Drone
I do not own Mass Effect or any of its characters.
"Go ahead Commander, save the other team! I'll set off the bomb and hold them off! What a great fucking idea Williams!" Ashley Williams yelled at herself, the chief had to laugh at the situation that she found herself in at this point. All her life she'd wanted to redeem her grandfather and her family's name, she was willing to do anything at all, so much so that Shepard once said that she wouldn't be happy until she became a martyr for a cause. She always figured that the commander was just joking with her in that sarcastic manner of hers, but now she was about to become that martyr. For an instant, in Ashley Williams's minds eye she saw an old, pigeon covered statue of her in a public square. There'd be a plaque on it that said "In Memory of Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams Hero of Virmire." Ash snapped out of her daze just in time to take down two more Geth drones that were moving in on her position and, then fired off hitting two more. The Geth were backing off again. She knew that it would just be for a moment, but she could use this time to catch her breath. She checked herself over, she was running low on ammunition and had long since run out of grenades, her shields were shot and wouldn't recharge no matter what she did, and a few rounds had pierced her armor but not the heavy weave under her armor. Ash knew going into this that she would not survive, there would be no last minute rescue for her. She accepted that and regretted nothing.
Well that's not true, she had one regret and that was Tali. She was so sorry that she was going to leave her behind, so sorry that she had never gotten to see her face or touch her skin. She regretted that she hadn't figured out how she felt about her sooner. Ash had a feeling that she had always liked women, but she had never admitted it to herself, and it really wasn't until Tali came along was she able to admit to her desires to herself. It was a very strange thing, to fall head over heels in love with a woman that she'd never really seen. She had fallen for Tali hard, and looking back on it Ashley knew that she fell in love with her the first time she saw her in that alleyway in the lower wards of the Citadel. She had wasted months of time that she could've spent with Tali, because of her distrust of non-humans. However she had Shepard to thank for changing that. She wore her down by making her trust and work with the non-human members of the Normandy crew, doing assault missions with Wrex and Garrus and recon and pick up missions with Tali or Liara until she finally got over her distrusts. Ashley Williams was thrilled to be a part of the team on this mission. But, the last two months since she had admitted her feelings to Tali'Zorah, it had obviously proven that it was not an easy relationship due to the Quarian's limitations. However Ash wouldn't give it up for anything.
Suddenly the Geth returned for their third attempt to defuse the explosive, and once again the Gunnery Chief was under heavy fire. While she continued to fight off the Geth horde she thought back to the promise that she made to Tali at the Salarian STG camp before the attack on Saren's facility began. Even though the Normandy team had beaten the odds on numerous missions before, fought against superior numbers to rescue Liara on Therum, saved the survivors of Peak 13 and freed the Rachni queen on Noveria, and saved many of the colonists and destroyed the Thorian on Feros. While all of those missions were dangerous, none of them felt as deadly as the missions on Virmire. They were outnumbered not only in the numbers of Geth and husks, but now learning about the cloned Krogan soldiers that Saren had within the facility the mission now seemed insurmountable. She had seen the Commander and Wrex in a very tense situation that almost came to blows, but Shepard was able to talk some sense into the old Krogan and he went along with the plan to destroy the facility and the genophage cure. Just before Shepard ordered the crew out she was able to share a private moment with Tali in one of the STG camps. The two of them talked about what they wanted to do once this mission was finally over. Tali talked about wanting to show Ashley the Flotilla, and meet her father and her Auntie Raan. She loved listening to her go on about life in the Flotilla and Quarian culture and more than anything loved the sound of Tali's voice. Ashley also talked to Tali about taking her to Earth, meeting the rest of the Williams family and exploring the cities of Earth. It was at the end of their conversation that Tali grew silent.
"What's wrong?" Ashley asked.
"I'm scared, more scared then I've ever been in my life." Tali responded in her synthetic voice.
"We've been through dangerous missions before, we'll be just fine." Said Ashley.
"It's not that. I'm scared for us. I'm trying not to think about it but I can't help it, how would either of us go on if we lost the other? I've never been so happy, but I don't know what I'd do with out you." Said Tali. Ashley could tell just how emotional she was just by the sound of her voice. Ashley hugged Tali's body close to hers and tried as best as she could to calm her lover down.
"Hey hey, you can't think like that Shepard has gotten us through everything so far with all of us intact," Ashley said with as much reassurance as she could, but she would be lying if she said that she wasn't thinking the same thing.
"We're going to get through this whole thing just fine I promise." Said Ashley.
