Tali and Mission exited the Bek base as Zaalbaar carried the engine inside, the guard waved them away as they started their exit to the upper city in order to meet with Carth and Nick. The two were weary of the dangers in the lower city and cautiously approached the elevator, Tali now fully understanding the operation of her weapon, held it firmly in both hands as she struggled to find a comfortable position for her three fingers.
"We're almost to the elevator." Mission stated excitedly, she seemed awfully giddy about something and Tali couldn't help but wonder what was going on. Sensing the Quarian's curiosity, Mission spoke without turning around. "I've never properly been to the upper city, I've snuck up there but all I've seen were glimpses before the authorities chased me away."
"You'll be able to see it properly now." Tali said calmly, reassuring the young Twi'lek who showed a smile.
"Thanks… by the way." Mission said quietly, she turned to face Tali and was met with her glowing eyes. "I almost considered joining the Vulkars back there, you stopped me."
"Hey, it was nothing. They had to be stopped." Tali said quickly, putting a hand on Mission's shoulder.
"I know… just… thanks." The brief moment was interrupted as Mission suddenly turned towards the elevator. Things went back to business as she started to mess with the control panel; Tali stepped to the side and stayed alert while Mission attempted to open the doors. "It's not opening, elevator is on lockdown, I couldn't open it even if I wanted to: the controls are on the upper level."
"What do we do?" Tali quickly asked, "Isn't there some other way up?"
"There are some old maintenance tunnels that I would sometimes use, but I can't say what condition they are in." Mission turned around and went for a nearby wall, tearing off a loose sheet of metal to reveal a rusty hatch that no doubt led to the maintenance tunnels. Mission pushed a button on a small panel beside the hatch and it slid open with a loud and slow grind. "Here, this should take us to the upper city; we're going to need to do a little climbing though." Mission climbed into the hatch and grasped the ladder and began ascending, Tali hastily followed and climbed into the hatch.
Faint red lights illuminated just enough to see the next one but not enough to see the ladder or the walls clearly. As they climbed, both of them stayed silent, almost as if they didn't want to be heard; it was a surprise for Tali as the normally talkative Mission stayed quiet. Their ascent was not slowed by anything, Tali was growing more fatigued however, with no proper rest since they left the upper city. She hoped that she might get a chance to peel out of her suit, but she knew it was unlikely.
Suddenly there was an explosion overhead, far enough to sound distant but close enough that it was traceable. "What was that?!" Tali asked up the ladder, Mission responded by increasing the speed she climbed with Tali following behind. They both ascended to the top of the ladder where there was a hatch; upon opening the hatch the sound of blaster fire penetrated their ears even though they were inside a small storage room, the battle must have been closer.
"Come on, let's go check it out." Mission said just as Tali readied her pistol and activated her energy shield. The two advanced through the door and peeked around the corner, Mission flinched back when she spotted a squad of Sith soldiers advancing towards them, hiding in the storage room the squad completely ignored the open door and rolled past the two. After they left, Tali peaked around the open door into the corridor, seeing the soldiers turn a corner at the far end and more blaster fire erupting from their direction. "Let's go!" Mission pushed past and out into the corridor at running speed with Tali close behind.
As they approached the same corner they slowed to walking pace and peeked around, the Sith were firing into a destroyed door frame and bolts were being returned. A grenade came from the hole and exploded near a Sith soldier who was completely shredded from the frag, he was groaning in agony on the floor. After the grenade the Sith backed off slightly and there was a lull in the fight. "Let's go." Mission whispered, but Tali disagreed as one of the Sith started punching something out on his communicator.
"They're calling for reinforcements; we need to wait for a better moment." Tali said as she looked behind only to see three large drones rolling on the floor towards them. Without hesitation Tali pushed both herself and Mission into a nearby alcove and the three drones rolled through very quickly. Once they turned the corner all three deployed instantly into towering assault droids, their shields activating while one advanced down the ramp towards the room, it fired a barrage of shots into the small room and continued to advance. The other two slowly advanced down the ramp while the soldiers backed up so as to not get in the way. "Keelah…" Tali uttered as she watched the assault droids fold out and begin advancing on their objective.
