"—and while we're proud to report another series of successful campaigns across the western front, we turn now to less fortunate news from the eastern reaches. The Hamis Sector, long considered a strategic anchor point for the region, has fallen to Celestial Dominion forces after just a few brutal months of nonstop engagements.

Battlefield after Battlefield was lost in rapid succession, as the heroic local garrisons and UHF forces from the nearby emergency deployments fought tooth and nail to delay the inevitable. With further UHF reinforcements unable to arrive in time, however, the defenders were heavily outmanned and outgunned.

Once a handful of key Battlefields had been taken, Dominion forces were free to redistribute their forces across the entire sector, tilting the balance beyond recovery.

In the wake of this loss, questions are now being raised about the broader status of the eastern front: Is it still under control?

We're here today with Admiral Jeren Halvos of the UHF's 3rd Navy Group from the Eastern Front to answer this very question for all of you.

Hello Admiral, thank you for your time. What is the status of the eastern front, in light of the loss of the Hamis Sector?"

"Thank you for having me. As for your question… Control isn't defined by a single defeat," the Admiral stated. "We've suffered an undeniable setback, yes—but our position remains overall balanced. For every Hamis lost, we've secured definitive victories in the Simeal, Onara, and even the contested Immateria Sectors.

We mourn the loss of the Marines, Navy crews, and support personnel who gave everything in Hamis for the UHF. Their sacrifice bought us time, prevented the collapse of the surrounding sectors, and will never be forgotten."

The news anchor echoed the sentiment, "Our thoughts are with the families of the fallen. The defense of the Hamis Sector will definitely be remembered as one of heroic valor, not failure, I'm sure.

Well, folks, you've heard it here first-hand. The eastern front, while suffering a setback, is still firmly under control. If you'd like to assist the troops across either front, consider signing up for—"

- UHF News Network, Galactic Morning Brief, 934 PFC

Karania and Isabella's builds had been relatively easy to refine—or rather, easy enough that Thea eventually had to settle for thinking, "I don't know what else I can really do here."

Especially Karania's build had given her a lot more trouble than she'd expected, mostly because Thea didn't have much real experience being an actual Medic. She'd played support roles in a ton of games before, sure—but none of those had ever been real.

Not in the bloody, hands-in-guts, triage-under-fire kind of way.

The Medic roles she knew were the gameified ones: You drag your teammate behind cover, slap a few glowing injectors on them, maybe wrap a bandage or two, and boom—they're back in the fight like nothing happened.

It was flashy, fun, and more about momentum than realism. Nobody had to sit through fifty-five minutes of artery repair or setting shattered bones.

That version of being a Medic had worked great in those games—it kept the action going and gave support players a chance to shine without needing an actual medical degree; or seven.

But real medics, like Karania, were dealing with the actual brutal work of keeping people alive in the most hostile of environments.

Stuff Thea had never trained for.

She hadn't played many of the full-on medical simulator games either; growing up in the Undercity didn't exactly offer great access to that kind of education to make those kinds of games fun.

James had tried at her behest, of course—he'd given her all kinds of books and tutorials on medicine, engineering, and more—but there was only so much one person could absorb with practically zero proper guidance.

Still, she'd managed to dig up at least a few decent Ability suggestions from her gaming memory—stuff that might work for Kara if adapted right. And if nothing else, it would give her best friend something to consider, a starting point for her to build out her own setup properly.

When it finally came time to look at Alpha Squad's main problem child, though, things got tricky again.

Primarily because Lucas' build was already pretty solid all around.

He had offensive potential with [Remote Detonation], and his other active abilities, like [Lighten Equipment], [Stalwart Stance], and [Mountain's Determination], covered defense and utility very well.

That meant there weren't many obvious weaknesses or easy fixes for Thea to tackle.

The only major issues Thea could spot were that [Remote Detonation] needed line of sight—something Lucas almost never had, since he was usually stuck behind his massive shield—and the lack of mobility options in general.

While Thea couldn't really do much about the line-of-sight problem right now, she could definitely fix the mobility issue.

With the Sovereign's help, she'd found a nearly perfect Ability to recommend:

[Active (Silver) - Kinetic Vault - Level 0] Description: Allows the participant to use up a certain amount of Stamina to store up parts of the kinetic energy imparted on them or their equipment in direct contact with them over a duration. At any point during the Ability's duration, the participant may manually discharge the stored energy, up to a limit, to launch themselves in a powerful leap. Any remaining, unused energy may be redirected into the landing impact, creating a concussive effect. Stored energy dissipates after the Ability expires and cannot harm the participant. Cost: 55 Stamina - Kinetic Store Factor: 20% - Duration: 8 second(s) - Discharge Vault Limit: 25 PU

This Ability was something Thea knew well from her own experiences.

