What was she doing here?

Oh, yes. That question. The question asked by most of her peers and superiors and (numerous times) by herself in the past year and a half. What could have possessed her to possibly seek out this position? Was she out of her mind? Lost touch with reality, perhaps? Her parents had certainly said so upon hearing of her choice. But even though they hated her decision greatly, they had supported her as much as they could possibly be expected to. They secretly believed she'd wash out anyway; never reach combat. Nothing to worry about. She'd be back home pursuing a good, longstanding career not long after she left in the first place. They were wrong on both counts.

Become a scientist, they had plead. Use your abilities to help on the home front, they had begged.

Her grades in college (the nearly two years she was there) were impeccable. Perfect, one might be so bold to say. She had only a few years left of higher education (three or four at the most) and she'd have been well on her way to a prestigious career curing cancer, or solving the next disaster that needed to be solved, or something of the sort. Hell, maybe she could've gotten into the weapons division and helped build the weapons of the future. Help out in that manner. God knows, humanity could certainly use the help.

But no; she chose to walk away from all that. And not just walk away, stoop to a life full of high school dropouts and recovering ex-cons searching for redemption. Why? What could have motivated her to do this? It made no sense to the common person that she'd come across. Her superiors all knew who she was; where she had come from; what kind of life she had walked out of. It confounded all of them. What could have motivated this skinny girl to join up in the UNSC when she could have literally held the world in the palm of her hand in a few years time?

No rational person could find a reason.

"She's an enigma," her comrade in arms and very good friend Private First Class Sean Wrentz had informed the on-base psychologist after the routine examination of the recruits. Mandatory for anyone and everyone sent into combat; or even allowed to join the UNSC, for that matter. She had passed, of course. And no one was any closer to learning her motives.

"What the fuck are you doing here fuckin' up my Corps, matchhead?!" her first drill sergeant, Sergeant Burwell, had demanded in his customarily very loud drill sergeant voice during her very first line-up.

"Sir, learning to fuck up the enemy, sir!" she had yelled in reply.

Why hadn't she at the very least trained to became an officer? That would have made sense considering her grades. But no, she was predictably unpredictable and had chosen to enlist and become a foot soldier; a grunt.

Why?

Basic training was difficult, to say the least. And, of course, being the only female in her drill platoon certainly didn't help matters. But she had proven herself more then capable of the task. The track and field she had done in high school had helped her more then she could've imagined at the time she was doing it. She was a runner; always had been. She could run fast and do so for a long time. In fact, she was damn near the fastest person in her platoon of thirty-six.

Her platoon's Staff Sergeant, Sergeant Andrew Levine, her direct enlisted supervisor, had been very impressed.

"Speed'll save your ass one of the days, Kendall. Especially since your size sure as hell won't," he had said, not being able to hide some of his pride at her speed, but cursing her stature as well. She was far and away the smallest person in her platoon.

She was an above average shot Nothing too spectacular, but her quick footedness and very minuscule height made her ideal for a scout, and she had gotten assigned to a Battle Rifle: the scoped medium-ranged weapon handed out to marines who didn't get the more common Assault Rifle. She was supposed the act as spotter with the best shot of her platoon, Lance Corporal Rudin, one of the platoon's select few snipers. She liked the task; starting to work quite well with Rudin.

After the year and some change basic course, she had graduated as a Marine in the UNSC. No one thought she could do it. Nobody. But she did. And had done rather well, at that.

The new Marines had been granted a little bit of leave to visit families and the like before they were shipped off-world to face the Covenant. Everyone knew that many, perhaps most, would not return.

Her mother had been in tears most of of her visit. Her father walked around looking like she had already died. It wasn't a very good reunion. She had left Earth on the UNSC troop-carrier/frigate Edibus for another of Earth's stronghold planets: Reach. One of the few large military base planets that humanity had left. Her unit had stayed on Reach only a few days before being rerouted to to another of Earth's military Planets: Hold. A stronghold even farther out than Reach.

Her unit would then be dispatched from there accordingly to where they were needed most.

They had arrived at Hold and had promptly continued their training, though it was merely a formality at this point; just to keep them sharp. Over a year of non-stop training had already made them as close to perfect as they were ever likely to get.

For nearly three months the training continued, until word from a human colony world was received; a distress signal. The world was under attack, and the defenses were not likely to hold much longer. The brass who commanded Hold decided to send a task force to evacuate the planet; it wasn't a mission of attack, it was a mission of retreat. And her unit was one the ones chosen to embark on that mission.

They were going to see combat. Finally. Nearly two years of waiting and it was finally here. They were dispatched immediately, taking the ship they had used to get from Earth to Reach, and then to Hold in the first place: the Edibus.

The days it had taken to arrive at the besieged planet (she would find out it was named Ametrine) had been uneventful. If anything, they were too nerve wracking to allow anyone to do much of anything without being completely distracted by the thought of it.

At last the day came and she, along with her platoon, were roused from their cramped bucks and struggled to quickly put their armor and tactical gear on. They grabbed their weapons and ammunition, and made their way to a Pelican drop ship, shouting cries of war and readiness as they went, before being piled into small ships, which held twelve soldiers with full gear.

"Are we mean motherfuckers?!" Staff Sergeant Levine yelled, as the drop ship's ramp closed, cutting off the rest of the the universe.

"We're mean motherfuckers, sir!" eleven marines, including her, yelled in reply.

"Goddamn right! And we're gonna prove to the fuckin' Covenant just how fucking mean we are!"

"Sir yes sir!"

Rudin was here, being her sniper companion, as was Wrentz, one of her best friends from basic. They were all here and they were all finally going into combat. They were told that the battle for the planet was well underway, but that the Covenant fleet seemed small thus far. This worked to their advantage. Maybe the Covenant was stretched too thin to allow it too many ships to attack this world.

Maybe... But it didn't really matter. All that did matter, was that the current human force wasn't enough to evacuate all the people living on Ametrine. It was the Marines' job to make time; to stall until more human military forces could arrive and until every single human was out of there safely.

Ametrine was a beautiful world, she would later note. It was full of trees and other growth, and was about one quarter covered by ocean. Perfect for life. Maybe that's why the Covenant wanted the world intact; they didn't simply glass it.

The Covenant had landed troops; thousands and thousands of troops, to wipe out the human resistance, and to take the planet as their own.

That's what the brass had figured their plan was, anyway. So, they had said it was the preferable thing. It gave time to get as many people out of there as they could. But they all doubted that the planet would be under anything but Covenant control shortly.

But the mission wasn't to keep the planet from the Covenant; it was to to get the hell out. They were basically running into battle already knowing they'd retreat. That may have made the idea of going into combat easier to take, she mused, as her comrades shouted words of readiness around her. But in the long run, it was another planet lost to humanity.

They were running out of planets to lose.

The Pelican shuddered into flight, and she knew they were well on their way. The would be dropped right into combat, or as close to as the pilot dared. She checked her Battle Rifle, making sure it was locked and loaded.

It was.

She checked the three fragmentation grenades that she kept on her belt, and the extra five magazines for her main weapon. She made sure her spotting scope was secure. She'd really need that later. It was quite secure; not going anywhere. She was ready. Everything was ready.

But...

What was she doing here?