Mission activated her stealth generator and snuck up behind one of the three soldiers and slashed at him with her sword. The energy weave made his armour vibrate and split apart revealing open areas for her to slash away causing more significant damage to the soldier. Amidst the confusion, Tali killed one of the other soldiers very quickly with her pistol. From the opening, a grenade was thrown and it landed on the floor near Tali, she froze in place and time seemed to slow down for her. Mission quickly jumped towards her and pulled the remaining soldier up and threw him at the grenade, he fell on top of it and started screaming before it exploded, ending his life instantly. The first assault droid entered the room and was met with a flurry of laser blasts before it was destroyed. The last two entered together for a better chance of defeating their adversary.
"Come on let's take 'em out!" Mission whispered, now that the cacophony had died down, Tali's response was halted by a hail of gunfire erupting from the two assault droids.
"We'll be killed before we can even dent them, we've got to wait." Tali replied to a slightly disappointed Mission. However the two were cut short by a large electronic explosion that made both of them flinch; both droids were stunned for a second. "Now's a good chance, let's move!" Tali said before advancing towards the assault droids.
Carth was cowering behind the barricade after the ion grenade had detonated. He didn't want to look up in case his head was blown off by one of the droids. He heard movement and a loud thud, hesitantly he looked up over the barricade to see one of the assault droids on the floor sparking with electricity and just behind he could see the silhouette of a Sith soldier, the other assault droid was advancing on him very slowly, its repeating blaster glowing red and sparking. He fired off a couple of shots but both missed; the assault droid used one of its arms to tear a gap in the barricade knocking Carth to the floor facing up at the droid. The pistol was knocked out of his hands to the side, the droid towered over him and lifted its arm ready to crush him, and Carth cowered in fear: bringing his hands to his face in a futile defence against the immense strength of the droid.
But the swing never came. Carth slowly opened his eyes and removed his arms to see the droid had started sparking before the single light in its "head" faded into black. The droid keeled over to the side and hit the metal floor with a loud clang. Carth was bewildered at first, but looking up he could see the familiar violet mask of Tali. "Tali!" He half shouted half cried before she offered him a hand and pulled him up, her attack drone was hovering around and she activated her omni-tool and let the drone fade away.
Mission meanwhile had turned a groaning Nick over to see his wounds. "Woah!" She exclaimed as she looked down at the burns all over his back and the strange gel that had covered a few of them.
Tali approached and gasped with similar surprise. "We need to get him out of here." Tali said with concern in her voice.
Carth sighed and stood after grabbing his pistol "Well you're a sight for sore eyes." He said, quite a delayed reaction after the other two had spoken. "We need to leave, the Sith will send reinforcements."
"Yeah… but how are we going get him out?" Mission asked, pointing towards Nick.
Carth sighed "I'll carry him." He said as he started to grab Nick, he found it to be quite challenging and removed Nick's heavy plated armour and then lifted him over his back. Tali, frustrated at the pace and concerned for Nick, helped Carth so that they could get out much quicker.
"We need to get moving. Anywhere that we can take him?" Tali asked quickly, with her hand still on Nick's back even though Carth was holding him tight. Nick groaned in pain.
"There's this doctor - Zelka Forn, he'll take him in, he takes anyone in – even republic fugitives." Mission replied, Carth immediately lit up afterwards.
"Really? Where is this place?" Carth said quickly while the group continued through the dark maintenance corridors.
"It's on the upper city, on the same street as the cantina." Mission said, turning down a corridor that no doubt led up there.
"Wait!" Carth stopped them, Tali and Mission turned to face him. "The upper city is out of bounds, the Sith cracked down and declared mandatory curfew, we can't go up there until morning."
Mission pulled out a small device and looked down at it, "But it's morning now." Carth had surprise and relief written all over his face while Mission simply smiled
Carth was lost for words but Mission just simply continued on until they eventually made it back up to the upper city.