She'd used it multiple times in all sorts of different builds. It was one of those "evergreen" Abilities that stayed relevant no matter what the current meta was.

The main reason it stayed popular was because it was so straightforward, yet incredibly versatile at the same time. Turning incoming attacks into outgoing mobility was always useful—no matter if offense or defense was more powerful at any given time.

She still fondly remembered a tournament where she'd created a similar build to the one she'd based her emulation for Rachel Masters on.

It had focused heavily on defense and the mobility provided by [Kinetic Vault]'s game-equivalent, letting her jump right into—and out of—the heart of the battle quickly and easily.

It had been a ton of fun to play, even if she hadn't placed very high in the end.

The meta back then hadn't favored defense-heavy builds, but that didn't change how fun and surprisingly effective [Kinetic Vault] had been in the role it played.

"But shat doeshn't mean she ability wash bad," Thea muttered to herself, jaw still a bit stiff as she circled the Ability's name on her datapad under Lucas' file.

When it came to Passive Abilities, she knew she'd need to sit down and talk to Lucas directly—just like the rest of Alpha Squad—if she wanted to really fine-tune where he wanted to go with his build.

But even so, there were a few no-brainer picks she figured he couldn't afford to skip.

Not if she had anything to say about it.

First on that list was the obvious one: [Redundant Organs].

She'd seen it in action enough times now—especially in Isabella's fights—to know just how ridiculously powerful it was.

The example against Rachel Masters still stuck in her mind like a vivid snapshot: Isabella with a hole in her chest where her heart should have been, pummeling Masters' head into the ground.

There was absolutely no shot she was letting Lucas skip that.

'Tier 1 and Silver-rarity, and it does that? That's just stupidly good. Honestly, if I was the one assigning rarity ratings, I'd have shoved that straight into Platinum and called it a day…' Thea thought, shaking her head slightly at the System's generosity on that one.

She had even caught herself more than once over the past few days seriously considering taking it herself. It was just that good.

But every time, she came back to the same problem: The limited Ability slots.

As strong as [Redundant Organs] was, it didn't really fit with her role in the squad.

She wasn't meant to take hits—she was meant to avoid them. And as long as everyone else did their jobs right, including herself, she wasn't supposed to be the one drawing enemy fire.

Plus, thanks to her precognition, she had more control than most when things went bad. And if her powers did fail… well, she doubted even an Ability like [Redundant Organs] would save her.

'The only times it has failed me were either against other Psykers or when a damn explosion launched me halfway across the AO…'

The two other Passive-types she had in mind were simpler, but simultaneously also quite a lot cheaper and easier to acquire.

[Passive (Copper) - Load-Bearing Frame - Level 0] Description: Increases the participant's ability to shoulder heavy loads without affecting their movements. Encumbrance Threshold Increase: 10%

[Passive (Copper) - Pain Response Buffer - Level 0] Description: Dampens the participant's pain response during active combat scenarios, delaying pain-induced performance penalties. Pain Reduction: 20%

Although both Abilities were "only" Copper-rarity—and therefore not flashy or specialised as other Passives—they gave Lucas exactly the kind of solid improvements he needed for his build.

'Even with [Lighten Equipment], he'll still be slowed down a lot by all that gear he keeps piling on,' Thea thought, tapping her datapad screen thoughtfully. 'The less weighed down he is, the better he can move around both in and out of combat. Until we get him something more powerful, [Load-Bearing Frame] will definitely help. And at higher levels, it might even replace [Lighten Equipment] entirely, freeing up an Active slot for something stronger.'

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As for [Pain Response Buffer], it was one of those Abilities she remembered seeing often—usually ignored by casual players, but almost always picked up by more serious ones.

The reason was simple: It didn't look exciting on paper.

No extra damage, no flashy perks, no cool visual effects.

Just a flat reduction in how much pain your body registered during combat.

But that was kind of the whole point.

'Pain sucks,' Thea thought simply. 'Like… a lot.'

In combat, pain had a direct, measurable and large impact on your performance. It made your movements more sluggish and uneven, your reactions delayed, and your focus slip.

'Except for Kara, apparently…' Thea thought, a little amused.

She herself had also once thought pain-reduction Abilities weren't worth much, especially in VR games, where pain was already toned down.

But after longer fights, especially ones lasting hours or even days, it became very clear just how valuable they really were.

It was the difference between fighting at your full strength the entire time, or giving it your absolute best at the start and quickly falling apart under the pressure.

