A woman born in fire

[Sturmwind]

Gefreite Melahn was not exactly what they consider the ideal soldier material; she was shy, absent-minded and clumsy for her age, it was exactly her lack of forethought that got her conscripted while being one month pregnant. Almost immediately, she was shipped to the fleet of Von Schenk, serving as a radio operator on several gunboats, her final mile and tombstone being as obvious, the RNC-Hellstrom. Seeing how back in that time little attention was given to individual opinions, needs or even health, she was given no special regard until her pregnancy in its third trimester made her more or less unable to fulfill her duties as a soldier. At that point, the Rheinwehr main fleet was already storming the borders of Kusari. By the time they even considered sending her back home, the supply lines of the Kriegsmarine were cut off, the main fleet was isolated.

When the Hellstrom and Abteilung 14 hit the vicinity of Kansai, the baby was born, the circumstances of her birth were less than ideal. A woman born into a war, fire and death... her path was selected ever since she saw the light. Her mother on the other hand, never was meant for combat, she got severely wounded by a Kusari sortie a few days after the birth of her child.

The engineering deck was one of the few areas left on the Hellstrom which was still operational, regardless of the damage it received. Occasional fires sparked up, though they could be handled with ease, that is when time was less of a luxury. Since the sickbay burned out and was flushed by a hull breach over a week ago, the engineering deck was where the injured were treated, or more accurately due to the absence of a living doctor, were placed.

Though the dead were jettisoned through the airlock, nothing could take away the smell of rotten blood that was covering the deck, in which Gefreite Melahn and her newborn daughter were placed on an improvised bed.

Most of the remaining crew was occupied with either manning the guns or keeping the ship together up on the bridge. The wounded soldier only received two visits a day, they checked if she was dead yet, when found otherwise, she was simply administered painkillers.

When the silence was broken and the baby cried up, Melahn found an old march song to calm her daughter with:

[font=Comic Sans Ms][color=#33FF33]"On the heath a little flower blooms and it's called: Erika.
Hot from a hundred thousand little bees that swarm over Erika
because her heart is full of sweetness,
her flowery dress gives off a delicate scent.
On the heath a little flower blooms and it's called: Erika."

When the lights went out and the fire alarm lit up, the newborn started crying. Melahn sighed, knowing the end of them both has arrived. She was nowhere important enough to be saved, let alone her defenseless, innocent daughter.

[color=#33FF33]"On the heath a little flower blooms and it's called: Erika..."

Then the hiss came. A loud, metallic crumbling noise followed. The ship shook as the engineering section with the infant and her mother was spit out by the gunboat, descending into the clouds of Hiyo in a coat of flames...