The tale of Ash:

Where should I being... I had two life’s the one I remember and the one I have now. When I was just a girl I lived on Arcadia I remember the hot nights and the beautiful jungle trees outside my window. I spent my life with my mother and rarely saw my father he was in the army but on the holidays he would get leave and see me… But that’s all gone now; I was just six years old when Oni abducted me for the Spartan program. My second life was on the Thor my friends were the crew. I spent the rest of my life serving on that ship...It was sad to say good bye, we all saw so much on that ship.

When I was seventeen Oni sent me to Hat Yai, I saw some horrible things on Hat Yai… Some of the worst things, Oni didn’t care for the Spartans with the lower test results they sent us to all different places for low level assignments. My job was to study the covenant look at the way they fight and how to counter it. But that fell though after the war turned nasty, The Thor and I were assigned to defence on the outer colonies.

Only two years after Hat Yai fell Eridanus II got hit, the Thor was sent to help defend but I had a better idea. For some reason the covenant only had one fleet, so me and the Captain organized a counter attack… We used the information we got on Hat Yai to guess what they would do and counter it. And for a while it worked, carefully organised plans and strikes took down their front lines. But then we got overrun, the Covenant got backup three more fleets arrived… our chances were slim with just one. Loss after loss the whole team got overrun I didn’t know what to do we got pinned down and… and I left them there. I left my team behind and they all died because I wasn’t brave enough to help them… I tried to regroup with the other team but... I couldn’t find them then I saw it. The covenant glassed the entire city…. I just watched I tried fighting but I couldn’t save Eridanus. When I got back to the Thor the planet was gone… that day changed me, and it changed the crew.

When Arcadia was attacked, we were assigned to another planet but I convinced the Captain to get us reassigned. When I got there the planet was in pretty bad shape. I failed my crew on Eridanus, I wasn’t going to fail my home. When I was in Pirth my pelican got hit I lost my squad and spent a couple days just trying to get out the city. It was chaos the streets were over run and the army was so unprepared… When I was in the city I went back to my old house... most the street was rubble but I found it my home… It had been fourteen years, but I was back home. No one was there but I had hope, its funny I’ve saved this since then it’s an old picture of me and my mother… I took it from the house; the worst thing is what they must have thought … I still don’t know if they died. I hated seeing Pirth like that the burning sky and all the dead it wasn’t the reunion I wanted it wasn’t the place I remembered. The battle went on for days we kept getting pushed back, for a while I gave up. But I couldn’t let Arcadia fall, everything I ever went through was for this. Halsey told us we were important, this was the reason I existed I was Arcadia’s protector I wouldn’t let it fall… I never gave up and then my hope returned. The covenant weren’t invincible. The Thor and the rest of the UNSC forces held back the attack for a while but I was called back to Reach by Oni. I didn’t like the idea of leaving Arcadia so soon but I had no choice.

When we got back to Reach I met Halsey again it had been years since I last saw her, Halsey was everything to us when we were in the program, we would do anything she asked. She created us, she was our god… Without her we wouldn’t exist as the soldiers we are today. Then Oni assigned me to Beta team it was full of insubordinate Spartans but when I was assigned so was a new leader. He was a good Spartan and he turned that team around. And the Thor was back to service, that’s pretty much my past… It was bloody and terrifying, and I made mistakes plenty of them...But I did my duty I defended my home and tried to defend others but, I was never strong enough.
<Document Ends>

This is the continuation of Ashlie's story after she was sent back to the frontlines

It's been such a long time... So much has happened since that day. I was redeployed on the frontlines, put in the command of a ground squad... The thing is I never knew it was going to happen like that I didn't mean it to... I just wanted to do the right thing... When it was over I saw Torres briefly on the Pelican but he didn't talk to me. I understand why but...
I doesn't matter any more I never saw any of them again. Not even Draco...

I heard Jay was sent back to the frontlines as well but after that nothing... She was a good person even if I will never see her again I still want her to know that I'm sorry. I never wanted to upset her, but I ask myself would she do the same? What if she knew what Draco had done would she have overlooked it because of me? It's hard to say but she seems a better person then Dormii, she was the only one apart from Torres that stayed.

