Background

Growing up in a poor, but well loved house-hold with her two sisters (Laura and Mharie), everyone thought that Madeline would eventually excel in any role that she picked out, owed to a seemingly happy childhood with only a few 'unexplained' accidents with matches and a couple of rubbish bins that mysteriously caught fire. The middle child of the three, the problems would only begin to emerge once Madeline hit puberty and discovered the pervasive influence of hormones into her daily life - she had went from a happy child to a smiling terror that enjoyed setting fires in the span of a couple of years thanks to a growing crowd of misfits at Secondary School eventually pressuring her into further acts of rebellion. Despite her out of school shenanigans, Madeline excelled at school and learned quickly from the material, taking a great interest in the science behind chemistry - both organic and applied, as well as gaining a relative fluency over her native Gaelic and English. All throughout her early life, she had the grades and the raw talent to succeed later in life. That of course, would change when she turned 19 : A particularly rowdy party later, she would eventually be caught by Wayne Spiner, setting fire to what appeared to be an abandoned car after some particularly choice bottles of alcohol was involved - that night, she had simply slept off the destruction she had wrought in a pleasant haze of alcohol and comfort. The coming morning would be a different story though, as the Spiners sat her down to have an earnest discussion about her love of all things fire and that raw need for chaos She was given a choice: she could be handed into the police and serve a couple of years for the destruction of personal property, or she could willingly join the British Army to try and correct the choices she had made in life, and manage her more destructive tendencies with comradery - there had been very little hesitation in that moment and she chose to enlist, rather than have to face the consequences of being caught. Despite reservations on all sides that Madeline would fit within such an ordered structure, it helped shaped and guide her destructive tendencies immensely and gave her an outlet for the need to set fire to things - she was encouraged to learn the finer points of handing explosives, firearms and other maintenance tasks as well as the operation of numerous different devices for demolition. She has on occasion been allowed to take lead on building destruction when it's been needed, much to her glee. Although Madeline passed through basic training like any other recruit seeking entry into the British Army, she was denied an active combatant role and forced to join the Corps of Royal Electrical, and Mechanical Engineers (REME) to serve out her bit as a craftswoman in the support corps due to her worrying fascination for fire. Although it took some adapting to being forced into a specific role away from what she actually wanted, Maddy has excelled in the role of company armourer attached to the Queen's Regiment - she has learned through keen study and experience in the field that a weapon that does not fire is of no use to anyone and as such, she has put her mind to focusing on her role as someone supplying her people with the finest tools to ensure everyone makes it home. Her first real test would come at the onset of the Gulf War and British involvement in the conflict. While the regiment that she was a part of was not involved due to administrative matters at the time, she was reassigned and attached to the 21st Engineer Regiment of the Royal Engineers and deployed into Operation Granby where she saw combat and assisted the engineering staff with a multitude of duties such as field repairs, clearing mines and repairing equipment. Deployment into the conflict acted as a mellowing force for Madeline When she finally returned home, it was to a newly merged regiment and everything that she had grown to appreciate had changed. The Princess of Wales Royal Regiment had formed officially months later and brought with it new challenges and obstacles to overcome, namely finding a source of comfort again. When the world collapsed, the first battalion had been training on their chosen training ground in the Canadian Countryside and were devastated when the rifts finally opened in earnest, leaving only the scattered remnants of their former group. In desperation, they were forced to come together and decided to locate their allies in the US government as a means towards communicating with Britain - they headed south in search of any installation still intact and had only found ruin when they heard a broadcast over the radio from the authorities promising safe haven in the Mega-mall. With no other choices left to them, they gathered what precious little transport still had gas and headed south towards Kentucky.