"What the fuck?"

Mark opened his eyes expecting to be back in his bedroom where he fell asleep, and where he expected to wake up after the very interesting dream he had. What he did not expect was the forest that he now found himself in. Looking around, he spotted towering trees stretching up to a canopy above him. The next thing he noticed was his hands. They were not the hands he was used to seeing, but the large, ash-colored hands that he remembered from the very vivid dream. What he thought was a dream was slowly presenting itself as reality. Just to be sure, Mark pinched his thigh hoping that would wake him up. When it didn't, he thumped his leg with his fist, creating a solid smack and some minor pain, but still did not wake him up. As his final proof, Mark thought "status" hoping, and also dreading that a stat sheet would appear. To his dismay and excitement, it did.

[Status]

Name: Mark Anders

Race: Raxxor (C)

Class: Commander (Level 1)

Profession: N/A

STR: 17 DEX: 15 CON: 16 INT: 9 WIS: 9 CHA: 17

Hit Points: 37/37

Vitality Points: 9/9

Stamina: 38/38

Skills:

Leadership (Tier 0; Level 1): NPC soldiers respond to all reasonable orders.

Rifleman (Tier 0; Level 1): Basic understanding of how to aim and fire a rifle.

Titles:

Corporal (Rank; Class Specific)

Mark's excitement was quickly subdued when he saw how underwhelming his character sheet was, though it did make sense. Leadership was clearly granted by his class, and he assumed the rifleman skill was due to the time his friend had taken him to a range and taught him how to hold a gun. His evaluation of his character sheet came to a halt when a notification imposed itself over the menu in his vision.

[Welcome Planet 10606]

Congratulations! Planet 10606, better known as Earth by its inhabitants, has crossed the threshold of civilization and has joined the galaxy at large. As some of you may have noticed, you are not where you last fell asleep. Apologies on that front, but this is the way it is for every new planet. You may also have noticed, there are no signs of civilization around you. This is to give you a fresh start, but don't worry. You will have the chance to restore what you had and improve upon it in short order. Be warned though, it will not be easy. While rebuilding what you had will not present the challenge you believe it will, your world is much more dangerous now. This will ultimately help you to grow into your new place in the galaxy, but some will not be up to the challenge. In three months, or whenever you become spacefaring again, your planet will open to the galaxy. You will then have the opportunity to meet the myriad of sentient lifeforms that inhabit the galaxy. Some of their forms will be familiar as those who did well in the Tutorial have chosen to take on their

likeness.

At this point, Mark tuned out. The welcome prompt continued on for several more paragraphs, but Mark just skimmed it realizing a lot of the information had been covered by his meeting with the strange being. Once it finished printing the words, Mark skimmed through it for any important information, then dismissed the notification with a wave of his hand. Once he did, a new notification appeared.

[Class Action Available]

As a commander, you are granted NPC soldiers based on level. You are currently able to field a team of three with

you serving as the team leader. These soldiers' attributes reflect your own. Note that if they die, you will need

access to a barracks or similar building in order to replenish them. Do you wish to spawn your units now?

Mark thought for a moment, but seeing no reason to wait, especially considering the danger he might face, spawned his soldiers in. After selecting yes, Mark didn't notice anything different. No sound alert to confirm anything, just a dismissal of the notification.

He turned around and jumped back, further than he meant to with his new strength, but calmed when he saw his soldiers had spawned in. He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but seeing three men, a decent bit shorter than he expected, fully equipped with modern army gear, surprised him. The class had mentioned that any upgrades to gear would have to be purchased for his soldiers as a group, but it had not mentioned starting gear. This was when he noticed he was similarly geared with an M4 rifle slung around his body, modern camouflage, and a rucksack. He also had a bulletproof vest with spare magazines, a compass, and a map. The only difference he could tell between him and his soldiers was that he had the two upwards chevrons denoting a corporal on his chest.

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This is really weird that it has defaulted to the American military as a standard. I wonder what other classes have as starting gear, he thought.

His introspection was interrupted by one of the soldiers stepping forward and speaking. "Reporting for duty, Corporal."

"Glad to have you," Mark responded, not entirely sure what the proper response should be. He was shocked by how much deeper his voice was. He assumed that it had to be from his transformation into a Raxxor. It was then that he realized that his soldiers were not actually short, but that he was much taller than he used to be. Judging based on the size of the M4 that he knew the size of, he estimated his soldiers to be just over six feet. He was a full head taller than them which had put him at nearly seven feet tall. He was a bit shocked by the growth but was so far glad that the usual clumsiness did not accompany the rapid change in height.

"What are your names?" Mark asked, curious how they would be named.

"001," "002," "003," they said, one after the other.

"That won't do. You should at least have names."