And Torres... If only he knew how sorry I was, I never wanted that for him! He was a good Spartan and an even better man... He led us all, he helped me so much I just wish I could pay him back but not after what they did to him. It was all over the news for a while, everyone who was on the ship got hurt because of me. and Torres got.. He got marked with treason, he didn't deserve anything that happened. I still kept it all this time still unopened, I didn't tell anyone I wouldn't want to tell anyone.

I just wish I had more time, more time to think... I was trying to do what was right, The right thing was to tell the truth but. Why did it hurt so many people if it was the right thing!? Sometimes I try to imagine what would of happened if I didn't do it.. But its to late I'm so tired so sick of all this fighting, Its all that's left now I'm less of a person less human.
But that's what we are, we aren't human were Spartans. just another faceless visor fallen in the warzone.

Oh Draco, what did I do? If only I could talk to you again. I'm so sorry I just wanted I just... I don't even know Draco, I just wish I could have said goodbye. You should of let me go, Go to back the UNSC. You shouldn't of saved me from cryo, You should of just left me to die! I should of been killed on that day! But you where the first person there you saved me Draco, and what did I do? I betrayed everyone and the worst thing I never even asked you If you did or not..?
Do you?....

I have to end this here the Captain is calling me back...
{Entry closed}

I was fighting in the city when we got the call; a hospital outside the city limits was being attacked. The Covenant did it to get our large force out the city; we needed the man power to move everyone… When we got there the place was already in a mess, people had been left by the staff trying to get off the planet.. Me and the Captain led the team straight in there, they had planned on it...

They had cloaked Zealots ready to pounce when we were moving the Patients. It was a nightmare the team got split up and those who did make it out were barely alive.. We tried to secure more time but the Pelicans just couldn't get there.. We headed inside a tunnel just off the road, it was some where we could regroup and get cover from the Wraiths... but that all went wrong, very wrong.

The Brutes made it past our line of defence then they poured in, they were burning everything! We tried to get everyone to the back of the tunnel to make time but.. We couldn't we trapped ourselves! There was no way out, the tunnel just echoed with screams. And that sound, I tried I stayed to the last minute I stood up and tired! Everything I was made for! It was to stop things like that but, I wasn't strong enough. The Brutes got to me next; it's so hard to put into words.. I was burned alive but felt no pain, I sat in my suit being boiled as I watched the rest die I just watched..!

When the fire had me it was awful, it burned on my suit for what felt like hours... I burned everything I was that day.. I can't even look at myself any more I can't believe I just sat there, as all those people died. That blood is on my hands my suit was charred but I couldn't change it I had to carry that. That suit made me half of what I was it saved me.. But for what? So I can live a life? I couldn't even save one that day they depended on me and I failed, again.

When I woke up I was under a pile of bodies, you never forget that smell. I headed out the tunnel but I could still hear the screams echoing, everything was gone. The Brutes just left like that, and I was left... Every single body was my fault, I can't forget that... I don't remember what happened after that, I wondered that glassed city for a couple days.. I think I was found... I don't remember all I heard were those screams...

I'm sorry Draco.. goodbye
{Entry Ends}

{A note scribbled into the walls of Ash’s Cell}
I hear them… At night they come and take the others away, I need to get out of here now!

It’s been two days now and the screams won’t stop, it’s not me! Their real I know it…. What are they doing here…?

I should have hid it… What if they find it..? I’m never going to get out of here….

{The note Ash wrote to Draco before she left}
Draco

I know what your thinking... And my words can't help you, I'm finding it hard to believe my own words... But..

I have to do this, I can't live like this. The fighting, the hiding, the fear... And.. I want to know the truth, I need to find it..
I need to become myself again.. (The note is stained in her dried tears) And you know, that I will always love you... I wish, I wish I could leave you something... Something of mine, for you to hold and keep safe for when I return.

Draco all I can give you is my heart... And my words.. And I hope, that these... Mean something, I hope it can help I hope they can see you through your darkest moments... And remember Draco, I will find you again.

I promise

Ashlie