**0558 Hours**

**Somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Egypt**

**On-board the HMS Eagle**

Everything still felt new. She had spent some months in Korea but she never really saw any action save for the day she got noticed. The fame from that day lasted all of three days and then everyone went back to their usual cat-calling, butt-spanking, lustful selves. At least she had gotten her transfer, it was perhaps the only good thing that had happened to her since she enlisted. It was hard enough being inexperienced and surrounded by veterans and hard-asses but being a woman on top of that made her a huge target. It was to be expected she supposed. Most of the men hadn't seen a woman in months and they typically reacted in one of two ways, ecstatic and practically flying out of their pants or insulted that she was permitted to wear the same uniform. Either way it was pretty clear that the Royal Marines was a boys club and she was the oddity. 

Mandi was already in the area, not wanting to chance being late, and had been going over her medical supplies making sure she had everything necessary. She may not have had a lot of fighting experience but she had spent enough time patching up soldiers to know that painkillers were not as important as disinfectant. Seeing that it was time to muster, she made her way over to her commanding officer, a Captain by the name of Mackenzie. She arrived at 0600 just as a Sergeant Ward was reporting in. She stood next to him and followed suite. She placed her Field Surgeon's Pack (which doubled as her kit bag) at her feet and snapped to a salute. "Sir, Lance Corporal Mandi Page, Medic, Reporting in Sir." She awaited the return salute from her CO and prayed that her punctuality and proper form would at the very least make an impression of competence on the intimidating figure before her.