Freya looked at her notifications as she equipped her uniform. The first notification that popped up was the investigation on the destruction of her ship. Freya bit her lip when she read it. According to it she wasn’t in trouble but the same guy who investigated her first crash back on the Monarch did her latest one. He was obviously not pleased.

He wrote things like dropships are not a weapon, and they were the biggest advantage the Marines had in combat. He didn’t place the blame on her because she was ordered to crash the ship, but he was not happy. To her surprise the end of the report concluded that it was a valid tactic. It cleared both her and Fred. Still, it was very obvious that the investigator thought it was a stupid action.

The next notification was that she had been accepted into the Honey Badgers Spec Ops platoon. Freya couldn’t help it and cheered. She was still smiling until she realized that the pod bay had a lot of marines who were just returning from missions. Smiling in embarrassment she quickly turned away. Keeping her head down. she started walking out of the bay towards the stairs.

“Magic!” Someone called out as she left the pod bay. Looking up, she spotted Unicorn standing near the stairs with four others she recognized from the tryouts. “Wait. We go together.”

Freya frowned, but waited with the others. They didn’t have long to wait. Unicorn stopped four more people before declaring that was everyone, and they could go now. Freya looked at the others. Most of them were from the first three squads except for two. One was Dess, the team leader from Fourth Squad, and a demo guy who was also from Fourth Squad. She distinctly remembered that the demo guy was not in the same fireteam as Dess. Everyone mostly ignored her except Dess. She gave Freya a smile and a nod once Freya joined the group. She had to admit it was kind of cool walking up the stairs with the others, and seeing everyone get out of their way or just stop and watch them go by. It made her smile.

Once she got past the first two levels the crowd thinned out, and she had time to look over her mission notifications. The very first blue box told her that the mission had been completed successfully with one hundred and ninety-eight civilians surviving out of two hundred and forty. They had been given a little bit of a reward for every ten civilians who survived after a hundred and twenty. The rewards added up to, well not that big of a reward, but still better than nothing. Her final tally with all of her bonuses was a bit better than a normal tier three mission.

She read through her personal bonuses, and snorted when she got to the one that said she was awarded a bonus for assisting in the planning for the destruction of the Ketica command vehicle. She didn’t think it was so much a plan as a warning that she didn’t think they could destroy it with the weapons she had on her ship. Apparently the October thought differently, and gave her a nice bonus for it. She was also rewarded for being the first one to find the civilians. She felt her cheeks grow warm when she thought about it. All she did was throw rocks into a pond.

Her final tally for her rewards were very similar to the tournament rewards. Not quite as good, but very close. She ended up with 25,100 E points along with 789 mod and training points. She also got 7,808 credits total after adding up all her bonuses for the mission. It wasn’t the thirty thousand plus points she had been getting in the Tournament, but it was far better than what she had been getting on her average tier three missions back when she was in a normal platoon in Second Division.

She also got a few skill up rewards. Her personal AI jumped twenty-eight points from one hundred and six to one hundred and thirty-four. Her piloting skills also jumped three points from twenty-two to twenty-five. She wondered about that, since she got more skill points flying in circles and crashing her ship than she got with most of her missions from before. Her advanced drone operator also jumped up for the first time in a long time from 14 to 16. She couldn’t remember the last time it had advanced. She wondered why now and not in the past.

She had a ton of skill points left over from the rewards from the real world mission, and she absently day-dreamed on what she would get. She also thought about where to place all her mod points. She thought about planning ahead now that she was a sniper. She questioned whether she should be focused more on her long term goal to be a close support pilot, or should keep adding her stats to those that would help her with her sniping. She wished Toast was here. She really wanted to ask him what he would do.

It wasn’t long before they reached the door to the camp. This time, instead of getting a message that she was a visitor she got a welcome back message. It made her smile. It was also something new as she didn’t get a welcome back message from her last camp. It was a surprisingly nice touch.

Inside the camp she found much of it had changed. The environment was still that blah grey dessert, but it was now much bigger. She also noticed that there were more buildings now. Before there had been just the barracks, but now there was a sprawling complex with several buildings attached to the barracks. The barracks had also changed. It had become much bigger. In fact Freya guessed it was twice as big as the one in her last camp. There were four other buildings attached to the barracks in the complex. One of the buildings she recognized as a respawn pod bay.

“Why didn’t we respawn there?” Freya asked herself.

There was a small veranda jutting out from the barracks where she spotted what was left of the people who had started in the tryouts. Freya did a quick count and came up with 55 people. That included both Mother and Sergeant Kruz, who were sitting at a picnic table together along with a guy who she had never seen before. Everyone else was sitting in single chairs that were scattered around the veranda.

“Take a seat, and we’ll get going.” Mother said from her seat at the picnic table.

