Mass Effect: Reaper Dreams

Hedged In

"Man cries, his tears dry up and run out. So he becomes a devil, reduced to a monster."

Kohta Hirano

May 25th, 2187

Susan Rizzi

Susan locked her gauntlets into place and checked the operational status of her scanner. It hummed to life, illuminating the rear panel of the shuttle with a strobe flash before it powered down again.

Zaeed flinched and grabbed at his pistol. "Goddamn, what was that?"

"Sorry," said Susan. "Just checking the functionality of my tactical scanner."

"Menacing sound, reminded me of a fucking Geth," said Zaeed.

"Well, it is based on Geth technology," said Susan.

Miranda tilted her head in Susan's direction as she finished locking a piece of light armor into place. "I'd like to take a look at that after the op," she said. "It's something that would be useful in my line of work."

Susan gave a brief nod to Miranda while she adjusted the newly integrated mark five power amplifier mod on her armor. She'd picked one up just last week and couldn't wait to see what kind of boost she'd get from it.

"What's with the new body armor, Miranda?" asked Zaeed.

Miranda swept a strand of hair out of her eyes. "Getting a little older Zaeed, a little slower, so I thought I'd go for more protection. Not to mention all the fancy new mods these days require plug-ins."

The old mercenary cocked his rifle in defiance. "All I need is the same old armor I've always used, Jessie here, some grenades, and I'm good to go."

Susan could hear Jacob guffawing from the front of the shuttle. "You still packing that old rifle around?" asked Jacob. "Man, why don't you spring for a Valkyrie, now there's a damn good assault rifle."

"Nah," said Zaeed. "I like the weight on mine. Continuous fire, low kickback, and I can always find a sweet spot. With the ammo I use, I can tear down some poor bastard's kinetic barriers before he even knows he's in the line of fire. Not to mention, I like a light rifle so I can always keep my Viper handy for extreme distance."

"Ok," said Jacob. "Each to his own."

Zaeed stared Susan up and down until his eyes settled on her Talon pistol. "What about you, Mouse? That hand cannon packs a punch at short range, but it's no good for anything else. I know your type likes to carry light, but you should hip pocket a long range backup, something light like a Locust with a stabilizer and a scope. That'll do ya' fine."

Miranda interceded on Susan's behalf. "Zaeed, Lt. Rizzi doesn't fight at a distance."

Zaeed scowled. "Bloody hell, don't tell me she's one of those goddamn chargers, is she? Last thing I need is someone knocking Batarians around like bowling pins. Some of us like to line up a shot, you know? And Batarians have tough hides—knock 'em down and they'll be right up biting us in the ass. We can't afford to get sloppy when we have no idea of the layout."

Susan shook her head. "No, I never charge, sometimes I do something similar, but only to escape; though I rarely do that because I need to keep my field up at all times."

"So you mean to tell me that all you do is fire your bloody pistol and run around keeping a barrier up?" asked Zaeed.

"Zaeed," interrupted Miranda. "Susan's barrier has a warp effect. When she extends it, anything that comes in contact with her barrier is destabilized on a molecular level; other barriers, armor, flesh—will become unstable, and then any common biotic field..."