"We are out of position, and the sergeant just went down," Sevs reported.

The Lieutenant paused for a second. "What's your position, Private?"

Fiddling with some of his comms Sevs sent his position over. Looking at it, they were very out of position. They had gone way past the Target location, and they were pretty much on the opposite side of the station compared to everyone else. Sevs wasn't sure what Doomsayer was doing. Was he trying to get them all killed? He did seem rather careless, but this just seemed stupid.

"Start making your way back. Can't have you out of position for long."

"Yes, sir."

"Good luck, soldier."

Sevs heard the conversation end with a click, and he turned to gather up his squad. It was a position he was used to at this point. When he had first been given command by Zim all that time ago, he'd been surprised. He rightfully shouldn't have been, honestly. He was the group's most experienced person and had been working on his leadership. But he took it as a marker of the fact that his still lagging social skills needed some work.

But the last few months had put him in position after the position where he had to step up and take up the slack. It was getting to the point where Sevs wasn't surprised anymore. He calmly called out to the squad, and while they didn't stop watching their flanks, they all paid attention to what he was saying. "Okay, we're called back. We're going to work our way back to where we came from and take up our proper position. Get ready to move out."

***

The way back was only slightly eventful. They managed to run into several ambushes, but we were prepared for them. They could check their corners properly without having to maintain the reckless pace that Sergeant Doomslayer had set. It's not to say they moved slowly, they were still moving at what was equivalent to a quick jog, and it made up the distance they had to go rapidly.

When they made it back, they were all out of breath and slightly bloodied but largely unhurt. The only one who had taken any real injury was Carl. He said his whole shoulder was stiff, even if Sevs thought it might have been slightly more hurt.

When they got into position, Lieutenant Dan was waiting for them. He pulled Sevs aside to talk to him briefly. Then, pitching his voice low so the others could not hear him, he whispered to Sevs. "Don't forget that this is a game. It might seem like we're soldiers and a real military but don't forget that most people here are playing a game. They're playing at being soldiers. They're playing it being at war. They don't really care what happens. I know you, most of your squad, and most of the people here want to treat it like it's real, but you have people like a certain Doomslayer just don't. We'd love to turn them away, but we can't, so we must deal with antics like this. He will get reprimanded and have to do his punishment stuff, but we don't have the manpower to simply turn away good fighters. The fact that I'm even explaining this to you can probably tell you our situation."

Sevs nodded as he took in Dan's words. "I understand that, but why is he in a leadership position? Why can't he just get tossed out at the enemy whenever it's time to fight?"

"People have egos." Dan shrugged. "He also has friends. Most people have friends. Most people think if you want to treat it real, feel real. If you don't want to, don't. So there's not much sway. I'd love to change it, I really would, but for now, you'll just have to probably pick up a lot of the slack. You'll grow a lot from that, so you shouldn't be too disappointed."

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Sevs considered his words. Dan was right. Sevs should stop being frustrated with the training and leadership they were getting. This is really more of an opportunity for him than anything. Sure they might get in danger or screwed. And despite looking at this as an opportunity, he did care about his squad mates. He didn't want anyone to suffer in this torture only to give up on decades of a playthrough just because they got stuck. It wasn't the same as death, but it was pretty bad.

Dan jogged off behind their lines to deal with some other situation leaving Sevs to think about his commands. He's got a squad setup.

***

They held their position for some time. Eventually, it started pulling back to an extraction point. One of the more experienced teams responsible for securing the objective had found it and reported in.

They had encountered as much resistance as expected. And really, they had brought more force than needed; they'd probably wiped out almost the entire facility. So as they held their extraction point, they didn't encounter any more hostiles. They heard a clunk as the ships attached themselves to the station, and soon the walls clattered. Quickly they filed into the ship, strapped themselves in, and were off back to their carrier.

It wasn't a long trip back though they didn't need to blast off as fast as their entry as they had disabled the station's weapons before they left. As soon as they were, a wave of explosions through the research base and through the viewport Sevs could see a giant fireball in their wake.

When they talked, there wasn't much fanfare. As soon as the ships landed back in the hangar, the Excelsior jumped in the light speed and quickly returned with the fleet. They all unloaded their stuff, went debriefing, then showered and slept. For a first offensive action, Sevs thought it had gone relatively well. Sure they hadn't played a very large role and had not quite done their job. But they also hadn't completely messed up either.

Their Sergeant was their only casualty, and no one seemed to care about that. Still, when they got back, their Sergeant wasn't anywhere to be found. He must have respawned by now, but he didn't bother to show up for the debriefing or anything. In fact, they all went to bed and didn't see him for the rest of the day. No one seemed to care about that either. Even Captain Spears didn't so much as notice the Sergeant's absence.

"Things went rather well, men. We got the MacGuffin, and the eggheads have a chance to crack it open now. I have a few commendations to give to…."

The captain gave a quick speech before they were all dismissed, recognizing some of the members of the main squad who had done particularly skillful or brave acts in combat to grab the target. Sevs wasn't sure that this was proper military etiquette, but his goal wasn't to be the best soldier though that would be nice, so he just went along with it. It would be interesting to see how this blend of military and gameplay mixed as people took it at various levels of seriousness.

Robert came up to talk to him as they were heading off to bed. "Do you know how long we have to deal with this Sergeant's bull?"

Sevs took a quick look around, and Robert seemed to get the memo. "Look, I know it's a game and all. I overheard some of what the Lieutenant was telling you. But I don't want to be tortured. I also don't want to have to give up a playthrough cuz I get stranded. Do you think there's anything we can do to request a change or a different sergeant or something?"

"I don't think there's much we can do. But it makes you feel any better. It seems like Dan's pretty much going to treat me like the Sergeant in a way. So I could at least have an idea of what we're doing at all times. Besides, it's only a little while longer before we won't be in a training squad anymore, and I'm sure that by then, things will be different." Sevs did his best to reassure Robert though he wasn't sure himself.

Still, the words about this being a game were still running through Sevs's head as they got ready for bed. What did he think of this? Was it a game, or was it real? It had always been somewhere in between. He knew it wasn't real. That's what allowed him to take chances and have more fun. But as with his philosophy in the tutorial, he treated everyone as a real person. This made him take it a little more seriously. But he also had to consider how much his attitude impacted his ability to ascend. Should this be more of a game, or less of a game? By the time he went to sleep, he still had no answers.