Lucina Noctiva

## History

Lucina was born into a fairly average, yet unexciting early life in Cipritine, Palaven. From her youth, she decided she wanted to study medicine, and focused on health in her schooling above anything else; that’s not to say the aspiring doctor didn’t ace the rest of her education. Like many turians, though, Lucina also bought heavily into the propaganda of the Hierarchy’s military, and grew excited at the idea of following her duty and serving in armed forces.

Though she could have put her education to full use and been a medical operative virtually anywhere, Lucina believed at the time that the people who needed the most support were those on the front lines. Thus, she trained to be a combat medic (during/after?) boot camp, and once again proved successful in the fast-paced education she was given on first aid, field surgery, and medical procedure. When it came to physical training and marksmanship, however, for the first time in her life, Lucina found herself merely on par with her fellow turians, if not slightly below average.

Upon completing her training, Lucina was assigned to the cruiser CSV Talitus and soon dropped into action. Though real combat initially shocked her reality, she quickly proved the effectiveness of her medical training, and felt content in her ability to save soldiers’ lives in a battle, as she’d intended. However, as Lucina continued to serve in the field, she grew increasingly reliant on staying occupied during and especially between missions. Although she had a clear talent for remaining steady and alert in the most dire of moments, any time Lucina wasn’t staying busy with work or study began to stress her out. She soon earned a reputation as a workaholic, and rarely spent her downtime unproductively.

After five years of service, at the age of 20, Lucina served in a life-changing mission on Galatana. Her unit was deployed into a manic battle for support, and within minutes, Lucina was tending to a gravely injured soldier at the front lines. Before she could save the life in her hands, a vehicle nearby was blasted apart, with the remainder of its hull thrown out of control, and collided with Lucina and her patient. Lucina was hospitalized for weeks, and left with heavy scarring across her faceplates. Additionally, her recovery time was prolonged by growing stress from such a lengthy, unoccupied period. After a later psychological evaluation, Lucina was shakey about returning to combat, and was recommended to shift to domestic work for the remaining ten years of her service.

Almost immediately after Lucina was discharged from the military, she moved to the Citadel and took up higher surgical training. Her years to follow were deeply invested in her studies, and almost completely devoid of time away from either education or books. After a while, a more controlled life began letting Lucina’s tensions ease up, and her downtime shifted from continuous study to other indoor hobbies, especially reading. Though it wasn’t the main focus of her education, Lucina also took up an interest in studying orthopaedics on the side, likely in part due to her facial scarring.

At the end of her education, Lucina began work at Huerta Memorial Hospital as a trauma surgeon. Though she would admit that it wasn’t exciting or hectic in the way being a combat medic was for her, she found that the different sorts of challenges that domestic medical care presented were just as stimulating, and the more controlled environment was far easier to bear. Lucina felt content with life at this point, remained employed at the hospital after her mandatory service came to an end.

Unfortunately, the arrival of the Reapers in 2186 marked the end of Lucina’s happier way of life, as it did for the rest of the galaxy. A staggering rise in refugees arriving on the Citadel, many of whom needed medical care, created an unmatched demand for doctors. Lucina was adamant about helping as many as she could, even if it wasn’t through her primary skills as a surgeon, but she could not deny that the catastrophic effects of the Reaper War went beyond what she and her fellow doctors could handle in full.

For the first weeks of the war, Lucina was certain that the best place to help was at home on the Citadel, but the neverending influx of bad news soon made her reconsider her place. With the thought that her citizens would not be safe without soldiers to keep fighting the war, Lucina soon re-enlisted in the Hierarchy military, albeit as a continued trauma surgeon rather than a combat medic. Over time, her stress between hours of work re-emerged, but she was determined to remain in service nonetheless.

When all of the galaxy’s military forces came together for the assault at Earth, Lucina briefly hit the ground to treat the wounded at a makeshift base of operations. Though she never saw the battle in person, the feeds she witnessed and the injuries she tended to were by far the worst of the war, and it scared her. Ultimately, the assault failed, and Lucina was evacuated as the planet continued to fall apart.

The week that followed nearly broke her spirit entirely, only holding together by the merit of staying busy with any injuries she could tend to. It was after this brief period, however, that Lucina was contacted by the newly formed R.I.F.T. about Operation: Event Horizon. Her medical prowess made her a candidate for the small task force, and although she wasn’t so sure of her place anymore, Lucina accepted the invitation in hopes that she’d be helping someone turn the tide.