"Numbers do just fine. We don't see the point in names," the one that had introduced himself as 001 replied.

"Well, how about Adam, Ben, and Charlie." Mark knew it wasn't very creative, but even simple names had to be better than referring to them by number.

Ben opened his mouth to respond but was cut off by howls that could be heard in the distance.

"Take cover," Mark said, and the soldiers immediately fanned out into a rough semicircle facing the direction the howl had come from. They each crouched down behind a tree and strained their ears trying to hear anything else.

Mark could just faintly hear the sounds of beasts approaching through the forest. He couldn't tell exactly how many, but it sounded like only a handful. Looking at his new team members, it seemed they could not hear them, but were still alert and watching for any signs of movement.

Another set of howls sounded, and this time Mark could tell they were roughly 300 yards away. A distance that put them just inside the effective range of the weapons he and his team were carrying. He didn't know how he knew this but was certain of this fact. Were it not for the trees he was also certain he would be able to spot whatever it was, but the limited sight distance created a disadvantage for him.

At around 150 yards, he could just make out the sight of wolves through the trees. They were advancing at a measured pace and seemed to be hunting for something. He strained his eyes to get a better look at them when a notification appeared in his vision.

[Skill Learned: Identify (Tier 0; Level 1)]

Not wanting to get distracted if this turned into a fight, Mark thought about pausing notifications, and hoped it worked, before focusing back on the wolves. When he refocused on the wolves, a tag appeared above the heads of the ones he could see.

[Wolf]

Well, that's not helpful, Mark thought. It did at least confirm the rather obvious assumption that they were wolves.

As the wolves made their way closer, Mark counted five, using the different patterns of grey and black fur to differentiate them. Mark made a hand signal to his team, telling them that at fifty yards, they were to open fire. Mark wasn't keen to engage in a fight so soon, with so many unknowns still about this new game-like system, but he also recalled the warning that this new world was being filled with danger. With muscle memory that Mark knew he didn't have before he swiftly loaded a magazine and chambered a round as his team did the same.

At the noted fifty-meter point, Mark and his team opened fire. Bullets zipped through the air and the sound of gunfire filled the forest. The noise was nearly deafening to Mark who had never heard a gunfire without any form of hearing protection. This caused him to miss most of his opening ten shots, but his team hit the majority of their shots as the wolves charged.

The wolf that was running at the front of the group died immediately under the hail of bullets. From there Mark was able to get his fire under control and hit a least half of his rounds on the wolf running straight for him. This wolf did not go down as easily though, as the wolves had split and one was running for each team member. Most of the rounds also passed straight through the wolf, not dealing much damage as the bullets had too much force behind them.

Mark's final burst of all impacted the wolf as his weapon clicked empty and managed to bring it down, but by the time he did so, it was a mere five yards from him. The momentum of the wolf carried it straight into Mark. Luckily, he was able to bring his hands up in time to keep the dead wolf from throwing him to the ground. What he didn't expect was to completely stop it in its tracks without so much as moving him backward. He knew that it shouldn't have been as easy as that since the head of this wolf came up to nearly his shoulders and had to weigh somewhere around 300 pounds. Impressed with his newfound strength, Mark looked around to see how his team had fared since the sound of gunfire had stopped.

When he checked with his team, he saw that they had been much more accurate than he was having each slain their wolf before it crossed within ten yards of each person. With new instincts for command he didn't know he had, he immediately asked for a casualty report, as well as how much ammo each person had remaining. He was a little embarrassed to learn that what had taken him an entire magazine had only taken his team members half that.

After hearing how loud the gunfire had been, Mark knew that it would certainly attract some attention. His intuition told him that what would likely come looking for him would not be nearly as easy to defeat.

"We can't stay here, something is bound to come to investigate the gunfire, and if they don't come for that, then the scent of blood will definitely draw some predators, and I'm not willing to see what comes out of the woodwork. Any suggestion on which direction we should head?" Mark asked his team.

"We should take a look at that map you have, it might point us to civilization," the one that Mark had called Charlie stated. At least, he was pretty sure it was Charlie. He resolved to find some way to differentiate them since he wanted to remember the names of the people who had been with him for his first true fight.

Mark pulled out his map and immediately recognized it as a topographic map. This didn't help him though as the only thing he could see in any direction was trees, and had no experience using one to navigate. After a few minutes of studying it, and a little help from Adam, he found a hill and a small valley that he could use to orient himself. The map didn't show much around him. It only covered a five-mile by five-mile area. It did have a red point on it that appeared to be only three miles away but was on the very edge of the map. With no other destination that looked appealing, Mark set that as his goal, expecting to get there within the day, as long as everything went well.

Mark organized his team into a loose wedge with him at the front and consulted his map and compass before setting off toward the point he had selected.