Gyada

Wechselbalg, Werewolf

TKG18 Might Makes Right/03

Russian Werebear, who had been trapped in Russia for years in Were form. Had lost children, family to Russian slaughter. Suffering mentally, but will heal with the years. Rescued by Boris.

BC03 Revelations/09

Smaller than most of the werebears the werewolves in Boris group had encountered, so went for close-in fighting, using throwing and grappling, as well as attacking men's more sensitive parts.

TKG18 Might Makes Right/04, 7

Peter asks her to join Wechselbalg group, as a team leader. Was a strong fighter, and a "berserker". Will work with Shun, Zhu and Jian, along with 2 others to be recruited.

TKG18 Might Makes Right/07

Describes herself ans Bethany Anne's "shield maiden" in a conversation.

BC03 Revelations/05

Gyada, The Beast, was comfortable for the first time in centuries. Her two biggest problems had been boredom, and figuring out what the voice in her head had been. She'd been so enraged when the alien creature had changed, or as he put it, ‘improved’ her and her children, that she had ignored his threats that he would trap her in this animal’s form if she acted against him. She had helped her children escape, and had killed the alien. Nor did she regret killing the alien. At the time she had thought it must have been something from Nifelheim or Svatalfhiem. She now honestly didn't know. After all, if it had been from one of the other realms, could she have killed it?

After she killed the one who changed her and her children, she had gone back to her home village, only to have the hunters from the village try and track her down. In her anger at being attacked by her own people, she had struck out. She regretted that now. The people from her original home had hunted and chained her, but the chains couldn't hold her, and in her anger, she had destroyed the village. She had then gone around destroying the communities of any who tried to hunt her, until that man, the one who had been stronger than her, had trapped her in this lair, in her new home. And she had been trapped in the animal form.

Gyada tried to ignore the voices, the ones that spoke to her whenever she was there. But in the enforced boredom of Gods knew how long trapped in these caves, Gyada had eventually turned to the voices. Responded to them, asked questions, received answers. The voices had told her the most wondrous tales. And slowly she had come to an understanding that it was not a Jotun or any other evil creature. Every so often Gyada tried to change back to human. She remembered how it was done, but her body stayed firmly in this form. She had learned many things that would have been useful had she been able to return to her human form, but the body of the creature this being’s master had left her in was not adept at the tasks that would be required to use that knowledge. She comforted herself with the thought that at least her children had gone free. In time, the being had taught her how it, and its now dead master, had spoken.

She had no real idea of how long she’d been here. The voice had done its best to calm her while she was in pain from her hunger, and convinced she would die. It said she was drawing the energy her body needed from elsewhere. She still only had a rough understanding of this ‘elsewhere’ the being spoke of.

But then she also had trouble understanding that the creatures that had broken into her cave were humans. It hadn’t been until she had tasted their blood that she had known. This group she had encountered had smelled so different from her memories of what humans were like. They had been something unknown, and in her current form, the unknown was frightening. Not only that, they had invaded her home, the place she had become comfortable. If they damaged or destroyed it where would she go? She had been here for so long she had no idea what the outside world was like. She didn’t want to leave. But they had come deep into her home, and their strange devices had fired things that hurt her. Finally, they had been something she could eat.

The second group of new humans had been different. They had waited for her at her lair and smelled of the woods. She had not noticed them until she was too close to them to escape. They'd also had chains strong enough to hold her. It was all very strange, as they had been able to take forms unlike their human forms, but not a true beast form either. Like her children had once been able to take. She had feared her children had been affected as she was. That there were no others who could shift. She had been wrong. She lay down on the cell that her captors had made for her and listened, trying to learn the language which they spoke.

BC03 Revelations/06

It had taken TOM two months to complete the analysis of the Beast's DNA and nanites with ADAM’s help. It was odd, very odd. The species that she had been transformed into was extinct and had been for tens of thousands of years. It wasn’t even a placental mammal but was a marsupial. Thylacoleo Carnifex, the Marsupial Lion, although it was actually more like a bear in form than a lion. He and ADAM had reverse engineered how it had been done, or at least a probable method, but without ADAM, TOM would have been completely out of his depth. The other interesting thing was her nanites seemed to react to radio waves. They'd confirmed the beast was female. ADAM was reasonably sure that she had been human, as he had found sections of trashed programming. Remarkably trashed, as if they'd been deliberately destroyed by someone or something. He felt this was how she had been trapped in this beast form. The fact that the Beast was still alive and the computer still running suggested that they had gotten as far as using the Etheric for a power source, but not for communications, by the time whatever happened, happened. . What had been done to the Beast, on the other hand, was genius. A cruel, evil genius, but genius nonetheless.

