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Sofia Zelinsky is what some might consider the stereotypical Unioner – for what that description is worth, regarding all the splinter movements inside the Union – coming from the lower class of Planet Hamburgs population and having an extensive background both with the maintenance and modification of ships as well as with Republican Shipping as an employer.

While technically Sofia had been conceived and born on Bautzen station as the result of a work relationship between a mining worker and a woman working in accounting the Dresden system was not a particularly good place to raise a child, even before the surge of Hessian activity in the system. This consideration – together with the fact that the relation between mother and father began to break apart not even a few month into her life – must have been the main driving force behind sending Sofia to Hamburg where she was to live with her father's parents 'for a bit'. 'For a bit' quickly became 'indefinitely' however, much to the dismay of everyone involved, and in the coming years young Sofia would barely have any contact with father and mother, leaving her with her grandparents as the primary caretakers, and Planet Hamburg as her new home.

And, despite probably being better of there than on a mining station inside some lava field, this new home was not providing the best conditions either. Sofia's grandparents, despite trying their best to provide their grandchild a good childhood with what they had, were firmly entrenched in the lower classes of the Hamburg society. Both had been involved in the construction industry and lowly manufacturing work prior and now in their later years were running a small workshop, mostly focused around fixing private land vehicles of various sizes. While this provided about enough to survive it made not for a fantastic source of income and surely did not grant them any advantages or privileges.

Thus, Sofia was growing up without much of a proverbial safety net or blanket shielding her from how hard life and day-to-day business in the spheres of northern Rheinland could really be. Even when still going to school she already often had to assist her grandparents in their workshop as their own physical abilities began to decrease ever more over the years, this often requiring her to fulfill these extra duties until late into the evening. While this provided the first exposure to what would turn out to be one of her passions and later paying profession this need to give up most of her day for others and the general situation often filled her with frustration. Frustration that she would eventually come to vent together with others of her age in typical 'crimes of the youth':
More then once Sofia and gangs of friends found themselves committing minor acts of vandalism, shoplifting objects of desire none of them could afford anyway, insulting figures of authority and cases of physical assaults here and there. Despite all of that it could still be said that she was trying to do things right. Trying to assist her grandparents. Trying to find a place in this world whose bluntness she had internalised very soon, but that was making it particularly difficult to find that place anywhere else exactly because of that.

However, her life stabilised and improved somewhat as soon as she finished education and found herself basically free to go anywhere she wanted, doing anything she wanted. With Sofia's grandparents basically giving her the blessing to bugger off, knowing they could not hold her tied to this place forever without it taking an unfavourable turn, the last thing that held her on icy Planet Hamburg was gone. Not having to think about it she started to look for work. For anything that would take her away from this place, anything that would make her one of 'these spacers'.
With a stroke of luck she did not have to look for such an opportunity for long. Sofia was quick to pick up on an offer to work as the ship mechanic on some Freelancer's transport who, after parting ways with her predecessor over some petty woman-related issues, was in a bit of a pinch. What kind of was an interim solution for the both of them turned into a solid friendship, and probably the best few years for Sofia, having both an okay-paying, fulfilling occupation and the opportunity to travel across Sirius.
This was not meant to be forever, though.

When the two met the captain of the freelance transport had already been of quite the age, and eventually he considered that it was time to put the captain's hat away and settle down. Looking to make a final bit of profit he managed to barter out a deal with Interspace Commerce who were always looking for cheap additions to their local shipping fleets. Usually having cheap, outsourced crews these ships themselves, Interspace of course had no need to acquire the ship and its crew, and thus were quick to lay them off – including Sofia.
The fact that the captain had not bothered telling any of his long time companions about these plans until they were confronted with the facts infuriated her almost as much as the company big boys throwing her out on the curb, but in the end, there was nothing she could do but try and move on. For about two months Sofia lived from what she had accumulated but eventually she was lead back to the sink in which most of her live seemed to have been sucked - back to Hamburg. For there, she had gotten a job with Republican.

