split up?”

“Kind of a dick move taking the center.” A tall, thin man said, sounding annoyed.

“It makes sense.” The blonde, curly-haired woman said, shrugging. “The center will have the most people in it, so it makes sense to have the dropship there. Anthony, you’re just pissed that I spoke up first.”

“Click it off, Unicorn.” The man named Anthony said angrily.

“Better than having sex with you.” The blonde, curly-haired woman said with a sweet smile.

“Enough!” A man with a buzz haircut said angrily. “You think they’re not watching us right now? Get it together and do your job or leave. Anthony, Unicorn - you don’t have to like each other, but you do have to work together. If you’re staying, I’d say we need to get with our squads and plan how to survive this stupid mission. I’m out.” The man said, waving his hand in the air before immediately turning around and walking away. He started calling out for squad three to form up on him.

“Is it me or is Fred kinda sexy when he’s angry?” Drake asked, with his hyperactive speech pattern, as he looked at Freya and the rest of the people still standing in the group.

“Fred’s right.” The only other female squad leader besides Unicorn said. “Let’s get this done.” Then she too walked off, calling for her squad to meet up with her.

“Oh hey, Mother just sent me a map.” Drake said, looking down. As he was speaking, the rest of the group left, calling for their platoons, except for Unicorn, Freya and himself.

“Where’re we deploying the dropship?” Unicorn asked, as Drake pulled off his backpack and set up a small holo table. He quickly turned it on and a desert map hovered above it. The mission area looked very similar to Freya’s last wave mission. It had wide open spaces with a few canyons dotting around the map like scars on an old fisherman.

Freya frowned when she looked at the center base. It didn’t have any good places to deploy. On the last wave mission she had used a cliff to hide her ship, but there were none anywhere near the base she was looking at. There was a large building where she could park her ship, but she was worried about it being more dangerous to hide it there than simply putting it out in the open inside the base’s walls.

Biting her lip, she muttered mostly to herself. “This base is crap for a dropship. I’m going to lose it as soon as they start shelling.” Shaking her head, she pointed out a small space between two buildings. “This is the best of all of the bad places to deploy.” She told the two squad leaders who were watching her.

“Where have you been? We always lose dropships to wave missions.” Drake said, tilting his head.

“My first wave mission, I kept my ship intact through six or seven waves. I can’t remember the total, but it was a lot. I even flew it back to the Monarch when we declined the next wave.” Freya told them, thinking back to her first and only mission with Sergeant Gawain.

“I call Threasia farting.” Drake said, smiling and shaking his head disbelievingly. “No one keeps their dropship on wave missions unless they stop way too early.”

“Does it matter?” Unicorn asked, frowning. “We got three minutes and change until this kicks off, and I don’t know about you, but I need to talk to my squad before we go.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Drake said nodding. “I’m ok with deploying the dropship there. You?”

“Good a place as any.” Unicorn replied, shrugging.

“It’s settled. How do you want to set up a defense? Combine or separate our squads?” Drake asked her, as Freya took out her tablet and started creating her flight plan.

“Might as well combine. You want to do anything special or just go with the normal?” Unicorn asked, looking at Drake.

“I got nothing special in mind. We go with Weap’s on the walls. Engineers out creating a minefield, then quad them around in the courtyard for mortars. Drones with the snipers covering the roof. Anything I miss?” Drake asked, as Feya listened in while she ran the numbers on her tablet. She smiled when everything came back green.

“That covers it. How long do you think we will last?” Unicorn asked, as Freya sent off her plan to Drake, Unicorn, Sergeant Kruz, and Mother.

Freya watched as Drake looked off into the distance, reading, she hoped, her flight plan. He turned back to her and nodded. “Looks good.” He said, before turning towards Unicorn. “I say three waves, four if we get lucky.”

“Wipe or decline?” She asked him.

“Decline.” He replied, with, what Freya was starting to think, a permanent smile.

“If we decline, I buy your people a beer. If we wipe, you buy my people a beer.” Unicorn said, leaning forward with a challenging smile on her face.

“I agree, but no throwing.” Drake said, holding out his hand for Unicorn to shake.

“No throwing.” Unicorn agreed.

Freya watched her two squad leaders shake hands on their bet and shook her head at how different they were compared to Toast and the other squad leaders in her old platoon. Her last platoon was like her family. She missed them. She wasn’t sure what this platoon was going to be like, especially with Sergeant Kruz’ attitude. She didn’t know if she wanted in on this platoon, but she had to admit it was turning out to be fun so far. That is, if she ignored Sergeant Kruz.