Four days later

Date: April 6th, 2552

The training for the taskforce was starting to draw to a close. They had only a few days left of it before they were to be prepared for their first mission, which was, no doubt, what everyone was talking about. Some, like Marcus, were already thinking, what would happen on this mission and what would happen when it was over, whether they would win or not. Everyone was silently thinking and worrying about the consequences of what would happen if they failed on this attack, thinking about the death and destruction that would befall Reach and, eventually, Earth and all the other planets in the home system of Humanity. Some tried not to think about it and set their minds on other things, but it was hard doing so. With a mission that you could well and truly die in and that guarantee's the very survival of the entire Human race, it was hard just not thinking about it.

In the barracks, Marcus, Tanya, Alice, Stinger and Tyler were sitting around the bunk beds Tanya and Stinger slept on, talking. As usual, it was about the upcoming mission, but it also did include a certain taskforce soldier as well.

"Do you think she's up to it?" Stinger asked them as he looked down the barracks towards the end.

"Of course!" Alice replied. "She's been a good leader in the ER, so this isn't really a lot different,"

"Yeah, but that's the ER," Marcus told her. "This is completely different. Most of us won't be flying in Stalker craft, we'll be on the ground."

Tanya nodded in agreement. "He is right," she said. "Eve may not be up to leading us all on our first mission,"

Marcus looked down the room at Eve. She was sitting on her bed, looking at the plans of attack on the assault carrier. She had several blueprints and pieces of paper stacked beside her. He sighed. She had been working hard in trying to make sure that the taskforce got to the ship safely, without any losses. He knew that Eve had been working hard because Anya had told him earlier on, after Eve had fallen asleep in a debriefing and fallen out of her chair onto the floor, that she had been up for most of last night going over the blueprints. Everyone was worrying about her but they did not dare to approach her, partly that was because they had been given orders not to disturb her when she was going over the plans, but mainly because she would turn aggressive when disturbed. He had even seen this when he had helped Anya and sergeant John take her back to the barracks for her to rest, after she had fallen asleep in her chair during the debriefing, and had yelled at them when they refused to let her look at the plans and even came close to throttling John. After that, everyone, even her own friends, had decided it was best to keep their distance from her.

"I feel sorry for her," Stinger said as he turned his head away from her. "How long has she been going over those things?" he asked.

"About three hours," Tanya answered. "And she has not had a rest or a drink or anything. She's going to overwork herself,"

"D'you know what," Marcus piped up as he stood up. "I'm going over there and I'm gonna tell her to get some rest,"

"Marcus, don't," Alice said, standing up and putting her hand on his chest to stop him. Stinger got up as well in case he needed to hold him back. "She'll beat the crap out of you,"

"Alice is right," Stinger added. "Don't annoy her, Marcus. And besides, you might get thrown out of the taskforce. In case you've forgotten, we're not supposed to disturb her under orders of sergeant John,"

Marcus went to reply but paused and stared at Eve for a moment and sighed and nodded in agreement. Alice and Stinger were right. Even though he wanted to help Eve and not make herself go crazy or overwork herself just because she wanted to help and make sure everyone in this taskforce survived in the upcoming attack, he did know that if he tried to stop Eve from overworking, he would most likely end up with a black eye or broken nose, and there was even a chance, as Stinger put it, that he would get chucked out of the taskforce. He would just have to leave her to it and hope she would eventually learn not to overwork herself.

However, as he went to sit down, the barracks door opened and sergeant John walked in. Marcus looked over at John, along with the others in his group who saw Marcus looking over at the door, and John, who was scanning the room with his eyes, met his gaze. When he did, he walked over towards them.

"I'm glad I found you guys," he said when he reached them. "Come with me, please,"

The group stared at each other, confused, and, deciding it was best to follow his orders, got up and followed John out of the barracks and into the corridor.

"Where are you taking us?" Marcus asked John.

"To the hanger," he replied. "We've got an early mission we need you guys to do for us,"