April Cerison

"Any true soldier's first duty is to protect the man next to him, not the mission."

- Cerison, to Salem Whittaker, after being required to pull out of a mission alone.

April Cerison was a Systems Alliance special forces (N7) operative, born on 4.12.2156, to Robert and Margaret Cerison, in the village of Sept Montagnes, in France, on Earth.

Early Life
Born in 2158 CE, to Robert and Margaret Cerison, April Cerison was born on Earth, in a small French village known as Sept Montagnes, having a view of six mountains, the seventh the village being located on. April's parents had fought in the same unit during the First Contact War, her father serving as a soldier while her mother served as a medic. Margaret had saved Robert's life after he'd lost his legs in combat, and staged a retreat in a battle that had saved an entire platoon of soldiers. This inspired April to join the military when she became older.

In 2166 CE, April's parents decided to move to the Citadel, where April spent most of her youth. She went to an academy with a salarian named Potos Moran who became her best friend. The young salarian and April had the friendship for about twelve years, April even saving Potos from getting beaten by a group of turians. In 2171, Potos was caught in the middle of a mercenary firefight from a group of mercenaries working for the Shadow Broker and C-Sec. Potos was driving to a market, along with his father and his four other siblings, when they were hit by a stray rocket launched by a Shadow Broker mercenary. Their car was destroyed, along with everyone inside.

After that, April was determined to make a difference, and join the Alliance military to stop events like that. She had thought about C-Sec, but decided against it, remembering that it had been partly C-Sec's fault that Potos was dead. In 2177, she had decided to join the Alliance, and leave her parents safe on the Citadel. Cerison paid for a small apartment and tickets to the Citadel for her grandparents, and soon after they had arrived, she set off for an Alliance training center on Mars.

Career
In 2177 CE, April set out for the Alliance Training Camp on Mars. April was stationed at the camp for around one year, becoming proficient in rifles, shotguns, and pistols. She learned the basics of combat - how to operate weapons and vehicles, methods for keeping armor from falling apart, and other aspects of combat.

Torfan
As her first mission, April was sent to combat on Torfan, being sent with a squad containing corporal Ralph Nellis, Private First Class Mike Wall, Percy Kreates, sergeant and corpsman William Rider, and captain Josh Petrel.

The squad, known as Hotel Squad, being the eighth squad, was aboard the SSV Okinawa, a frigate carrying fifteen squads of Alliance soldiers. The Okinawa, along with around twelve other ships, were en route to Torfan. Intel had shown that the batarians were hidden in strongholds, interconnected caves, under the ground, where they had weapons caches, plans for upcoming attacks, armor and vehicle schematics, among other things. The ships entered the atmosphere and were met with heavy fire from SAM sites, anti-air defense towers, along with batarian fire. Most troops were dispersed from their ships in M29A Grizzlies, along with a few M35 Mako FAVs.

Cerison was aboard a Grizzly that was en route to an entrance to the tunnels. They avoided the batarians, who were laying heavy fire on the Alliance cavalry. April's Grizzly quickly arrived. Two squad members, Cpl. Nellis and PFC Wall were staying behind to keep the Grizzly safe. Kreates, Rider, Cerison, and Chief Petrel blew open the door and charged inside, finding a damp dark area.

They moved through the tunnels, occasionally engaging batarians in the dark until they found a sole door. When they opened it the squad found a large room with vehicles, weapons, ammo, and a few batarians. The squad engaged the batarians in a firefight, one of them injuring Kreates. A batarian pulled out two grenades and activated them, charging towards the squad. When the batarian moved in for the Chief, Cerison jumped out of cover and hit the batarian with the stock of her shotgun, after-which shooting him multiple times with the shotgun. When the charger died, coincidentally, the grenades were blown back towards the other batarians, killing them. The squad radioed to the Okinawa, and were ordered to evacuate to the ship.

Cerison was promoted to Corporal for her actions, and given a medal to accommodate her bravery, saving her captain.

Teramar
As her second mission, again aboard the Okinawa, April was deployed with her squad in a newer M35 Mako, on an uncharted planet called Teramar. The planet was a former colony on the outer rim of the Teran Nebula, frozen over due to the distance between the system's sun and Teramar. The planet had only been colonized due to its abundance of minerals, primarily Palladium. Small encampments had been made across the colony, in hotspots where the minerals were located. All communications with the Teramar had been lost, and no-one had spoken or heard from any of the colonists since the last month.

April and her squad landed on the planet and traveled to one of the camps. They found tents abandoned, vehicle canopies empty. Upon entering the underground living quarters, which required a security override, the door locked, the squad discovered gun scorches on the walls, doors open and meals left on tables, spoiling. It appeared that the colonists had just ran off, aside from the scorch marks, which suggested that they were captured.

The squad exited the encampment, seeing slavers trying to get inside the Mako. The slavers engaged the Alliance soldiers, who fought for a few minutes, eventually eliminating all but one incapacitated slaver. The squad members interrogated the injured slaver, learning that the colonists had been captured and taken to a batarian ship known as the Baltaria. The slaver told the squad where the Baltaria was currently located. They left the slaver on the planet, destroying the small ship he and the others had come from. The group then drove the Mako to the drop point and boarded the Okinawa, setting a course for the current location of the Baltaria.

The Baltaria
A few hours later, an infiltration team containing the Hotel Squad, along with all other serving soldiers aboard the Okinawa, were getting prepared to board the ship. The Okinawa took the Baltaria by surprise and fired at the ship, destroying one of their thrusters to slow them down.

Then, the Okinawa positioned itself above the slow moving Baltaria, and the first group of the infiltration team disembarked in a short EVA to get to the ship, due to the fact that the batarians wouldn't allow a direct-boarding.

April was part of the first infiltration group, the rest of her squad in the second. One of the team members began cutting into the hull of the ship with a torchcutter, a small cutting tool made for exo-atmospheric repairs. The ship started to accelerate, going to max speed, nearly half of what it's full speed would have been, being that the particular model of ship had only three thrusters.

The second team stayed behind on the ship, the speed the ship was going at, combined with the slow jumping speed would've flung any soldier into the abyss of space.

Once the team had an entrance, they moved inside and sealed the corridor they were in after moving out. Batarians immediately engaged them, the group of Alliance soldiers using their training, good equipment, and teamwork to take down the untrained batarians.

After fighting through a few more rooms in the cramped ship, the soldiers arrived at a junction, one elevator leading to the bridge of the ship, the other to the holding cells. The team split in two parts, half of them going towards the bridge, the others to the holding cells. April was assigned to the holding cells. After the elevator ride, the team was met with the civilians being pressed against the walls by the slavers. One civilian, a younger girl, was on the ground, a batarian ready to shoot her. He threatened to if the Alliance soldiers didn't surrender their weapons. After a few moments of negotiations, April decided that the best option would be to confuse the batarians. She threw a flash-bang grenade, and shot the batarian captain. While the others were disoriented, the team made quick work of them, freeing the colonists.

When they arrived at the junction, one squad member was slung over another's shoulder. According to the leader of that team, resistance had been heavy in the bridge and a private was killed, though all of the slavers had been eliminated.

For another stunning act of bravery, April was reprimanded by her superior, but given another medal for her, again, bravery.