Perfect to ignore for short, quick duels, but truly awful if you wanted a good score in a longer fight.

'And Lucas… he's always at the front, always getting shot at, always holding the shield up for the rest of us,' Thea continued. 'He's exactly the kind of person who needs something like this—especially if he picks up [Redundant Organs].'

The memory of Isabella's fight against Masters flashed through her mind again. Isabella's heart literally bursting out of her chest—just imagining that was horrifying enough.

'If Isabella's adrenaline hadn't kept her going back then,' Thea thought, a shiver going down her spine, 'the pain alone probably would've killed her… Maybe I should recommend it to her as well?'

She quickly jotted it down underneath Isabella's name in her notes, adding a small question mark beside it. Not a guaranteed pick, maybe—but definitely worth bringing up.

With Isabella's and Lucas' notes temporarily set aside, Thea turned her attention to the last two: Corvus and Desmond.

Desmond's situation was tricky.

She only had partial information on what he was working with, and she knew for a fact there was at least one Ability he hadn't told her about—his Silver-rarity starting one.

He had refused to reveal it to her as a result of his early mistrust because of the whole "Cyan" thing. They'd ended up growing a lot closer since then, but that wall still lingered in certain spots, and she hadn't wanted to press him too hard on it, as she wasn't sure how he would react.

Corvus, on the other hand, had made things surprisingly easy—as always.

He'd sent over his entire updated profile, including Attribute spread and Ability levels, without her even asking, dropping it into her inbox the same morning she and Karania had gone off to get their replacements.

Apparently, he'd already assumed she'd be locked away with too much time and nothing to do, and figured she'd be working on builds while recovering.

'One day, I'll figure out people the way he does…' Thea mused, half-admiring, half-exasperated. The man had a sixth sense for planning ahead—and for predicting others' behavior.

It was downright eerie sometimes.

With what she had, Thea had sketched out a couple of rough ideas.

For Corvus, despite the abundance of information he had provided, Thea had still struggled with finding the right pieces.

His build leaned heavily into squad cohesion, leadership, and tactical presence—things that were almost entirely outside Thea's usual wheelhouse.

She preferred sneaky or high-impact builds, not commander-loadouts with buffs and battlefield presence. But still, she owed it to him to try, at the very least.

If nothing else, she could at least narrow the list down to some solid support picks that she could workshop with him later.

She had started compiling a more detailed shortlist for him than for the rest, as she had more information to work with—several Passives and a few versatile Actives—nothing set in stone yet, but enough that they could talk it through in person.

'I'll just ask him the right questions, get a feel for his preferences and then adjust from there. That should work perfectly…'

For Desmond, she had ended up picking one Active and two Passive Abilities—just something to work with, to give him a jumping-off point when they finally got around to talking about their builds as a group again.

His style was focused—very tech-heavy—and with how central drones were to his setup, most standard combat-oriented Abilities just didn't apply.

The kind of flashy, front-line stuff the rest of Alpha Squad might use? Useless for Desmond.

Thea had needed to dig into more niche utility and support Abilities to find anything that even remotely fit his role. And even then, it was hard to be confident about any of them when she didn't have the full picture.

So for now, she settled on generally useful placeholders. Nothing fancy.

Just enough to help out with his current issues until they hit higher Tiers, Desmond had access to more gear, and she could actually pin down what his endgame play style would be looking like.

Though there was one thing that had jumped out at her while scrolling through the translated Ability library she had created with the help of the Sovereign: There wasn't a single Copper-rarity Ability that applied to Desmond's archetype.

Every last one of them started at Iron-rarity or higher.

"Shat probably explainsh why shere aren't shat many drone operatorsh at our Tier…" Thea muttered, as she flipped back to the notes on Desmond's build.

[Active (Silver) – Autonomous Reboot – Level 0] Requirement: Line of Effect Description: Allows the Participant to use up a certain amount of Focus and Stamina to remotely repair and re-launch a number of their downed drones within range. The drone(s) will be fully repaired, recharged, rearmed and relinked to one of the participant's control units, as long as the drone(s) components do not exceed the specified Tier. Cost: 45 Focus + 45 Stamina - Number of Drones: 1 - Range: 250m - Tier: 1

[Passive (Iron) - Rapid Manufacturing - Level 0] Description: Increases the participant's ability to manufacture equipment, consumables and tech items in the field, which rely on System Fluid. Speed Increase: 15%

[Passive (Iron) - Discounted Components - Level 0] Description: Decreases the cost for the participant to manufacture equipment, consumables and tech items in the field, which rely on System Fluid. Discount: 10%

She stared at the list she'd managed to cobble together for him.