Freya and her group quickly found seats in the chairs that were scattered around in front of the picnic table. The seat was extremely comfortable, and seemed to inflate a bit so Freya felt like it was hugging her. It even had a footrest option at the bottom of the chair. It swung out almost as soon as Freya sat down. She smiled and relaxed.

“Congats on making it into my platoon.” Mother started out. “Now that we are all here, I can tell you more of what's going on.”

“First, we’ve been temporarily detached from the operational command of the October. We are now, at least for one mission, part of an Intelligence Service mission.” Mother continued. “That does not mean that the October will not be monitoring us. Just the opposite. It just means that instead of reporting to the Colonel, she will be reporting to the Captain who is in charge of the mission, when it comes to us. Our new chain of Command is Captain Thompson, me, and then Sergeant Kruz.”

Freya sat up a bit at the mention of the name Thompson. She wondered if he or she was related to her Old Gunnery Sergeant Thompson. That made her remember to ask Cannon if she was related to her old Platoon Sergeant or if they just had the same last name. Mother was still talking so Freya focused back on her new boss.

“Fred is the new assistant to my executive officer.” Mother said pointing at Fred, who was sitting with them in a chair like the rest of the platoon. “To my right is Petty Officer Murdoch, FMF IDC. He is also a SEALS team member. He goes by Maddog. He is a Hospital Corpsman with his Fleet Marine Force Medal. He is a fully qualified Combat Hospital Corpsman who has earned his Independent Duty Corpsman Medal. If you don’t understand what Hospital Corpsman means, it means that he has reached the end of the Navy’s equivalent to our templates. All Corpsmen start off as Medic, and, like us, rarely get to the end of their templates. Now I know some of you have worked with the Sea, Air, Land, and Space Navy combat teams before, so I know some of you have worked with others of his kind. You will show him the same respect as you show someone who has done the same in our branch.”

“He is here because there has been an operation change to ‘all combat’ status which I will explain in a bit.” Mother told them. “A little over eight months ago, the planet Ka18131, or Karma as it’s locally called, was invaded by the Ketica.”

Freya blinked in surprise, and looked around only to realize she was not the only one who was in that state. There hadn’t been an invasion by an alien species since before the fall of the Empire. She had learned in school that there was some kind of treaty between all the known aliens and the Federation. If an alien race had invaded one of colonies then it meant war.

Freya sat back, stunned, as she thought over the implications of what that meant. First it made sense that all their enemies had been the Ketica. They were being prepared to go to war. She had never thought about fighting aliens before - only humans. Granted, she had taken the small unit tactic that focused on aliens, but it was only because it was required for her. Now they were going to fight them for real. She wondered if this had anything to do with the aliens who supplied the tech to kill the Monarch. She shook her head and focused back on Mother.

Freya found Mother sitting at the table waiting for the platoon to quiet down. She didn’t look all that upset as they interrupted her meeting. Freya guessed it was because it was such startling news. Who would have thought that they would be at war with an alien species?

“The October will be the first combat ship to reach the planet. The intelligence Service has asked for a Spec Ops platoon, and we were picked. Our primary mission is to land on Karma and gather as much intel as we can on why the Ketica have invaded. This is not some illegal colony. This is a planet that has been declared ours and is being terraformed by the Colonial Services. We need to find out the reason why the Ketica have invaded.” Mother told them, leaning forwards slightly.

“The Federation has called upon us to be the first boots on the ground, and I for one do not want to let her down.” Mother said, obviously feeling very strongly about it.

“Our primary mission will be to gather intelligence, and with that the Federation High Command has sent us a VIP from PsyOps. We are to protect him at all costs so he can do his job. He is a touch telepath, who is trained to read alien minds. I’m embarrassed this has to be said, but if you don’t want your mind to be read then don’t touch his skin. Don’t embarrass me or the Corps.” Mother said, sounding pissed.

“Our secondary task, one that we will only pursue if it doesn’t compromise our primary mission, will be the search and rescue of any civilians that we can find. Now for the reason for the operation change. The war academy has left orders that any unit who is expected to fight the Ketica have medical personnel with them. This is to prevent failed respawns because of the denial spheres. From now on, you need permission to zero yourself out. I don’t care how much pain you are in, or how screwed up you are, none of you will zero yourself out without permission from Doc or the command staff. Do we understand each other?” Mother asked them.

Freya joined the rest of the platoon when they said, “Yes, Ma’am!”

“My plan for this platoon is to do a few practice missions. We will go over every aspect of the mission until I am satisfied.” Mother told them. “When we are ready, we will drop. There will not be any sim missions until this is over. Maybe not even then, depending on this war.”

“We are on war footing now. That means ops sec is vital. We will not talk about who we are or what our mission is. As far as the rest of the ship knows, this is just another tour of duty. They will come to suspect in time, but we will not comment on this. Understood?” Mother asked them, placing both her hands flat on the picnic table.

