Silver Rain – The Cohort
Digital Devil Saga
Digital Devil Saga, the scenario minus any original characters, and any canon characters, are © to Atlus
Yulia/Garuda is © to myself
Kaamos/Pandemonium is © Drcheerio of Deviantart
Shiv/Morrigan is © Dimitrininjasan of Deviantart
Jed/Vakirauta is © to his player
All original characters not of my creation are used with express permission
Chapter Four – Awakening
Yulia forced her eyes to focus on Jed's face.
"What kind of problems? If it's Embryon or Vanguards shaped, point me at 'em and I'll bloody the noses of the whole feckin' lot of 'em alone for this damned headache!"
Jed gave her an odd look, and opened and closed his mouth a couple of times before he managed to speak. The second time in a day she had seen her unflappable stealthers in a tizzy.
"It's not shaped like any bleedin' tribe, mate, it's shaped like…like, well, something not human!"
Kaamos yelped, and reached for his monster of a shotgun. A personal invention of his, this shotgun had six chambers. The precise mechanics were beyond anyone but Kaamos to understand. He checked the chambers and racked it.
Before he'd even picked up the shotgun, Yulia had drawn her revolver, already loaded, and a short, straight bladed knife, held in her other hand. The question of what it was or where it had come from could wait until it was dead.
She fixed her gaze, no sign of pain or fatigue in her bearing now, on Jed.
"Where?"
Jed snapped to attention, his uneasiness vanished at the crack of authority in that one word.
"Near the barracks. It was huge, and it moved wicked-fast. The lookout tried to get a bead on it, but it jumped right up at 'im and tore his face off before he could pull the trigger."
The newbie. It had killed their new scout. The loss hit with the force of a Brute's ham-fisted punch.
Yulia's face turned grim, and she motioned roughly for Shiv to pay attention.
"That bastard's gonna pay. Shiv, you take Jed, both of you're advance guard, try and take out the legs on this git, see if it jumps so pretty like with no knees. Kaamos will back you up. I'll go round up some more of our men, tell 'em to scout the perimeter. I don't want this thing getting out, or its mates getting in, got it?"
She didn't wait to hear the acknowledgments. With deft movements, she swept up the stairs, fixing her cloak once again to her torso armour, the scarf covering her hair, the goggles over her eyes. The advance team held her deepest trust; they'd do their damned best to achieve their goal. As she paused to draft a tribe member to the perimeter guard, Shiv, Jed, and Kaamos hurried past, Shiv carrying his sniper's rifle, Jed a hunting rifle as well as a long scope, and Kaamos, still with his shotgun as well as a net full of grenades.
The tribe member looked after them, before nodding at Yulia and scurrying off, gun already in one hand, the other lowering goggles over eyes. Turning to the main room of the headquarters, Yulia raised her voice and started shouting for her tribe to get their sorry assess out and to the perimeter. To their credit, they moved fast once the call had gone out. They'd learned the hard way to move fast when Yulia told them to. If they couldn't move faster than her, they'd have heck to pay when she caught them.
"Everyone, to formation Nihil! We have an unidentified nasty in the compound, and I don't want that bugger letting his mates in for a party on us, alright?!"
A stool was kicked over in the general exodus, but Yulia let it slide. It wasn't as if a rival tribe had ever gotten this far into Bezaid before, and besides, it was a newbie who'd let their excitement get the better of them and the stool. As the gangers trooped out, Yulia hooked the stool with one foot and righted it before following. Wouldn't want to trip over it later and besides, she liked it where it was.
Checking the silencer on her revolver as she stepped through one of the many doors leading to the maze like interior of the Cohort's headquarters and out into the sleeting rain, Yulia slipped into one of the plentiful shadows, melding herself into the cover of a low wall. A quick glance showed her where her tribe-mates were; only someone who knew what to look for would ever stand a chance of seeing them. The whole idea was that the Cohort was seen only by their allies; to all others, they were a silent death. Then she saw Kaamos, his white hair peeking out a little from his hood. Well, she amended; nearly all of us are silent death. Kaamos is more of a shocking, nasty death.
Shiv, perched atop a watch-tower, his sniper's rifle covered with mesh net and camo, caught her attention, and flashed a rapid series of hand signals at her before turning to Jed, who had materialised at his side, brining the sniper's attention to a target.
Yulia motioned two nearby gunners to move up, while she covered them. Shiv said he'd seen the tango in front of them, stationary. Yulia aimed to take them out, with Shiv firing to immobilize the target whilst the gangers finished it off. Kaamos clambered up to flank Yulia, moving louder then she'd like, but nonetheless appreciated. The two moved up, sliding into cover along with the other two gangers. Yulia inched enough of her head over to gain a visual, and it took Kaamos tugging on her arm to recall Yulia to her senses enough to retract her head again.
At Kaamos' mute question, all she could do was shake her head. What was that…thing? It had the basic shape of any ganger, but the size! It was monstrous, at least four heads taller than Jed, and Jed was freakishly tall. It had long, bloodstained claws, and its jaws were stained with crimson. Bodies…She could only assume they had once been bodies…Scattered, in pieces, all around it…
They had once been her tribe-mates, her comrades, her friends…
A single gesture and the head of the intruding murdering beastie suddenly parted with existence and became a gory, bloody mist that sank slowly to the ground. The body slumped, following soon after.
Yulia stood after a few more hand signals from Shiv confirmed no more hostiles.
"Well, that takes care of that…"
And then her neck exploded into white, hot pain, and she had a brief moment to think 'oh, bollocks', before it seemed her back exploded into fire and her legs buckled.