In the hangar, Marcia Devries stood with her fellow soldiers and grinned.

[i]So we're called Ox Squad, huh? I wonder why we're named after an animal? In particular, that animal? [/i]
At least circumstances around her have changed. She had waited endlessly during the personnel transport and it had been so boring! Now, the situation was finally heating up. 

She looked around her. There were so many tall people. Even the other girl was tall. Everyone looked so... well... buff, at least compared to herself -- which wasn't really a bad thing to Marcia. For instance, she thought the big baldy guy was kinda hot. She thought the smaller one who was chewing on beef jerky was delicious. And the tall girl? -- was well... a girl. 

She suddenly recalled her last boyfriend -- if you could call him that. Anything was better than Dillion. Dillion had been somewhat of a playboy and a gambler. Nevertheless, she missed Dillion and the life that he gave her. There had been passion in that one-sided romance, at least for her -- but it [i]had been[/i] one-sided. All Dillion wanted in life was to live the exotic life of a professional card player and bone girls, often two times a week. Marcia had been his wingmate despite her love for him. Eventually, she grew tired of being only a plaything. 

Now, her life was different. Now, she embraced another passion. It was far superior to the last one. This passion was none other than her line of work. She passionately believed that it was humankind's destiny to expand to the stars and overcome any barrier or any obstacle that got in the way. And because she believed that, she also believed that it was the duty of every soldier to repel alien invaders from mother earth. 

That's why she had joined XCOM. She wanted to be of service to her species, and to heal those that fought with her. She wanted to be of help to humankind.

Yet, at times she just wanted to stay in her bed and not have to face her problems. She wanted to snuggle with her cat and never have to confront the world. Sometimes, she wanted to have never grown up and to be in her parent's house back on the colony.

"Hi all," she introduced herself. "I'm Marcia Devries. My question is... well... I'm wondering how we'll get there? The alien stronghold on Arthan-3 in the Utila System, I mean." [i]Um... I sort of slept through the class on interstellar physics.[/i] "So will we be put into cryogenic freeze or suspended animation or something? I don't want to go to sleep and then realize that i'm now 30 years older than before. And why are we called [i]Ox Squad[/i]?"