(Citadel, Tayseri) Guess my Name. (Closed)

"I am fetizhing nothing..." she struggled with the word a moment before spitting it out "sir. I just believe we need to be careful."

"Yes, obviously. Did the geth help you with it? Or was it something else you got a hold of hmm?"

The exile was getting close to finally making her move. This facade was getting her nowhere fast.

"Excuse me then." He was starting to show his annoyance. "My business partners are really none of your business. Is there anything else?"

The quarian's demeanor changed instantly. "I got a little message from some friends of yours, Des'Keran. Such a naughty little thief. What would your ancestors say? Stealing from your people like a filthy little suitrat." She said mockingly. The eyes underneath her helmet showing an absolutely infuriating little sneer was forming underneath her helmet.

"So what do you have to say for yourself little thief?"

There was the tiniest flick of his hands, and three remotes around the room lit up, lifting into the air.

"I have neither died nor committed genocide, so they're happy. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to have stolen my own work." He narrowed his eyes. "They're not here. If the Captaincy decides to threaten me, I will upload the entire suite to the Consensus. With annotations explaining how to counteract every subroutine."

"Get out."

"And what are you going to do if I don't, hmm? Harm me? Kill me Tsk Tsk" she wagged one of her three fingers as if she was chastising a small child. "C-Sec won't like that one bit. They'd drag you away dear. Set you off on a marvelous stay in some hell hole of a prison far, far away from Rannoch if you do. Your little shop will be gone, your work torn apart. And It will all rust away like a broken drive core."

She chuckled humorlessly, backing away slowly. She was 'sure' the other quarian wouldn't do anything but one must always be prepared for the worst. "And you would sell your own people out like that wouldn't you? You say you haven't committed genocide, but what do you think those machines will do in a war?"

"And they call me the traitor."

"They would kill us. That's why I won't give you the tools to start another one." All the drones focused on her.

"I have nonlethals as well, so I repeat myself..." His relationship to the Geth was more complex than his simply being a sellout, or a reflection of his stance on augmentation, or even having that ridiculous crush on Morning Chorus. But this tool of-it must have been Xen-didn't deserve to hear any of it. He activated the translation codec and stuttered in the geth machine language.

get out abort get out disconnect get out leave get out get out get out

Kari continued to slowly back away, never taking her eyes off the other quarian. "Do it then you coward. Shoot me with your 'non-lethal' drones. It won't be the last quarian you harm by your betrayal", her voice was deceptively calm, collected. She wasn't going to show this wastrel any fear.

Des snapped his fingers, the door locking behind her.

If they were going to send agents to threaten him, he had to show a little backbone. Or perhaps the Sundowners were rubbing off on him.

One of the drones hit her with an electric pulse, locking up those joints that had mechanical assists and filling her screen with static. Another crashed into the side of her knee with considerable force.

And of course he'd had more drones in the back.

Kari screamed as the drone shocked her. Part of it was pain. But more of it was pure, eye reddening rage. How dare this ancestorless bastard attack her? How dare he

The pain caused a flashback--a flashback to the slavers that had tampered with her suit decades ago...

Now she was really seeing red

Going to strangle him and beat the damn suite out of him when my suit regain func--

But before she could do anything another drone had smashed into her leg, knocking her over and causing darkness to envelope her. Kari'Zar nar Tasi was out cold for the time being.

Des set the front door to display "Back in Ten Minutes".

He gave her a quick search (including an omni-tool hack), checking for weapons and identifying material.

With the help of his drones, he dragged the other quarian out the back alley and a little ways away from the shop.

Of course, he didn't call C-Sec. Quarians never did.

One of Kari's hands twitched very slightly. But she didn't wake. Which was lucky for Des'Keran because if she had woken up he would have likely never been able to get her out.

He really should have called C-sec though. Because she likely wasn't going to be out much longer. And when she did wake up and he was still in the area. He was going to regret it.

One piece of information that she really should have gleaned from CDN-he was dating a Sundowner. He geared up the remaining drones, locked the door, and made a call.

"Raelon! Listen, I promise to explain later, but the short of it is I'm getting hastled, and I don't want to run from my own shop. Can you send over...I've forgotten his name, with the armored car, the booming stereo and the muscles? I'll pay for services rendered."

