Completely new chapter 4, written by yours truly. That's going to be the case for the majority of these now until the start of the actual in-game timeline.

"Incoming!" Corporal Havoc shouted, then Anya's world exploded, sending her and about half of the unit flying. She staggered back to her feet and then just stood there for a few moments, trying to reorient herself to the rest of the battlefield as her hearing started to return. Apart from the loud noise and having taken a short flight and a sudden crash landing her armor had otherwise protected her from the blast. A few of the marines were not so lucky. She tripped over something as she stumbled toward where her unit had been and looked down to find a dying marine laying there gasping for air even as he drowned in his own blood.

She dropped down beside him and tried to divert the flow, but soon realized that he was just too far gone. He didn't appear to be able to see her and seemed to simply be clinging to her purely on instinct. She decided to let him, and only a few seconds later he died. She climbed to her feet again and looked around, but the cracks in her faceplate made it rather difficult to see much that was farther away than a few feet. She would have to try to find her way back based on where she felt she was in relation to where she felt she was supposed to be.

She heard someone calling for help and she went toward the sound, but before she'd made it more than ten steps she heard the sound of another falling shell and she dodged, the shockwave from the blast sending her rolling. She scrambled to her hands and knees, unable to see much of anything from that position, but the rebels seemed to know exactly where she was. They were targeting her, she realized. She quickly changed her direction and headed away from the marines, trying to draw the rebel fire away from them.

"Hey! Tenno! Where are you going?"

She turned to see Simmons, along with several other marines from their unit, taking cover in a blast crater and snapped, "Get down!"

"What? Hell no, you die and we're all dead!" Simmons retorted, "Now get in here!"

"They're targeting me, if I go there your ass is toast, Simmons!" she yelled back.

"Hey, that's the most you've ever said to me all at once," Simmons said with an amused grin.

"Don't get used to it," she grumbled.

"I heard that," he called back in a sing-song voice, and she could have sworn she heard a couple of the others snicker.

"Just stay in cover!" she roared at them collectively, "I'll be back when I can!"

She didn't wait for an answer, just got to her feet and dashed away from them. She wasn't sure where she intended to go, all she could do was hope the rebels would be distracted and concentrate on her long enough to give the marines some breathing room. It hadn't taken long for the rebels to figure out that wherever she was, there was usually a squad of marines with her. She had to admit that targeting her was a smart move on the rebels' part, but she also didn't feel like sacrificing any more of the marines than they'd already lost in this round. She just hoped that Stock was alright. He was normally right in the middle of things right along with her, so it wasn't too farfetched an idea to consider that he might not have made it.

She felt something slam into her shoulder and she looked to see a bullet lodged in the metal. Then she looked up and realized she had gone farther than she thought and was now dangerously close to the enemy lines, so she sprinted for the tree line. Just as she reached it another explosion detonated just behind her and the shockwave catapulted her into a tree. There was a flash of pain, then everything went black.

It was probably well over an hour later when she regained consciousness with her head pounding, feeling sore all over and a little bit nauseous. She struggled out from under the tree she had apparently snapped when she was sent flying into it at speed and stood to take a look around. She noticed that everything seemed mostly silent except for a few scattered shots sounding from around the battlefield.

She started walking, not really sure where she was headed but hoping that she was going in the right direction. Eventually she stumbled across a group of marines and asked one of them if they knew where the camp was, but all they could, or would, tell her was that it was situated a little over half a mile away and then point in the general direction. She headed off in the direction they had indicated, but not being able to see very far ahead had her stumbling over everything in her path, from dead marines to blast craters. She climbed out of another crater and kept going, only to trip over what she thought was another body until the marine grunted.

"Sorry," she mumbled.

"Tenno!" he wheezed, managing a breathless laugh while he was at it, "We thought you ate it out there."

Simmons. Anya froze, her mind going blank for several seconds as she floundered trying to figure out what to do. Everything this guy had put her through after she'd been assigned to their unit flashed through her head, along with all the things she'd wanted to say and possibly do to him. She stood there and stared at him for a few moments, trying to get a hold of herself. There was no one else there and she was acutely aware of the fact that she could probably get away with putting her gun to his head and pulling the trigger at the moment. She was immediately struck by how dark the thought really was and she suddenly knew that, regardless of how much of a pain Simmons was, he was also still a marine just like Stock. And at that point she knew that she would never hurt one of her marines.

"Hey, you ok up there?" he asked.

She shook herself and refocused, stating, "I'm fine, Simmons."

"Aw, you even remember my name," he snickered.

"Don't push it," she grumbled, "I can still break your neck."

"You wouldn't really do that, would you?" he asked, sounding nervous.

"No, I wouldn't do that," she relented, deciding that scaring him was mean, "Are you alright, can you walk?"

"Naw, think I broke something or tore something, whatever, my left leg won't work and it hurts like hell," he replied, his voice still guarded.

"Come on," she said, holding her hand out to him, "I'll get you back to camp. You're going to have to help me though, I can't see shit through this thing."

"What did you do, find the ground with your face?" he asked, his grin back as he took her hand and she helped him up.

"Something like that," she replied, rolling her eyes, but she did smile a little.

It turned out they didn't really have far to go from where they were, and the minute she got Simmons there he was rushed off to…somewhere, and she was whisked away to the makeshift science lab where several technicians went to work removing her cracked faceplate and installing a new one. After several more systems diagnostics and a few armor adjustments and repairs they sent her out and she went looking for Stock. She wanted to see him, if for nothing else than just to be reassured that he was still alive.

"Hey, Anya."

"Stock," she smiled happily turning to face him, "I'm glad you're alright."

"Hah, me, we thought we lost you," he chuckled.

"So I've heard, how did Simmons put it? Oh yes, 'We thought you ate it out there,'" she quoted with a soft laugh, "Still, you're alright, yes?"

"I'm good," he smiled at her, "You? Looks like your frame took a bit of a beating."

"I'll live," she told him, "Tired, but I'll live."

"Come on," he grinned, "A few of us are setting up a spot, you can join us."

"You're sure the others won't mind?" she asked.

"Well, look at it this way, we'd probably all be bloody mush without you, so they'll just have to tolerate you," he smirked.

"No choice?" she asked, her voice amused.

"Nope," he teased.

"Well then, show me where we're going," she chuckled.