"Haaa…." A deep sigh slipped out before she could stop it. "Can I really jusht show shese onesh to him and pretend I did anyshing at all…?"

It wasn't that the Abilities were bad.

They just… weren't anything special.

No creative synergy, no clever tricks. Just the obvious choices that anyone in Desmond's shoes could've found with a bit of digging and a functional search bar.

That stung a little.

She'd tried, over and over, to force in other Abilities—stronger ones, flashier ones—but none of them fit. Not with Desmond's focus. Not with how he actually played. Every time she forced a meta pick onto the page, she'd end up deleting it a few minutes later.

'There's always that pull,' she thought, 'to force in the shiny, "best" stuff. But if it doesn't actually match the player... it's worse than useless.'

It was a lesson she'd learned the hard way during her gaming days, whenever somebody had asked for her advice.

Builds had to fit the player. Not the scoreboard. Not the leaderboards.

The player.

The way they moved, how they thought, what felt natural to them.

Cramming a meta loadout into someone who couldn't pilot it was like handing a sniper rifle to someone who couldn't aim.

A waste of time. And often even worse, a trap.

She'd seen it play out in tournaments more times than she could count—netdeckers with full-meta builds getting steamrolled by weirder, messier builds simply because the players behind them knew how to make them work.

Real life, she figured, would be even harsher.

Less time to experiment. Less second chances.

You couldn't exactly queue for an instant-rematch if your build didn't work on the Battlefield.

And with how real warfare worked, time in combat was rare.

Even in the middle of an active Battlefield, most of what they did was prep, patrol, dig in and, most of all, wait.

That was the bulk of their Assessment. Not firefights. Not heroic moments.

Just long stretches of silence, nerves, tension and really uncomfortable sleeping arrangements.

So when action did happen, you had to already know your kit inside and out.

There'd be no time to "learn" a theoretically stronger, meta Ability mid-fight.

Which is why she'd left those high-end options off the list.

For now.

Maybe later, when the rest of Alpha Squad had more experience and a few more upgrades under their belts. But until she figured out how to actually get her hands on those Abilities—some of which were locked behind Tier 2+ and even Platinum-rarity or higher—and how to guarantee more real "action-time" for the squad...

It just wasn't worth it.

The arcade was the obvious solution to that second problem.

They could train and fight in near-real simulations, sharpen their instincts, test their builds—but time inside was limited. Between scheduling, classes starting up again soon, and the mandatory digital missions for the rest of the Squad, it wasn't a guaranteed method she could count on for long-term "action-time" access.

Or at least not enough for what she wanted to accomplish.

'Definitely need to do more research on that front as well…'

So, instead, she focused on the last thing she could realistically do while cooped up in the medical wing for what was—hopefully—the final day: Expanding her personal Ability database.

It had turned into a bit of an obsession for her over the past few days.

She spent hours jotting down every Ability she could remember from every game she had ever played. Archion, Krilson's Path, Ashes of Centuries, even older ones like Fallen Sector and Facsimile's Dungeon.

Anything with solid mechanics or unique perks that could become useful to a UHF Marine, whether currently in Alpha Squad or not. And every time she came up with a new one, she'd ask the Sovereign to translate it into its Allbright System counterpart.

To its credit, the Sovereign complied every single time, tirelessly giving her exact Tier, Rarity, and descriptions for anything it could find an analog for.

Thea had, of course, tried the obvious shortcut too.

She had asked the Sovereign for a full list of known Abilities in the UHF's internal database.

Then she tried again.

And again.

More than three dozen different phrasings. Even different angles.

"Build researcher access." "Personal theorycrafting." "Preliminary education requisition."

Nothing had worked.

Each time, the AI gave the same polite, regulation-filled response: Recruit-level clearance wasn't high enough to access the broader database. Not even filtered lists.

'I get not wanting to poison people's builds with too much info,' she had thought, annoyed, 'but I'm not going to go throwing high-level stuff at random Recruits… The Sovereign knows that. It's seen what I've been working on. I should have some kind of builder tag or something by now, damnit!'

But no matter how many times she tried to make her case, the AI wouldn't—or couldn't—budge.

So she doubled down on her own efforts instead.

If the System wouldn't give her a database, she'd just build one herself.

By the end of the third day, her datapad was packed with rows upon rows of notes—Abilities she remembered, partial guesses she still wanted to verify as she couldn't quite recall everything about the Abilities, and a running list of translations from Allbright System equivalents.

And if nothing else, it would give her a leg up the next time someone in the squad asked for help building their loadout.

It wasn't perfect. But it was something…

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