Dr. Annika Jana Haupt (Character Sheet)

[Char Aznable]

[img float=right]https://i.imgur.com/4Hl3sdb.jpg?1[/img]
Dr. Annika Jana Haupt

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"They call me a terrorist, Lia. A pirate. An Enemy of the state. They call me a murderer. And the worst thing is that they're not wrong. They turned me into a monster - and there's no way back."

Annika J. Haupt, 822 AS

Basic Information

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Gender: Female
Age: 29 Years
Marital Status: Married
Birthday: Officially 4th May, actually 23rd of February 797 AS
Place of Birth: Sector 7, Harburg City, Planet Hamburg, Hamburg System
Place of Residence: Deck 2, WGS Ostara, Somewhere in the Walker Nebula
Affiliation: Bundschuhpartei?, Frühlingswache
Regular known whereabouts: None

Appearance

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Height: 169cm
Hair: Black
Eyes: Hazel
Distinguishing marks: Long line beginning at her neck and crossing her cheek (old scar fixed with synthetic tissue, looks like body art at first glance); Carbon-black cybernetic arm prosthesis, right arm and hand, left lower arm and hand, golden ring as a part of the ringfinger; Black triangular tattoo on her chin (Denoting her as part of a student sorority on the "Prager Universität")

Not being exactly large or imposing as a figure, Haupt appears not particularly noteworthy at first glance. Her characteristic black leather overall makes her look like a pretty dark figure, combined with her hair color and arms. The impression is only strengthened by the fact she keeps her hair hanging in one side of the face, appearing even less accessible.

Personality

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Annika, previosly preferring the nickname 'Nika' over her full name, wears two faces, although one of them is almost never seen in public. To everyone except for her (now mostly deceased or MIA) closest of friends, she is jaded, sarcastic and guarded. She still maintains her initial curious persona, but her questions seem more calculated, as if she is always making a plan or putting whatever answer she might receive into a bigger frame. Her ability to emulate customs and blend in to crowds that way has served her well on multiple occasions, and her teaching habit still shines through, sometimes.
If among friends, she becomes much less talkative. She turns inward, and begins pondering. If left to her own devices, she usually quickly just stops talking altogether, only on direct address responding with a hum or a different sound of acknowledgement. Laughing, in any situation, has become a very rare occurance, reduced to a rhetoric tool.

The fears that she has a mental disorder have only started to become stronger, although she only lets them surface when she is alone. Usually, in those situations, she is overcome with dread and regret, something that she cannot and will not allow herself to be shown in public. Her increasingly cybernetic body is only evidence of this - in her late twenties she more often than not tried to regain control over what felt like her life getting out of control by exerting exactly that control on her body.

On top of that broad stroke, Nika has a few quirks, just like everyone. She tends to gesture a lot while talking, especially when giving a speech or lecturing. Her English is always slightly accentuated, but more with a hint of Bretonian rather than Rheinlandic. She also never uses german words in english sentences. Her tic to touch the right arm because of the phantom pain after losing it has by now ingrained itself into her routine, only resurfacing after the replacement she had made in 824. Her faith in christianity, before being a strong motivator, now has been replaced by a deep-rooted cynicism, while even her tendency of avoiding curses has withered as well - even though she tends to prefer curses referring to her broken faith over profanities.

Generally, Nika is a deeply troubled personality. Though she never lets it shimmer through, keeping her icy, scary persona up at all times, whenever she is alone she tends to realize how incredibly hollow her task is. She realizes that her 'functioning' is merely her fulfilling a role, one that hasn't even been necessarily chosen by her. Her function as a tool, a weapon, to bring the Republic down, fulfills her only as long as she is actively pursuing it, and the feeling of loneliness and lack of conviction almost brings her mind down at times - one of the many reasons she keeps to herself on the ship, only rarely leaving her quarters.


