I'm not running; it's a little different now

[notglitching]

Who: Rinzler and Saren, plus later Shepard and Nihlus
When: late March, after this
Where: Some back alley on Kauto
What: Rinzler tries to go three for three on fighting Spectres
Warnings: violence, probable injury, frequent and varied mindscrew references


It takes him longer than he'd like.

Tracking. (Hunting.) Making his way to the threat. This is an open system—three systems, really, if networked so closely as to barely count as different—and as fast as Rinzler moves, far too much space lies between him and his prey. The viral claimed its code was dormant, but that hardly guaranteed how long, even if he were to place the slightest trust in what it said.

And that mistake, he won't be making twice.

Saren Arterius. Spectre. Assumed combat functions: high, degree of viral augmentations: unknown. Biotic. Rinzler reviews the data gathered from the post: words (just words), and hardly any guarantee, but he doubts the virus would have overstated its own strengths. Better to assume danger, better to expect the worst. Better not to think about why Nihlus had been among the first to call it, secret and secure. About exactly what that might imply.

It had taken Rinzler much too long to place his own call, a short warning to Shepard. The threat is (like before) one from her system, and if that flags a non-negligible possibility that she might be infected, she'd coped with one incursion already. She'd handled it far better than he had.

This time, things will be different. This time, he knows exactly what he needs to do. Rinzler leans back in the shadows of the building's roof, lights and signature both running dark as he surveys the street below. No bystanders. No interference.

Just a single pair of footsteps on approach.

Comments

[indoctrinated]

Saren, of course, was entirely unsuspecting of the threat looming overhead him, as he was unmindful to the target he painted on his back. As far as he was concerned, Nihlus and Shepard were the only immediate threats he had any reason to be wary of, and the conflict with both of them concluded in a rather unexpected fashion. There was no forgiveness or reconciliation, that much was a given. They didn't quite form an alliance, or a truce.

It was more like the reset button was hit, and old grudges were set aside in the face of the even ground they stood on, outside of their home galaxy. He wasn't foolish enough to think he was in the clear with either of them, but it was a start.

With the indoctrination inactive, the information he pried from Shepard, Saren supposed he could live and work with starting at square one.

It wasn't as though he had much of a choice, but in the long term, it was better to build new relations than burn bridges that could be salvaged. Additionally, he had no fight with either of them now, so why exhaust the energy?

After departing from Nihlus' shop, Saren navigated his way back to the EN-Line. Given his lack of familiarity with the Region, he kept to the secluded route Nihlus followed, with a few missteps along the way.

[notglitching]

Secluded is the goal. Rinzler's hiding place had been largely guesswork, but the area he'd traced the call to only had so many routes toward the main hubs. Another micro, and he can see the user coming into view, arms and armor gleaming in the pale light from overhead. Rinzler reaches back, carefully extracting his disk from dock as he calculates the angles...

...only to pause at the faint vibration from his TAB device.

Shepard.

If he weren't putting so much work to damping his sound, the skip of frustration would be very, very audible. As it is, Rinzler withdraws further in the shadows, skimming the message that appears on its holographic display. Sitrep. Instructions. Not close was not happening, at least for the ambush, but Rinzler pauses just long enough to send an image file of the threat before turning his communicator off entirely.

Then he leaps.

A drop off the ledge. A kick off the building. Rinzler's lights activate as his disk does, a spinning flurry of red-orange dropping from the sky. He comes out of the somersault weapon-first, weapon humming sharp and lethal as it crashes towards his prey.

[indoctrinated]

Saren's ears perked up as he made out a faint vibration from a TAB device. It wasn't his. He paused in his tracks, cautious and wary.

If he were out in the more populated sectors, it wouldn't be an unusual sound to hear, but he was certain there was no life out in this area save for himself. Saren stiffened in suspicion, eyes scanning the back of him to double check his flank, only to confirm there was nothing. Given the way Shepard opted to hide in the trees before, Saren's gaze carried toward the rooftop of the buildings, where he caught a brief glimpse of suspicious lighting.

Saren's eyes narrowed, focusing on the spotted location.

If Nihlus and Shepard distrusted him as they should, Saren wouldn't be surprised if they chose to assign someone to tail his movement. Irritating, certainly, but that would be a move he couldn't fault the logic of. He was about to consider his next move when the decision was abruptly taken out of his hands.

Saren jerked in surprise as Rinzler came hurling toward him, the sharp edge of Rinzler's weapon grazing his shoulder blade. On the defensive, Saren's biotics crackled and flared to life with the intent to push Rinzler from him.

"Who are you? Some lackey of Shepard's?" Saren snarled viciously, advancing on Rinzler with a quick lunge, slamming him against the wall and grabbing him by the throat with sharp claws.

[notglitching]

Frustrating to see his prey twitch forward out of reach, what should have been a crippling strike reduced to a slight graze. Worse to feel the swell of power that follows. Rinzler has fought Shepard enough to know what might come next, but the intensity of the biotic blast catches him off-guard, visuals flickering as his disk dock hits the wall.

Combat functions? Confirmed. Speed rates well above most user standards too, as it takes advantage of the momentary lag to close the gap. Intelligence, on the other hand...

...well. If the virus expected to live, it really should have killed first and questioned never.

The enforcer's sound rattles out, a ticking, mechanical growl of corruption that rumbles through Saren's grip and fills the narrow space between. Rinzler's own hand settles on the other's wrist: human in shape, but lined with the same sparse red-orange lights that cover the rest of the program's shell. And, as the force that digs into Saren's wrist promptly proves, significantly stronger than any human.

Rinzler doesn't need his scans to read the signature that hums through every point of contact. Bright and twisted, user and machine, and virus virus virus underneath it all. Any doubt is gone. This creature needs to die, and as easy as it would be to slash his disk across and remove the offending limb, Rinzler isn't going to waste the chance that he's been given.

Limbs coil, and the enforcer jumps, frame twisting to the side in an inverted flip as he pushes off the point of contact. Saren might find his own grasp significantly harder to maintain, and whether or not he manages to keep hold, the full force of Rinzler's body will be leveraging in an attempt to drag him along with the midair spin. Drop the threat, dump it, smash it down into the ground—then stab his disk straight through its core.