Once more Freya joined in with a “Yes, Ma’am!”

“Good. You have the next twenty-four hours off. Take some time and relax. You all have assigned barracks rooms, and the October has all of your stuff already unpacked in your rooms. Take some time and unwind. We could be away from the October for months.” Mother told them. “Dismissed.”

As Mother spoke about the time off, Freya got a message telling her that she was to report to Mother’s office after the meeting was over. The message asked her to reply that she understood her orders. She clicked yes. When she looked up again, most of the platoon was already standing up and getting ready to do whatever they did when on leave.

“So there is my favorite kamikaze pilot.” Monkeyman said from behind her.

Freya turned around to find Monkeyman and Lurch walking up behind her.

“You missed out on some action with your stunt.” Lurch said, sounding like an overbearing mother.

“Yeah, but it worked out very well.” Monkeyman said, giving Freya a smile. “On top of that, it was epic!”

“Well, if there had been another command vehicle then it wouldn’t have worked out so well. We were lucky that there was only one of them on that mission.” Lurch said, frowning.

“Whatever Grumpy McGrumpy.” Monkeyman said, giving Lurch a look. “Anyway, who’s excited about going to war? Like real war with non-humans!”

Freya watched as Lurch lost his you-screwed-up expression and smiled. She smiled in return. As they were talking, she spotted Cannon walking alone towards the barracks. She didn’t appear to be going in the main entrance. Instead she seemed to be following Mother, Sergeant Kruz and Maddog. As she watched, Fred also broke away from whatever he had been doing and also followed them. That reminded her about the message.

“Hey guys, I have to meet up with Mother. Do you want to meet up afterwards and head to Pops?” Freya asked, not wanting to be alone right now.

“Sounds good.” Lurch said, nodding.

“Sure. I could use a drink right about now.” Monkeyman said, slapping her on the back.

“Alright. See you in a few.” Freya told them, stepping back from Monkeyman.

She turned away and walked towards the second entrance to the barracks where her mini map told her the platoon leader’s office was. She arrived just as Fred walked in. There were a few chairs in the waiting room, but only one was empty. She sat down in between Cannon and the Hospital Corpsman. Cannon gave her a nod, but otherwise ignored her. Freya returned the nod, and waited.

“Name’s Maddog.” The Hospital Corpsman said a few minutes later. “What's yours?”

“I know.” Freya thought to herself, but out loud she said, “People call me Magic.”

“Magic?” He replied with a smile. “You like some kind of Voodoo princess?”

Freya sighed and turned towards him. He looked young, but then so did everyone else who was in the military. He looked kind of nervous, so she didn’t take it personally. The biggest thing that stood out when she looked at him was a really stupid moustache he was growing. It wasn’t large or anything like that. It was really short and well trimmed, but it looked bad on him.

“Something like that.” She returned. “So you're in the SEALS. You any good?”

He smiled and seemed to relax. “I get it. I’m a Navy guy, so I must be some weak duckling.” He told her with a smile. She smiled in return. “I’ll have you know I’ve been on eighteen real world missions.”

“Eighteen?” Freya asked, looking at his rank on his arm.

“SEALS operate differently than you Marine types. We do a lot of in-and-out missions. We drop, do our thing then get out. You Marines tend to stay a bit longer than we do.” He told her with a smile.

“You ever work with us?” Freya asked, curious.

“Once.” He told her leaning back and looking off into the distance. “There was this deep space station that was being run by some illegals. It was huge. I went in with a Spec Ops platoon to free some prisoners before the invasion. Tough fight. They were some nasty customers.”

Freya nodded, impressed. Looking at him now she noted that he didn’t look nervous anymore. Instead he looked a bit sad.

“I see you're a sniper. That’s cool.” He said turning towards her with a grin. “You any good?”

She gave him the finger making him laugh. Before either of them could reply, Fred exited through the office door. She noted that he had his head down, and he had a very thoughtful expression on his face. She wondered what he was thinking about.

He looked up suddenly and nodded to Cannon. “She wants to talk to you next.”

Cannon nodded and stood up. Freya watched as she checked her uniform and then stepped into the light. Freya looked down afterwards, getting nervous. She had no idea why Mother wanted to talk to her. She thought about her ship and wondered if she wanted to talk to her about being the platoon’s pilot. On one hand she was excited. She loved flying, but, on the other hand, she wasn’t happy about missing all the action in the last mission while flying in circles in the sky. She hoped that there was some kind of compromise where she could still do both, but was afraid that it wouldn’t be possible. She had a feeling that she was about to lose out on one or the other.

“So really, why do they call you Magic?” Maddog asked her, shaking her out of her dark thoughts.

“I make things happen.” Freya said flippantly. But when she thought about it she realized it was true. She really did make things happen. “Why do they call you Maddog?”