Skillset

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Combat training: Basic Hessian and Bundschuh combat training, sufficient piloting skills
Schooling: Doctor's degree in Sirian History, Bachelor of Medicine
Physical skills: Enhanced strength in both arms, superior perception (added visual spectrums, zoom function, flash suppression), enhanced metabolism (cybernetic kidney). Basic Judo training (Orange-Green belt)
Known languages: German (mother's tongue), English (fluent), Japanese (fluent), Latin (acceptable), Spanish (acceptable), Italian (basics only)

Nika is, above all, a very smart person. Having a Doctor's degree at her young age, combined with a Bachelor in a completely different field of expertise, she prefers to fight with her mind rather than her hands. Every problem she encounters is usually approached analytically, and solved in the very same manner. This means that in matters of interpersonal relations, she is able to assess the situation, but takes time to do so. Knowing about her lacking skills in battle, she is often hesitant to call for violence involving her personally, and in consequence can get surprised by sudden and unprovoked/unpredictable attacks. This, coupled with her jaded demeanour, creates a significant weakness.

Relations

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Anna Heinrich: Her last friend to actually see her before her vanishing, Anna Heinrich is partly responsible for Nika surviving her early years in the Red Hessians. With her husband not exactly being the most pleasant sort, Anna provided a much needed beacon of safety in the misogyny and brutality of the daily life aboard Vogtland. With their old relationship being renewed now, and Nika having changed significantly, it has yet to show if the two will stay friends. Their close relationship in the past did prove beneficial for Hessian/Bundschuh relations and still forms the basis of the Wache's connection with the Dresden-based organization.
Erich Klugmann: In her beginning days in the Bundschuh, Nika viewed herself as a Klugmannist - much of that can still be seen in her relatively lax course towards the law-enforcers at the moment. She is deeply troubled by recent uncoverings about Klugmann's dealings (even though she is aware that they might be fabricated in the political deathmatch that the party assembly recently had turned into). Klugmann was however relatively quickly replaced by a different figure.
Freya Eistochter: While she never knew her real name, Nika considered herself to be one of the very few friends the party leader had before she vanished. She was also one of the few people who knew about Freya's connections to the Order, and it was for her that she visited Planet Hamburg during the winter period of the last year, trying for an attempt on the new Kanzler's life and creating one of the biggest terrorist attacks in recent Bundschuh history - the so called "November Bombing". After the resulting trial (a number of Bundschuh operatives lost their lives in this, resulting in accusations towards Nika that she was going rogue) Freya lost a significant amount of her political clout, and later on left Bruchsal. After Nika took over the position of Oberst and declared both of her former mentors rogue, relations between the two have broken down.
Hannah Feinen/Viktoria Haupt: Growing infatuated with the young pilot in September 823, shortly after her promotion to Oberst, Nika initially had a (not-so-)secret affair with the mechanically skilled woman, only to marry her in a quiet and unspectacular ceremony aboard Hawai'i a month later. Viktoria is probably Nika's strongest weakness, as well as one of her most valuable assets - as her most trusted advisor she provided a counterweight for Nika's unstable personality. She is also the only person outside of the Order to know of her involvement with and in it.
Arthur Atkins: One of the few people to know her before she had joined the Bundschuh, Atkins has since saved Nika's life twice, in both situations making sure that she learned of his opinion on her exploits. She trusts Atkins, a rare trait, but that is mainly due to his uninvolvement with current events.

History

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Nika's youth on Hamburg, 09.10.811 AS

Found on the stairs of one of the very few christian orphanages in Harburg City, Annika Wehrheim was given a name and brought up by nuns. She used to hold a deep respect for believers in a higher entity, and even if she didn't go to church anymore still regularly prayed for herself.
So far, she has never felt the need to search for her parents. From what she had gathered, she is not an orphan, but her mother was too young to reasonably supply a child, and gave her away because of it. Her youth in the orphanage itself was not necessarily a bad one - she was fed, taught well and never the cause of much controversy. Early on it became evident that the young girl was craving for knowledge, and with the help of a locally funded scholarship Nika managed to get into the Prager University early, after skipping multiple classes.