Without the nanite protocols to assist a human in changing back-and-forth, he extrapolated it would be difficult, if not impossible for a human to achieve that result. Adam, can you see a potential way of reprogramming those nanites without resorting to the Pod Doc? <<Burst radio transmission containing the override in the new programming will do it. In fact, TOM, the nanites’ programming is designed for this method of update. It seems that whoever implanted these nanites and designed the programming for them wanted a way to reprogram them quickly. At least for that section of programming. Many of the programming parts are locked from reprogramming by this method, but with some effort, they could be reprogrammed. However, I do not know enough of this programming language, even from what you've taught me about programming Kurtherian code, to achieve this for the locked sections. Anyone attempting to do so would have to know about the locked sections and design a workaround before they could change them.>> ADAM contuinues to work on the re=programming routine.

BC03 Revelations/07

TOM and ADAM had sent a radio-frequency device, programed to change Gyada's nanites. Boris and Janna go to her cage, press the button, and she is confused, then falls unconscious. Two hours later, they were called to her cage. Gyada had awakened and had managed to change into human female form. . She breathed in a shuddering breath of relief, overcome with a sense of wonder, joy, and solace, she started sobbing uncontrollably. Janna came in, helped her dress (motions, no common language), took her to a table to eat, then took her to her own room.

BC03 Revelations/08, BC03 Revelations/09

Could talk to Tom and Shen when they spoke Kurtherian. Over the following weeks between TOM and Shen, they managed to teach her the basics of Russian and English. . Although she still refused to wear a bra, complaining that they were torture devices, she did take to wearing other undergarments. She could no longer hear the voice that had been her constant companion for centuries - was now without him. Gave her a companion, a lithe Mongolian female Were called Nergui, to help her get used to people, ideas. Gyada wanted to get out to see the world, and how it had changed, so was frustrated with being relegated to passive work. Gyada's restlessness and impatience hindered her integration into the modern world and the town. People found it uncomfortable to work with her for any length of time. None of the command group were comfortable with throwing her straight into the militia training programs. They had no idea how controlled she was. So Boris set aside a part of every morning for her to train with him and either Janna or Danislav and three of the wolves.

Had definite ideas on warfare. She felt the guns were an inappropriate tool of war. They offended her sensibilities. She seemed to consider guns cheating, as they were items for pure destruction, not suitable for honorable warfare. She had no objections to archery, and even crossbows were grudgingly acceptable as real weapons of war, but on some level, guns were killing machines used by the masses. Gyada had spent years learning how to use a sword, axe, and shield properly in warfare. The basics of learning how to use a gun took minutes. She felt that the clashing of the massive armies of the twentieth century in World War I and World War II were simply a crude attempt at population control.

Gyada's past:

BC03 Revelations/10

Was born 8-9 centuries ago in Svitjod (Sweden). Father was a renowned warrior, a wearer of the bear shirt. I was his third daughter, though he had six sons. All of us were raised as warriors, as befit the get of the champion of the King of Svitjold." Told the tale of the king of the Finns, going to his country to help, death of her father in battle, where she met her future husband. Myself and my future husband were given a freehold, as were many of the warriors who fought in that battle. Bore one son and three daughters. Husband was killed in battle, and she tried to defend propery alone. "I was captured by the strange alien with my children as we started on a Yule trip to my brother's hold. It pointed one of its devices at me, and I crashed to the ground, shrieking in agony. When I could move again, it pointed it threateningly at my children and told us to follow. What choice was there for us?" Tormented her, then her children. She found a way for her children to escape. The alien was enraged, attacked her. he changed form to be stronger, and she killed it. Went to her Brother's village for understanding and help. they drove her off, wounding her, and she killed all of them, and ate them that winter. Harassed area for a few years. Then was hunted by Michael, and went back to the cave for safety. Michael caught her there, and collapsed the only entrance to the cave that she could use, entrapping her. In her time in the cave, a voice talked to her, trapped the same as she was. I learned many things from it. Learned of wonders I never thought I might have the opportunity to see." They all decided she was sane as any of them.

BC03 Revelations/16

The Riddle ADAM reports that every time he attempts to access her programming, he runs across this riddle:

“'Found before I'm proven, absent once realized.

I am seen most clearly in utter darkness, never to be found in the light.

To be found commonly in battle, rarely near the hearth. The Poor find me easily, but the Rich find me easy to lose. What am I?'"

It must be solved before she can be released, as they need to know what she had been. Split into groups.

BC03 Revelations/18

Programming had been unblocked, and she was talking freely. (Never did learn what the riddle translated to.)

BC03 Revelations/17; BC03 Revelations/20

Assets on a Mission Her skill with ax, knife and in hand-to-hand would definitely be an asset. And if all hell broke loose and the op was blown she'd shift, which would give them an edge in getting away. In team training, she’d shown a vicious maternal instinct to those on her side, so Danislav knew she'd be focused on protecting the mission's primary, to an extent no one else he'd met could. When going into battle, she was still somewhat amazed that the armor managed to reshape itself around her much larger animal form. The overlapping plates present in the suit when she was in human form had expanded, shifted, and locked into a covering for her Were shape without restricting her movement.

BC03 Revelations/19

Injured eye due to a bayonet attack during a patrol battle. Grew back cloudy.