Katerina Nevsky

=History=

Early Life
Katerina Nevsky was the seventh child of a family of 13. Born catholic on the outer colony world of Acheron-VII, a planet devastated by the Covenant during the Great War, Katerina enjoyed a rough, rural upbringing. Her parents, both post-war military veterans, were volunteer colonists participating in the effort to repopulate human space. Growing up on a farm in the loosely populated wilderness, school and education were never at the center of Katerina’s existence. With every hand around the house needed to help work the farm, Katerina grew up with a strong work ethic and a zeal for physical activity. She began formal schooling at the age of eight, as did all colonist children on Acheron-VII. Despite being ferociously intelligent, Katerina never showed much interest in school, instead preferring to spend her time in the wilderness exploring or, later, participating in sports.

Teenage Years
At thirteen, Katerina graduated from her middle school, on to high school. She earned passing grades, but never truly excelled, aside from sports. She expanded her interest in the outdoors, and would often draw the ire of her teachers by skipping school to go backpacking into the wilderness, sometimes for weeks at a time, to hunt, camp, and, above all, test herself. As she matured, Katerina became more and more anxious, always trying to find challenges to test herself, but quickly running out on the isolated colony world. By the time she turned eighteen, Katerina had grown impatient with the slow-paced lifestyle of the colony and was ready for a change. She signed with the UNSC marines the day she turned eighteen.

Training
In the military, Katerina finally found the challenge she craved. She was transferred the newly restored UNSC base planet of Reach, and immediately began training. Boot camp was the hardest thing she had ever experienced, and with that challenge came a newfound focus. Katerina quickly excelled. She quickly gained a reputation in her platoon as a crack shot, skilled wilderness survival expert, and hard worker. Though she had found school uninteresting, she took a great interest in tactics, and soon, was a known to be a skilled tactician as well. But alongside this came perhaps the most important gift to her the military had to offer: community. Somewhat of a loner in her earlier years, she now found comradeship with her fellow soldiers, and formed a deep bond with her platoon mates. Blossoming into something of a natural leader, she earned the rank of platoon sergeant and took command of her training group upon graduation.

First Deployment
The UNSC had had a period of relative peace for the last forty years, aside from a few small campaigns and skirmishes, but the Remnant was now on the rise once again. Sporadic raids by Remnant forces were getting more and more frequent, and more and more troops were being deployed by each side. Full fledged war was breaking out. In 2597, after graduating from basic, Katerina’s unit was assigned to the fifteenth marine battalion and deployed to the UNSC Battlegroup Georgia. For three months, they chased Remnant Forces around contested space without a single engagement, and by 2598, Katerina had yet to see combat. That would change all to soon.

In late January of 2598, USR intelligence teams informed the UNSC of a Remnant Shipyard under construction on the edge of contested space. The UNSC ordered Battlegroup Georgia to assault the contested world, labeled Gamma-Two-Seven, while Battlegroups Yankee and Edinburgh staged an assault on a nearby world in distraction. On February 11th of 2598, the 15th battalion was deployed to the surface of Gamma-27 in a lightning strike to assault the factories. ODST commandos were hot-dropped straight to the factory, while the 15th secured a perimeter and prevented Covenant troops from a nearby garrison from defending the shipyard.

Intelligence was off, however, and the 15th discovered upon landing that the garrison, though to be roughly equal in size to the marine force, was actually several times larger. As the assault began, they suffered massive casualties, losing almost 90% of their forces. The commando units still required more time to complete their mission however, so they had to hold out. The 15th retreated onto a massive bridge spanning a ravine, which if lost, would allow Remnant troops to assault the commando force. The Remnant force pressed hard, and with the 15th still sustaining heavy casualties, it seemed like only a matter of time until the Remnant broke through.

Katerina’s newly minted platoon fought hard, but every single member but her was wiped out. With most of the battalion COs dead, and most other NCOs eliminated as well, command of the remaining troops, less than 150, fell to Katerina. With her in command, however, the 150 remaining members of the battalion were able to miraculously hold the line against more than 1,000 remnant troops, long enough for the commandos to finish their mission and destroy the factory. With less than 25 troops remaining, they retreated, and were extracted by dropship support from the orbital forces and retreated back to human space, the mission complete, but at a heavy cost.

Engagements with the 18/10
=Description=