In 814 AS, at the age of seventeen, Nika's life changed significantly. She switched courses, from medicine to sirian History, after finishing the Bachelor of Medicine. The switching of courses is one of the few early decisions in her life that she today regrets, as it was motivated by her anger about her then-boyfriend Dennis Haupt leaving her on the pressure of his family. The established group of industrialists could not accept such young woman into their families - it broke with traditions and common rules. She began focusing on her studies, and quickly turned out to be equally apt with political sciences, and practically marched through the studies. A year after her beginning, she had the Master's degree and began her postgraduate studies under the supervision of Dr. Hannes Jensen, a renowned political critic. She began growing accustomed with him - a bit too much, to her own admittance - and continued her studies.
During this time she lived with Amelia Thiel, a childhood friend of hers, that had begun art studies. Amelia - or Lia, as Nika called her - was her only connection to the world outside of her studies. Regularly the two would go out and end up partying for a while, even going to the extent of being arrested at least twice for drinking in public. Amelia was also critical of her relationship with her Professor - although it would be this relationship that would end up saving her life.

Under Jensens' influence, Nika had gradually become more radicalized. An academic through and through, she had always hoped that Rheinland's masses would one day get better chances in their lives, but after she finished her doctor's degree she began publishing politically charged pamphlets and papers. It might have been that she managed to annoy some people, or she just got within the sights of someone that was targeting Jensen, but nevertheless after a warning of her old friend she managed to run off, the police right on her heels. She hid on Freistadt, and it was here that her old life was about to end.

Nika on Vogtland, approx. 816 AS

Hiding on Freistadt was not the most pleasant time. Being not exactly well-trained and physically not on the peak of what her body could do, she was quickly forced to take everything and leave nothing. After months of stealing, she finally got saved - or so she thought - by an old Friend. Dennis Haupt, who had run off from home to join the Red Hessians, found her and took her in.
She followed where he took her, and just as the youth is, the fact that he saved her life turned out to be the basis for her falling for him quickly. The two married the month afterwards, and Nika had become involved with the hessians, fighting, as she believed, for a better future in Rheinland.

It turned out that she was believing wrong once again. Her husband and the hessians were far less kind to the struggle she was facing than she had hoped, and even if she managed to find at least one friend, the idyllic nature of her life on Vogtland quickly changed for the worse. The fact that she was still and idealist in a world full of pirates was a constant fuel for arguments, both with her superiors and her husband. She was quickly ordered from being a pilot - as she was never particularly good at it - to being a nurse, where she met her only friend in the Hessians, Anna Heinrich. After a particularly heavy fallout with her husband that left her with a face wound, she left the station as soon as she could, and found refuge with the Bundschuh on Bruchsal.

After joining the Bundschuh, Nika began slowly developing ideas of her own again. Still very much a drifter, she went where fate took her, and so it happened that she switched from the more moderate Klugmannist camp to being the presonal protégée of Freya Eistochter, who also introduced her to the Order. Nika became involved with the Agents after a while, and there is still a rumour floating around that she might have closer ties to the organization than she openly admits.

The Witch and the Banshee - approx. 822 AS

Eistochter took Nika on various personal assignments, introducing her to the Omicrons and getting an Order fighter for her - one of the reasons why the rumours about her ties are still standing strong. Nika spent a lot of time in the cockpit, constantly being on the run for some sleep. Between Eistochter's personal jobs, her assigments in regular patrol duty and the teaching position she had taken in Bielefeld University, there was not much time fore her to contemplate on what was happening. She lived through this time relatively unscathed - just doing what she was supposed to and not feeling bad about it was a nice relief.

Most of her assignments at that time had to do with scouting, patrolling or recon. Nika was an eye-witness to the signing of the Sigma-Alliance-Treaty, being part of the Parteivorsitzende's delegation on Kyoto base at that time. It was also during this time that Erich Klugmann, the VWA's Oberst, decided it would be time to elevate her to the position of Kommandant, mostly to bind her more into the VWA rather than lose more of the party's activists to Eistochter. Nika was drawn into the conflict between the two political parties, but despite being affiliated with the 'Witch of Frankfurt', never took a direct stance against Klugmann. This was not because of fear, but rather because of respect for the man. She hoped that one day, she could mend the schism between the two. As it turned out, she was instead the reason why it escalated.

