Mass Effect: Legend of Vader

CHAPTER 4

Tali'Zorah slumped against the nearest wall, blood dripping down her suited waist as she desperately searched for a place to rest. Her blue-suited friend followed close behind with a noticeable tiredness.

The two of them -god, that was still painful for Tali to think about- had been discovered on Illium and were struggling to survive ever since. Their recent injuries had begun effecting them.

With a sudden bang, the male Quarian fell against the metal wall.  "I don't think I can go any further. My lungs...there's fire  in my lungs."

"I'm not leaving  you here."  Tali declared.  "If the Council wont listen to us, maybe we can find help at one of the Embassies. The Elcor have always--"

"Nobody  listens to the Elcor...not with a straight face, anyway."  He replied sarcastically.

The attempt at humour was ignored as Tali noticed a red hatch on the approaching wall. She reached out tiredly, grasped its yellowed handle, and gave an admittedly weak pull that barely forced it open.

Both Quarians stumbled into the chamber, only to pause when the unwanted sight of heating bars and trash shoots came into view. The two quickly realised they had found themselves in the Citadel garbage disposal, a generally unsafe location.

Tali looked around for another means of escape, noticing a rusted ladder in the far-right corner of the room. She turned to her friend and pointed.

"Up there -- you see  that?"

The blue-suited Quarian suddenly fell down to his knees and struggled to remain upright.  "That V.I we interacted with earlier...i-it said there's a clinic in the upper wards. Go for it, I'll just sit here..."

"What? No!"  Tali yelled in defiance.

She kneeled in front of his mask and grabbed his shoulders,  "We need  to keep moving!"  he gave no response to her words, earning a worried look from Tali as she nudged his shoulders.  "Keenah?"

The man's head lowered towards the ground, eyes dimming behind his mask, as the purple blood on his open wound began to drench his legs. Tali was frozen in place as she watched her friend's posture fall to that of a lifeless husk, completely unmoving.

He was dead.

She was the last member of their group to survive, no one else was there to remember them. Her life would not end her, it would be an insult to all that her friends sacrificed if she merely lay down and accepted the outcome.

Wordlessly, Tali placed her data-pad on the floor and rushed towards the ladder. She climbed with vigour, not ceasing her movements for a moment, but offered the corpse of her fallen comrade one final look as she moved through the exit hatch.

"Thank you."  she whispered, then vanished.

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In the aftermath of the slaughter, Darth Vader had continued towards his new targets with focus, the Sith Lord watching for any signs of movement; he needed to remain vigilant in case they decided to retrace their steps. Unlikely, but not impossible.

He marched down the metal hall with calculated steps, but his sauntered movements lasted mere minutes before the sound of footsteps reached in from the distance. The sound was sloppy but also light-footed, which indicated to Vader that he had followed the correct path down the Lower Wards.