RP:City of Ghosts/Prelude

Part One - Onryo Fantasmas
"Wake up, kitten, we haz company," Rosamund Pinto announced, gently nudging at her lover's shoulder.

Emilia Zlatar was up in seconds. Years of experience had made her a light sleeper. "Is it bhoots?" she asked.

"No, kitten. It's someone else."

Emilia looked out the window of the abandoned building that served as the Onryo Fantasmas' base. In the street below, she saw a group of three men, all wearing heavy white armor emblazoned with a black and orange insignia.

"Who are they?" she asked.

Rosa was already gearing up for a fight. "Cerberus," she said darkly.

It was a name they'd only recently learned, but which they'd gotten to know well. Cerberus was a "pro-human" group, ostensibly dedicated to advancing humanity's interests. And in Bhutakasahara, where every third human was a slave, the news that Cerberus had taken over Omega had not been entirely unwelcome.

Certainly, it had seemed like a godsend for Rosamund, Emilia, and everyone else in Onryo Fantasmas. Less than two years ago, they'd all been enslaved to batarians. They were free now only because they'd risen up and slaughtered their former owners. It would have been nice to have some serious firepower behind their cause.

Unfortunately, Cerberus had no understanding of how things worked in Bhutakasahara. Rosamund and her gang hadn't survived as long as they had sheerly through force. They'd had to make any number of agreements and arrangements along the way. And Cerberus was fucking those arrangements up.

For instance, early on in their campaign, Onryo Fantasmas had liberated a slave called Luba. Captured during the batarian raids in the 2170s, her brain had been so thoroughly scrambled by the slavers that it would have taken a miracle to restore her to real independence. So Rosamund had made the hard decision to loan her to an old quarian mechanic. The quarian's demands weren't too bad - he only made her clean his shop. And in exchange, he repaired Onryo Fantasmas' equipment for almost nothing.

Of course, when Cerberus discovered the quarian with the human slave, they'd killed him and returned Luba to Onryo Fantasmas' base. The Fantasmas already had plenty of brain-scrambled cleaners, but it would be a bitch finding another quarian mechanic who'd work for them, especially now that the rumor was spreading that Onryo Fantasmas was in league with Cerberus.

And so Rosamund and Emilia grabbed their pistols and SMGs, and Rosamund retrieved her sniper rifle, and they headed down into the main hall of their base.

The troops, such as they were, were all on their feet. They knew as well as their leader did that Cerberus was trouble.

"Everyone here?" Rosamund asked. "Good. Cerberus has decided to pay us a visit. I say we give them a proper welcome! Where's Vinsen?"

A large muscular man emerged from somewhere in the back of the hall. This was Bull Vinsen. "You called, boss?"

"Yeah. Grab the rocket launcher. You're backing up me and Em."