"Flashback"

[Char Aznable]

Deck 10, Section K, Vogtland Base, Dresden System
09/06/817 AS, 2038 Station time

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"Oh, for Christ almighty's sake, get the syringe already! She's dying here, and just because you think that you're more important that doesn't mean we should lose another pilot!"

Nika Haupt was scared. She had been for the past few weeks, and she still was. Vogtland, the "promised land" after Freistadt, had turned out to be more of a hellhole than the first "Freeport" could have ever been. She'd gone here because she had nowhere to run. The explosion in her home was still audible in her mind, and it would very likely be for ages. And now, just because she had a bachelor in medicine, she was assigned to the sick bay. Well, better than the fighter cockpit.

Two hours later, she was the last one left in the room. Most pilots today had suffered minor wounds, except for the young Lieutenant. First female officer she'd met, so far. Shrapnel hit inside the stomach, multiple internal organs wounded. As she was about to greet her, two people came into the room to speak to the Lieutenant - probably goons that thought her responsible for her fallen comrades. True or not, she wasn't having that.

While behind her miss Heinrich was waking up, Nika was finishing her harsh speech on the two Fliegers.

"I don't care if she's a woman, if I'm a woman or if you're Kanzler Niemann himself! This is my goddamn sickbay, and you talk to my patients whenever I, and only I decide it's fine for them. We clear? Oh, feel free to go and tell the Hauptmann. That girl is going nowhere until I've found a way to fix her spleen. Clear? Clear! Now piss off!"