After The Fall

Earth-Born

The most dangerous thing about running with a gang wasn't the police. It was the other gangs. The Reds had a few enemies in other youth gangs which either supported alien rights, or hated The Reds for less substantial reasons. Shepard had participated in several battles against rival gangs in her time. She taken a bullet graze to her shoulder in one such skirmish, and had worn the scar proudly. Now there were many scars beside that one, and the moment of it's acquisition was almost forgotten.

The Reds had been trading poor attempts at subtle sniping with a rival gang called The Spirits, which fancied themselves turian lovers. Shepard guess that the gang had known little to nothing about turians, but they wore their hair spiked back like a fringe and painted their faces. Some even taped their fingers together to look as though they only had two on each hand. The Reds hated everything to do with The Spirits.

Shepard had been 14, and second in command of The Reds. Their leader was a brash, wild, and unstable 19 year old named Blaze. He was renowned for his lack of mercy and tendency toward seemingly random hate crimes. He had plans for the gang, however. He had lofty goals for them, claiming that one day they would be one of earth's most powerful gangs. Everyone feared and admired Blaze. Shepard, while somewhat unpredictable herself, had a natural affinity for structure, tactics, and logic. While Blaze was shouting about his hatred, Shepard was the mind organizing all the attacks.

She was put in charge of a planning for a large skirmish. She'd plotted out a kill-sack. An old warehouse, with perfect vantage points for them to snipe The Spirits from above. They would lure The Spirits into the trap, then massacre them. Cripple them so badly that they would never be able to rebuild. Everything was perfect. The setup was flawless. What Shepard couldn't predict was that one of The Reds would defect. He warned The Spirits about the ambush, so they laid a trap of their own. What should have been a swift and decisive blow against The Spirits, turned into an ugly, confusing, and bloody battle.

Shepard soon found herself fighting on the floor of the warehouse. She was supposed to be in the rafters, sniping, but she'd been driven down to the floor. Her weapon had overheated, and her lack of battle experience had caused her to drop it in surprise. Someone else scooped it up before she could react, and she'd been forced to run for cover before the weapon cooled and she was shot full of holes. As it was, she took a deep graze to the shoulder. She'd never actually been shot before. It was startling, the pain and the heat of her own blood. She hadn't expected it to hurt so much, or to make her so angry. It was like someone lit a fire inside her chest. She covered behind a fallen metal beam until she heard her weapon overheat again. Counting on the relative inexperience of the child who was attacking her, she acted. He'd been young. Perhaps only her age.

She launched herself over her hiding place and towards the boy. He looked up as she charged. His face was covered in smeared war paint. Shepard's rage flooded from her and she tackled him. He yelped, almost like a puppy, as she took her fists to him, beat him senseless and recovered her weapon, just in time to shoot one of the boy's friends who was running in her direction.

She heard someone yelling for help. She scanned the battlefield. She was young, this was her first real battle, and she was unused to assessing combat situations. However, her brain was very quick when it came to learning on the fly. Reading and writing had challenged her, but she never learned as well from books as from experience. Sometimes it felt like her mind was flying along at 100 miles per hour, where as the words on the page merely crawled along.

Her dark eyes took in the warehouse. It would have seemed chaos to the casual viewer, but she could make sense of it. For the most part The Reds were winning. It was far bloodier than intended, but they were winning. Then she spied the person who had yelled. A young man, perhaps a few years older than she, was being cornered by three Spirits. She couldn't remember the boy's name, but he was on her side, and he was in trouble, so she went after him. She had the advantage. She had a gun. While most youth gangs were armed, it was difficult to get your hands on firearms. The Reds were lucky to have the arsenal that they did.