Kari stirred for several moments before Kari stumbled to her feet; shaking her head and leaning on the wall to help get her bearings back.

Where the hell did he drag me?. She thought as she looked around the alley. He hadn't dragged her too far so--

there.

She began marching back to the store, stumbling a bit. But more angry than ever. Des'Keran was going to regret humiliating her like this.

Once she'd moved a few steps back towards his shop, a drone (which had been lying in wait on a fire escape) rose up and set off one of the most annoying bullhorn/aircar alarm/klaxon noises in its library

It stayed just a bit higher than she could jump.

that ancestorless piece of shit

She had to act fast now. If she delayed, someone was going to call C-sec to investigate that noise, if that idiot hadn't already called them on her already (though seeing as he dragged her out and ran back inside, the coward apparantly hadn't bothered.)

She activated her omnitool, hoping it hadn't been tampered with, and pointed it in the general direction of the shrieking droid. A quick overload should short circuit the damn thing...

Which of course gave a minute for the other drone, hiding in the trash, to zap her from behind.

"I have absolutely no desire" His voice announced from the tinny speaker. "...to harm another quarian."

Raelon Pasharan had, for once, not been at his computer when the call came in. It was movie night at Sniper's Touch, and the film was a good one; he'd devoted over 75% of his attention to watching. These days, though, he was finding it all but impossible not to keep a metaphorical eye on the scrolling feed at the bottom of the heads-up-display his false eye laid over his surroundings, or to monitor the quick flicker of the window-within-a-window that was the range's security cam, or the little flag notifying him he had received an URGENT communication from PROOF OF CONCEPT...

He opened it, reading it - if one can use the word "reading" when a man interprets something in text downloaded directly into the circuitry in his head - and feels his chest clench.

So. This is how it feels when a Sundowner warrior gets the call.

And he has to waste time gesturing in meatspace to stir Boomer and Tango from their movie-induced stupor. He could have commed them twenty times before his mouth forces out the words to explain. Trex wants to come. He doesn't want to take the time to argue with her; it's long enough convincing her to stay out of sight in the truck bed. Then there's the struggle of hauling his rest-stiffened carcass into the front seat of why does this truck hover so high off the ground and finally, at last, they're off.


On the road there is nothing to do but damp down his audios to block out Tango's music--though he can still feel the vibrations rattling his organs around--cling to the pistol in his hand, and hope he doesn't have to use it, or if he does, that he doesn't give away, to Des or the guy hassling him, any clue as to how truly awful he is with weapons. He hopes he looks badass. He recognizes he probably looks stupid.

What he doesn't recognize is that he hasn't bothered to hide his head under his hood.

Boomer gestures with her hand and Tango turns the vehicle. They're not far away. The whole neighbourhood can probably already hear them coming.

Kari yelped as the drone zapped her; her aim going off and missing the drone by inches.

shit!

"Shut up", she said through gritted teeth as she redirected her omnitool in the direction of the second drone, overloading it and causing it to ground to the floor with a loud thunk, and not wasting any time she spun back around and zapped the one currently blaring her location across the entire damn ward. This was going bad. The screaming drone had probably gotten the attention of the entire neighborhood at this point. So whatever she had to do. She had to do it quickly. Either go back and deal with Des'Keran, or run off and lick her wounds for the moment.

What was that noise? Another drone? No...

Had he called for backup? Or was someone investigating the noise?

shit.

Thinking quickly she crawled into a nearby dumpster and hid. It wasn't pleasant, especially since she hated cramped and dark places. But it was far from her first time hiding in the garbage and survival was more important than comfort. Always.

Now to wait and see what happened next...

He texts back Show of Force.

By the time he hears the noise, Des' dominant mood has shifted from anger to vague embarrassment-this isn't a real threat-for thirty years, aliens and geth-this is another quarian.

Then he imagines the Special Fleet sending another agent, and he shifts back to angry.

He opens the door and waves-he's fine-sending off another message. His eyes keep flicking to the corners of his internal display.

"Quarian agent just hit two of my drones down that alley." Holo map appeared in the air, with red dots showing the drone's last location. "...but the others haven't spotted her yet so she hasn't left."

"I don't want her hurt, just..." He sighed, disappointed that he couldn't come up with something clever.

"I actually do want her terrified."