Druuna arrives at the outpost.

Druuna sat in the flying transport stunned at the speed with which events had been unfolding. Although she'd heard tales of the long lost technology and seen many wrecks herself this was the first time she'd ever seen a flying machine let alone flown in one. She found she was excited rather than frightened by the idea, the nonchalance with which the women soldiers treated being airborne reassuring her that this must be routine for them.

The badly burned Ramirez lay strapped to a stretcher on the floor, moaning softly in a semiconscious state from the **** pumped into her. Druuna and the four remaining soldiers sat on benches which lined each side of aircraft. Patton it seemed was less seriously injured than Druuna had first imagined and was being treated as walking wounded with a large field dressing taped to the side of her belly. Though the redhead's eyes shone with pain she gritted her teeth and made no complaint, even smiling weakly and attempting to join in her comrades banter.

The sexy soldiers made light of the firefight now that danger was passed. Reliving individual actions they animatedly waved their hands as they displayed how they had reacted to the attack. Druuna stayed silent, finding the casual way with which the women treated the killing of the savages more than a little disturbing.

The flight was a short one, though at the speed the aircraft had travelled Druuna supposed that it would have taken her several days to have walked. She felt the craft decelerate and circle as it came into land. Druuna peered out of a window in the fusilage as they banked round to align themselves with a roughly cleared landing strip.

The outpost had a metal fence encircling it with watch towers and gates spaced along the perimeter. Regular lines of single storey buildings lined the landing strip whilst several larger buildings stood at the end. All the buildings seemed to be made from corrugated prefabricated sheeting that was untarnished by age and newly manufactured. Scattered around the compound were a number of ground vehicles, both armoured and soft skinned. A couple of smaller aircraft that Druuna had heard referred to as Dragonflies sat beside the airstrip.

"Impressive isn't it?" Sergeant Spencer shouted above the din of the engines when she noticed Druuna's interest. "And this is just an outpost for now. You should see central, we're really starting to expand. If we can irradicate the unclean standing in the way we'll have this country civilised and working again in no time."

Druuna simply nodded, still unable to understand the meaning that clean and unclean held. The transport swooped down and performed a bumpy landing on the rough strip, slowing sharply it turned at the end of the strip so that it's tail faced the larger buildings and halted. With a whirr of motors the rear hatch lowered. The four soldiers picked up Ramirez's stretcher and headed down the ramp, Druuna followed them uncertain what was to happen to her now.

A light vehicle raced out with a red cross superimposed over it's camoflaged sides. Ramirez was loaded into the back and into the care of a young male soldier. Patton climbed inside too, waving to her friends and Druuna as the ambulance raced off.

"We'll get you processed first." Spencer informed Druuna enigmatically. "Trust me, in your case it will be a formality, you're as clean as anyone here. Then we can hit the showers and get some chow."

Though the idea of being processed and whatever that might entail made Druuna nervous the prospect of cleaning the grime off herself and a meal made her eager to get it over with. Without complaint she followed Spencer, Smith and York towards a building in the compound.