Gertrude

"I've lived my whole life in these wastes, I always expected them to be the end of me too." 
- Gertrude
Gertrude was a young survivor living on the remains of the Unknown Planet. Born a short amount of time before the glassing of the planet, Gertrude grew up in the nightmarish, apocalyptic remains left behind as a result of the sloppy glassing of the Jiralhanae, leaving her to fend for herself with only her father to teach her how to survive at first. Later on, Gertrude would find herself assisting Spartans Mike-G008 and Foss on their mission to both come in contact with any other Spartans stranded on the planet, as well as contact the UNSC for assistance and evacuation.
== Biography ==
=== Wrong Place at the Wrong Time ===
"The Covenant won't attack this colony anytime soon, don't worry Otto."
- Helga Fitzgerald
Gertrude was born in October 2547, daughter to Helga and Otto Fitzgerald. Her mother was a Captain serving onboard the UNSC Berlin, a Halcyon class cruiser, having met Otto while on leave on the unknown planet. As a result of Helga's duties as a captain, she was left with Otto, a engineer who had helped expand the planet's infrastructure and keep it operational. He took care of the child for the most part, as Helga soon found herself busy fighting the Covenant armada, leaving Otto as her only real parental figure. 
However, before Gertrude was even a year old, the planet found itself the next target of the Covenant war machine. A small jiralhanae fleet, led by Chieftain Decimus, began its assault on the planet, intent on proving their worth as an invading force to the Prophets. They had taken the unusual step of assaulting the planet directly with a ground force, intent on seemingly destroying any human civilian populations or military forces on the planet. However, the UNSC fleet, Berlin being amoungst its defending force, fought valiantly, causing a surprisingly high amount of casualties upon the Covenant fleet, a result of its relative inexperience combined with their incredibly risky ground assaults. 
In the end, however, the UNSC fleet was destroyed, Gertrude's Mother being amongst the casualties. The planet was hastily glassed by the surviving Covenant fleet, abandoning both the Jiralhanae on the planet, and failing to properly leave the world lifeless.