It was an occupation up on Alster shipyard, where Republican had been looking for additional personnel for one of their retrofit and maintenance departments. While it did not pay very well and sure was not as exciting as travelling around the universe Sofia still had her hopes up. After all, she would still be doing what she liked most of the day and not have to worry about where she might end up the next day. However, this would not be all sunshine and roses for very long either.
Being back around Hamburg Sofia also found herself back in contact with certain circles that she had managed to leave behind years prior and some friends who, after not having quite the luck, had gone down more dubious paths. It was also around that time when Sofia began to radicalise herself on a political level. The working conditions up on Alster were quite unfavourable, with the size of the team and the mass of incoming contracts often requiring extra hours well beyond any regulations and irregularities in receiving the payment for these. This as well as the constant reminders of what conditions she was raised and living in and how they must have been for so many years already soon caused her to sympathise with agitative, protectionist and in parts right wing underground movements that were ever so present in Hamburg since the downfall of the old Empire. She began to collect and read pamphlets that were regularly distributed in some shady alleys and found herself agreeing with so many of the things other riled up Hamburgers criticised in basement bars or unobserved backyards whenever she could make it to one of these rallies. And eventually she also became more brazen and straightforward in openly showing these newly acquired sentiments, may it be in private, may it be at her corporate workplace.

Now, when Sofia herself gets around to talk about how she eventually lost her job it is always about how Republican decided to close down her whole maintenance department without any forward notice to use the yard space for cheap, outsourced projects and how now, that they had abused her for long enough just threw her away like garbage. But viewed in another light Republican had probably laid her off because she had become a liability, and possibly even a moderate threat to their integrity and image they had not wanted to deal with any further. After all, during her last months she had become quite keen on trying to incite fellow workers to “no longer take the bull crap” and participate in all kinds of unacceptable behaviour, reaching from trying to involve them into her own political circles over trying to get a strike started up to – although unproven – accusations about intentionally sabotaging ships they were supposed to be working on. In the end, the closure of that department might just have been a convenient excuse to get rid of an agitator. Even though in the end, this just turned a political activist and low key criminal into a proper fugitive. For this final slap in the face was to be the straw which broke the camel's back.

Absolutely livid about what had just happened to her and somewhat out of other options she was willing to consider it did not take long for Sofia to reach out to the political circles she had been involved in already, going deeper than she had before. She joined up with the Unioner movement, literally telling the middle man supposed to evaluate her worth:

“What I want is to stick it to these people and tinker around on ships. I have heard you guys are pretty good at both”.

Sofia, once but a troubled, yet optimistic girl has been bittered by the perceived notion that she grew up amongst the scum of Rheinland and was to be nothing more than that, being pushed around by the establishment and the corporate wieners for all her life. Since joining the Unioners she has become particularly aggressive, even finding somewhat of a taste in violence against those who mistreated her previously. This became particularly clear during the Unioners' assault on Alster, for which she amongst others provided intel on how to plan the attack before being a part of the assault wing herself, ruthlessly gunning down incoming relieve units as well as unfortunate victims trying to free from the shipyard. People tend to describe her behaviour as erratic and the conditions under which her cocky, somewhat playful attitude switches to dead seriousness as not always very clear.

What is very clear though is that since her descent into the realm of the Rheinland unlawfuls she became quite resilient towards people trying to tell her what to do, at least without having solid – often loaded, cocked and pointed at her head – arguments. This for the longest time made her a good fit for the particularly rough environment that is the Nightcrawlers, associating with them since being pushed in that direction by their current leader Marie Dross. Eventually though, when a ceasefire with the Coalition was signed and especially the Nightcrawlers began to embrace a pro Coalition stance Sofia, who strongly opposed this motion and the threat of the Coalition itself looked for ways to distance herself from the Köln cell. Under the excuse of being there to keep relations between the two groups up and further the artifact trade Sofia eventually managed to switch over to the Leipheim cell, where since her arrival she not only did as she was supposed to, but also took it upon herself to start better organising the repair and maintenance efforts concerning the ships of this rather small sell, which could neither reliably trust in the capacities of Chort's Forge's foundries nor build up own significant capacities this deep inside territory long since controlled by the Bundschuh.