Act I : XV

Asteroid X57

Slade Jordan was torn between keeping his Paladin sighted down on Balak, and fighting the urge to yell at the Commander.

Shepard, for fuck's sake, you cannot be serious…

Slade admitted that they were definitely not in a good position: they were surrounded by batarians and assault droids. Balak was standing at the top of a staircase, backed up by a few bodyguards and they all had the advantage of high ground. The assault droids whizzed through the air and constantly popped in and out of Slade's peripheral vision. The other members of Balak's crew were huddled together in groups all over the remainder of the complex, leaving no safe place to retreat if they decided to open fire.

I don't care how bad this situation is, Balak CANNOT leave!

"You can leave, Balak", Shepard announced. "But I swear, I WILL find you and I WILL bring you to justice."

"Maybe", Balak mocked. "But not today, human. Those demolition charges are still on timers, so I'll be escaping while you pitifully attempt to save your hostages. Goodbye, human filth." Balak and his followers began slowly moving to the exit, without taking their eyes or guns off Shepard's team. Shepard gave Slade a firm look and signalled to let them go without a fight.

No. This is wrong.

Slade desperately tried something he thought he would never be stupid enough to do: he opened a private comm link to Wrex, who answered almost immediately.

"Hey, runt", Wrex grunted. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

"We can't let that son of a bitch go", Slade hissed. "Are you with me?"

"We're gonna get in a lot of shit for this…" Wrex warned. "You sure you wanna do this? Shepard can't do shit all to punish me, but she can definitely whip you a good fifty lashes."

"I'm going to turn him into paste, just like that other batarian", Slade growled. Wrex gently laughed before answering.

"I might just be starting to like you, runt", Wrex chuckled.

/

Slade, PLEASE don't do anything stupid…

Commander Zoey Shepard knew Slade was not happy with her decision, and although she did not think he would try something, she braced herself to restrain him.

He's going to kill the hostages, Slade…PLEASE just let him go.

Balak and his crew were almost to the top level balcony, when Wrex and Slade suddenly sprinted off in opposite directions: Wrex stormed up the stairs, bellowing a terrifying battlecry while Slade vaulted over a glass railing and ran off towards the exit.

"What the hell are you two doing?!" Garrus shouted as he readied his sniper rifle to cover Wrex's advance.

"GARRUS!" Shepard screamed. "NO! HOLD YOUR FIRE!" Garrus nodded, but continued to line up his shot. Shepard had a split second to decide on her course of action: Wrex was obviously going to chase the batarians towards Slade, who was sprinting to the exit to cut them off, so her options were sprint up to Wrex and attempt to stop him from chasing Balak, or sprint after Slade and stop him from cutting them off.

Wrex can handle himself and has Garrus on overwatch. Slade is alone. No brainer.

Zoey began running after Slade, but an overwhelmingly loud explosion and teeth chattering tremor knocked her off balance, so she grabbed onto the glass railing for support.

Oh, please no…

Zoey painstakingly brought her gaze over to the area where the hostages were being kept, and dread began to build up inside her as she saw smoke and fire pouring out of the room: Balak had set off the explosives.

/

Slade Jordan stumbled mid-sprint because of the explosion, but forced himself back to full speed and continued heading towards the exit.

They're dead. I need to make sure it wasn't in vain.

Slade rounded a corner and pressed himself against the wall for cover as he heard a stampede of batarians heading towards the corridor. He ignored all the sounds around him and focused all his attention to gathering his biotic potential. Slade continued to try as hard as he could, but did not feel the vibrant, pulsing sensation coursing through his body.

Fuck! It's not working.

Slade tried again, but was rewarded with nothing out of the ordinary. The thundering cluster of footsteps was a few feet away from the wall now, Slade was out of time. Sighing in fear and frustration, he readied his Paladin.

I guess I'll have to do this the hard way.

Slade pivoted out of the cover of the wall, extending his omniblade as he moved and thrust his arm into the neck of the first batarian to round the corner. He did little more than gurgle out his last words through a mouthful of blood. Slade then fired his pistol, blowing a hole through the chest of another bodyguard, who fell backwards into the opposite wall and slumped to the floor, dead. Only Balak and another bodyguard remained standing - Wrex must have been holding the rest of them off, or killed them - and Slade sighted down the extremist leader, ready to put a hole through one of his many eyes. Before he could pull the trigger, the last remaining bodyguard clothed himself in a blue aura and Slade felt a large, painful force hammer into his chest and violently hurl him backwards.

Damn it. He's a biotic.

Slade landed on his back and the back of his head was ploughed onto the floor as the remainder of his momentum carried him further. His vision blurred and everything seemed to be brighter and more vivid, as if the room was drenched in a huge spotlight; in fact, the light fixtures on the ceiling seemed to burn Slade's eyes if he looked anywhere near them. He clumsily forced himself to his feet and desperately attempted to regain his balance, but the bright lights disoriented him and made it almost impossible to see the two batarians marching towards him. Slade did not know where his pistol had gone, so he extended his omniblade again and tried harder to distinguish the shapes moving towards him. The figure closer to him was encased in red combat armour: Balak. Slade recklessly lunged forwards and attempted to drive his arm into Balak's neck; however, he effortlessly slid out of the way and Slade's arm continued forward without connecting with anything.

Shit.

Slade felt a sharp pain pierce his side - it was a freezing cold sensation and excruciatingly painful - and he yelped and bent forwards. Slade looked down the side of his chestplate to see a red gauntlet balled into a fist, clutching an evil looking barbed dagger which was buried in Slade's body. Balak twisted his fist and drove the blade in further, causing Slade to scream in agony and collapse to his knees. Slade's breath became quick and ragged, it was becoming difficult to breathe. Everytime he tried to inhale, a sharp pain would stop his chest from expanding and immediately cause him to exhale in agony.

"You stupid, stupid human", Balak taunted. "I was going to let you live and leave peacefully. Instead you chose to reject my mercy, and now your hostages are dead. No need to worry, you will be joining them soon." Balak wrenched his dagger out of Slade - causing him to spasm and gasp in silent agony as it was too painful to scream - and kicked Slade's freshly wounded side with a heavy boot. Slade crumpled to the ground and his body had stopped obeying him, all he could do was lie in his own blood, and try to remain conscious through unexplainable pain. Balak bent down and strangled Slade's neck with his empty hand.

"This is for the countless batarians who have died because of your pitiful race", Balak snarled. "Feel their vengeance." Slade's vision was quickly fading and he could no longer breathe, but he managed to see Balak raise his dagger one more time for a final thrust.

This is it. I'm sorry, Commander.

Slade felt another slam of agony on his chest as his vision finally faded to pitch black, and he could no longer feel anything.