During a particularly long patrol through the Omegas, she received a communiqué from the Party Leader that she was to assassinate the new Kanzler. Eistochter had seen the peace between Liberty and Rheinland and the internal politics of the new face as a danger, either for her or the Bundschuh. Surprised by the unusual request - Nika never enjoyed killing, and this was a pretty big assignment - Not to mention that she had no clue how to do it.
Eistochter then provided the information that the Kanzler was going to be on planet Hamburg for a while. Despite being scared, she decided that the cause was worth it, and began contacting old friends on the surface.

Nika planning the November bombing, ca 11.822 AS

Roughly a month later, Nika had managed to slip on the planet, and lived in the flat of her old childhood friend Amelia. She had managed to establish connections with Bundschuh agents on the surface, and a plan was slowly developing in her mind, as the events around her began changing everything that she was expecting. First a contact of hers in the HVEB got murdered by an MND agent on the hunt, then this agent caught on to her trail. She managed to fend him off, but was aware that she was being followed now.
Her plan backfired.
She'd prepared a backup plan - bombs lined in one of Harburg's spires that were populated by thousands of citizens. Never intending to actually use the plan, however, she still had prepared it. And the moment she wanted to take a shot at the Kanzler, Erich Klugmann showed up. The Oberst had been investigating her vanishing over the course of the last months, and his appearance caught the ire of the federal authorities. In a desperate attempt to create a diversion, Nika was forced to blow the spire up, and thousands of souls with it - and, what was worse, Amelia, who had been looking for her in the building. In the escape, she and the Oberst managed to steal a wraith that they then used to escape. She lost her arm in the process, a wound that still affects her today.

Bruchsal, Deck 10 - Prison section. Nika's home for months

The moment she tried to thank Klugmann for the rescue - it was inevitable that she wouldn't have come out of this alive - Nika was arrested on the spot by loyal soldiers of the Bundschuh. For months, she was locked up in Bruchsal's prison section and would probably have stayed there, if not for Eistochter trying to use the situation for her benefit. In an attempt to frame Klugmann as not obeying protocol, she decided a trial to be held in front of the central committee, during which Nika was supposed to uncover part of the conspiracy and get the Klugmannists behind her, painting herself as a victim of Eistochter's schemes. The intent was probably to get the Klugmannist camp under control of a person that she trusted - only that Nika had her own plans by that point.
The moment she was given her voice during the trial, she exposed both Eistochter's and Klugmanns schemes to get her under control, framing them responsible both for the problems arising with the terrorist attack that was now referred to by the federals as the "November Bombing" and the initial circumstances that led to it. Surprised and with her political reputation heavily damaged, Eistochter fled. Klugmann had left Bruchsal a month before, under the same suspicious circumstances.

In September 823, Nika's life changed significantly once more. Had she previously been more of a pawn, a drifter

Election campaign poster, ca. 09.823 AS

between camps, by now she had turned into an ambitious, high-reaching politician. With the help of Michael Wolf, a friend of Eistochters' and founding member of the VWA, Nika was elevated to the position of Oberst.
Following this, she immediately began pushing her new agenda for the organization. Out of the ashes, into a new era was her goal, but she soon realized that it would take more than and Oberst and a friend to save the Bundschuh movement from breaking apart. She condemned Eistochter and Klugmann in retrospective, and quickly managed to get a sentence from the Zentralkommitee through to declare both exiled and rogue. This was the beginning of her systematic campaign to root out the constant power struggles of the Bundschuh's sects into a more centralized structure. As her initial attempts for reconciliation failed, she changed the approach - and called for a vote for a new Party leader, immediately announcing herself as a candidate.
During the first month of her electional campaign, she ran into more speedbumps than initially thought (such as having to assassinate a rival candidate from the HVEB to bring the organization on her side and to protect her life), but also made new acquaintances - one in particular. Following her less than traditional ritual of flying the first patrol of new recruits together with them, since she liked to know the people she commanded despite the stress it caused, she met a young woman her age that had shared similar experiences with the Hessians. She quickly became infatuated with her, and ended up in a close personal relationship with the woman, culminating in their marriage only one month after she had met her - a pattern that seemed to emerge with her relationships so far.