“It’s a stupid name I got in SEALS training.” He told her, looking away.

Freya smiled, sensing an embarrassing story. She was about to go in for the kill when there was a flash of light and Cannon came out of Mother’s office. Freya looked at her former team leader and saw she had the same expression on her face as Fred had on his face. Freya watched as Cannon looked up and saw her.

“She wants to see you next.” Cannon told her.

Freya nodded and stood up. She absently checked on her uniform, and realized she had just copied Cannon when it had been her turn. Feeling her cheeks get warm, she stopped what she was doing and headed towards the office door. She put her hand on the lock and stepped into the light.

She found herself in a large room that was really sunny. She looked to her left and saw a window that was showing a scene from some city that she had never seen before. The view from the window made it seem that they were really high up in some skyscraper. The view it showed amazed her and, for a second, she just stood there and took it in. She was dragged out of her thoughts by Mother clearing her throat.

Freya immediately snapped to attention and saluted. “Reporting as ordered, Ma’am.” Freya said, holding her salute.

“At ease.” Mother replied and Freya relaxed, putting her hands behind her back.

She focused her eyes on Mother now that she was relaxed. Mother, Freya noted, was sitting behind a very large, grey, metal desk. The desk was mostly empty, except for a single picture that was turned to face away from Freya. On the walls behind and to her right side were pictures of various ships with their names on them. Freya guessed that they were her new boss’s former duty ships. Standing behind Mother and off to the right was Sergeant Kruz, who had a neutral expression on her face. She was leaning on the back wall, while looking back at Freya.

“I want to talk to you about your ship. It’s too small for our needs and I want a few more things in it than it has now. I’ll send you the things I want you to get. Look it over and if you need a loan from the platoon send me a message with the ship you want.” Mother said leaning back in her chair.

“Yes, Ma’am.” Freya said knowing Mother wasn’t done yet. She wondered if she was about to get a ‘I’m watching you’ talk from her boss. She prepared herself, but her new boss surprised her.

“I want you to be the platoon’s primary pilot. You’ll be in charge of getting the dropship down on the planet, and back off it when the time comes. But I can’t have you sidelined while we are on the planet. You are our only sniper, and a damn good one at that. So I have ordered Fred to get his pilot's license. He won’t have your experience, but he will be in charge of your ship while we are on the planet.” Mother told her.

For a moment Freya had no idea how to react to that announcement. It was her ship, and she was its pilot. But she knew Mother was right. Still, it annoyed her that someone other than herself would be flying it, even if it was only on planet. She did have to admit it gave her the best of both worlds, but still she hesitated in letting someone else fly her. In the end she knew she had no choice. It was what was best for the mission.

“Yes, Ma’am.” Freya replied, looking over Mother’s head, staring off into the distance like she was supposed to.

“Dammit, you cost me four rounds at Pop’s.” Sergeant Kruz said, suddenly making Freya look at the Sergeant, but only with her eyes. “Why can’t you be less of a Marine?”

Confused, Freya didn’t say anything. Mother, on the other hand, laughed.

“We bet each other on how you would react. I won.” Mother said smugly.

“Respectfully, Ma’am, piss off.” Kruz replied, sounding mad, but her comment only made Mother laugh harder.

When her laughter died down Mother continued. “Fred is going to buy a partial license to keep the corporations happy so he can use your ship when you are otherwise occupied. You should get an update on that when he finishes his training.” Mother told her.

“I know I’m asking a lot in what I want for your dropship, so I’m going to give you a no interest command loan if you need it. I want your ship to have at least ten pods, enough room to fit fifteen people, and a command and control console. I’m going to use your ship as a mobile base of operations. I also want you to get better weapons. The message that I sent to you has the basic stuff I want on your ship. You can get better ones, but that’s on you. I want your new ship to have vehicle docks, but it doesn’t have to be big enough for a Mech. You don’t have to have a Mech reloading pod, but I still want a large supply of printing and BatK fluid. Plan on an extended stay on the planet.” Mother said, leaning forward.

“Yes, Ma’am.” Freya replied, thinking about how much her savings were going to take a hit.

“Don’t worry, the Marines pay well, but they expect the best in return.” Sergeant Kruz said, sounding amused. Freya resisted the urge to give the sergeant the finger.

“Questions?” Mother asked.

“No, Ma’am.” Freya replied.

“Magic, I know how much it’s going to suck to let someone else fly your ship, but we really do need you on the ground. Like you told Maddog, you make things happen.” Mother told her.

Freya blinked, and tried to think how Mother could have overheard what she had said. The only thing she thought of was the October had told her. That made her remember Sergeant Torres saying that the ship was always watching. She got chills as she thought about it.

“If that is all...” Mother said drawing Freya’s gaze back to her “...you’re dismissed.”