Nika on Freeport 1, early 824 AS

Being elected Parteivorsitzende, Nika did not have much time to exert her influence. A snitch in the Bundschuh, as it later turned out being paid by the HVEB, made sure that her travel route to her inauguration speech on Bielefeld was leaked to the MND. Of course the Intelligence service could not ignore the fact that one of their most wanted enemies was right in front of their crosshairs, and took immediate action. Nika vanished, and within days, the movement was headless - but for her, it did not really matter anymore.
The captivity lasted for a long time. To this day, it is not exactly clear how long she had been gone, but somewhere in early 824 she managed to flee her captors. The escape was explosive, and did cost her both her liver and the remaining arm, and would have cost her her life had it not been for Arthur Atkins, a friend of hers that not only looked after her wounds, but also made sure she would receive prosthetics for the parts she lost, including the malfunctioning eyes. Saved yet again by someone else, Nika too her time to recover, and for a while, was adrift again, unable to truly decide what to do or where to go.

About a month passed by that she mainly spent in Bretonia, drifting without a real purpose, she realized how alone the position and the way the past few months had gone actually made her. As crazy as it sounded, she began to miss the troubles that had influenced her time.
Returning wasn't an easy decision. Rheinland held much pain for her, but it also held the only purpose she had ever known. And now, after considering for a while, she had to decide a new purpose, re-think the idea that she had built her life around. And she did.

When she returned to Bruchsal, she found it in disarray. Factions aboard were vying for the power vacuum the still dissolving VWA had left, because apparently there had been nobody that even tried to take up her mantle. Distraught, she took on an alter Ego and searched among the Bundschuh stations, trying to find traces of where the few people she had trusted had gone - her wife, most of all, but most of the loyal parts of the Widerstand as well. After all, the task she was about to take on was not one that was possible to take alone.

Her path on the hunt for her Comrades led her through many hardships. After she had failed to find them on the Bundschuh stations, she at least had a trace, one that she followed all the way into the deep Sigma cluster. As it had turned out, her last true ally, Michael Wolf, the very man that had jumpstarted her rise to Oberst, had taken the one

Annika on her campaign in the Sigmas,
approx. late 824 AS

resort the VWA had, the escort cruiser Ostara, into the Sigmas, anticipating the Chaos. On the trail to find him and always close behind finding them, she found the cluster in just as much of a desolate state as she believed Rheinland to be in, a sentiment that she had noticed in Bretonia as well. A new idea grew in her mind, an idea on how she would have to approach the new way.
The only thing that was on this way was finding - and taking command of - aformentioned cruiser. Luckily, when she had finally found her, Wolf was more than happy to hand over command to the person he felt he had been keeping the chair warm anyway.
Once in command again, Annika burst into a flurry of action. She rekindled her ties with Anna Heinrich, the leader of the Red Hessians, in the hope of securing a safe haven. While she wasn't certain of the reply she would get, she established and mended the connection with the Order she had, finally standing on equal footing with Admiral Golanski. Her movements, however, always stayed silent, never actually showing her entire hand. The mere existence of the Cruiser under her command stayed a secret, since for all intents and purposes, the White Rose movement, a group claiming to be the successors of the Widerstand, laid claim to the ship and (at least officially) acted as if they controlled it. And as long as she wasn't ready, Nika wasn't trying to oppose that sentiment.
Her preparations finally resulted in her return to Rheinland, but still she didn't reveal herself. While the ship was being refitted, she made sure that any and all traces of the HVEB, the people that committed the treason against her, was removed. Under the guise of removing counter-revolutionaries (which, after her new attitude was taken into account, was likely not even a guise but the actual reason), Annika made sure to erase any mention of the name that had already been almost erased by Wolf's efforts. Her newly established unit for internal security, nicknamed the "Kommissariat", also goes back to this time.

With her eventual return to the political stage in Rheinland's underworld, however, Annika caused a fallout which is still taking shape. Her new philosophy of justifying any means with the ends, namely the destruction of the Republic of Rheinland, has yet to be proven, and it is still to be determined what course her life will take now.

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#notmyfrankfurt