"Do you really think so?" Tali said breaking the embrace and looking into Ashley's eyes.
"Yes we will, and you know what?" Said the Chief.
"What?" Said Tali. Ashley leaned down and kissed Tali's faceplate.
"I know that we haven't been together long, but I knew that the first time I laid eyes on you that you were the person that I wanted to grow old with." Said Ashley smiling down at her.
"Oh I wish I didn't have to wear this damned environment suit right now." Said Tali, than said. "Right now I think it would be worth risking infection to take this helmet off."
"Heh you really shouldn't do that right now, Shepard's going to need everyone onboard for this mission." Said Ashley. After all words had been expressed the two women simply held each other for the next few moments waiting for the commander to call them.
"I'm Sorry Tali." Ashley said aloud before dispatching several more Geth troopers.
She wanted to lead that Salarian fire team the commander assigned Kaidan to the Salarian team. She thought that the biotic was a little to eager to volunteer for the assignment, like he was still thinking that he was going to impress the Commander. But Ashley knew better; she had seen the way that Liara and Amanda Shepard looked at each other and acted around each other. It was exactly the same way that Tali and her looked at each other. So the Commander took her with her through Saren's base. After they reached the Prothean beacon and learned the truth about the Reapers, they left the beacon room and the team moved toward the rendezvous point with the Normandy. Upon clearing the landing site the Normandy arrived to drop off the bomb. While we were setting up the bomb a frantic message came over the radio, Kadian and the STG were holding their position but they were in danger of being overrun, the Commander left her in charge of the bombsite and everything was going fine. The Commander took Tali and Garrus with her to rescue the STG team and after the bomb was dropped off the Normandy took off towards the STG's position, so Ashley and the two crew members that were activating the bomb were left there all alone, the plan that the Commander told her was they would pick up Kadian and the STG and then come back for them. But a few minutes after Shepard took off a Geth drop ship moved in on their position and dropped off a ton of Geth troopers. Thankfully it was nothing too big so they weren't overrun immediately. The two other soldiers were killed shortly after the Geth landed and in that instant Ashley knew that the only option was to activate the bomb and then hold the position until her death. She radioed the Commander and told her what the situation was and told her to go and rescue the others, she was the only one there and there were several people in the STG team, she knew that it was more important for the Commander to rescue the Salarian's than to come back for her. Then Ashley talked to Tali for the last time.
"I'm sorry Tali, but I guess I won't be able to see the Flotilla." Said Williams, She tried desperately to think of a poem to recite for Tali, but for some reason the only thing she could think of a line from the movie Blade Runner. An old human movie that she showed Tali a month ago which Tali had really enjoyed.
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I've watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those... moments will be lost in time, like tears...in rain. Time to die." Ashley said as she choked back tears.
"Goodbye Ashley, you will forever be in my heart." Said Tali her sobbing could be heard plainly to all around her.
Two more shots fired and two more Geth down and only a few more minutes left to go, while she paused to reload she saw the Normandy take off and leave the planets atmosphere escaping to safety. Ashley let out a sigh off relief with the knowledge that Tali and the rest of the team made it off the planet safely. The Gunnery Chief finished reloading her assault rifle and was taking aim when a Geth rocket trooper fired a rocket that impacted right next to her.
After the explosion Ashley Williams world was spinning she couldn't hear and her vision was blurry. She attempted to stand, but found that she couldn't so she scooted her way to a pillar that was in the center of the space she manage to sit herself upright and began to survey the damage. When the world finally came back into focus Ashley realized she couldn't see out of her right eye, the explosion had also shredded what was left of her armor and left her legs and right arm horribly mangled. Even if a last minute rescue some how happened she would probably never walk again without the use of cybernetics. It was a very strange thing to feel the life slowly ebb out of her; everything seemed to get darker, like the world was slowly collapsing in on itself. But she at least knew that there was no way that the Geth could disarm the bomb in time, she tilted her head up and saw several Geth moving towards her, she knew that this was truly the end. But suddenly the Geth approaching her were killed by a quick series of shots. She couldn't see who or what shot them for what seemed like a long time but then suddenly another Geth platform came into view. Now, Ashley had fought and killed many Geth over the last few months but this one was very different. It was taller than the standard Geth mobile platform but it was not a Prime platform. It kneeled down in front of her and stared at her at least she thought it was staring at her, she couldn't really tell if that headlight was actually looking at her.
"Well if you're gonna kill me you'd better do it." Ashley managed to spit out.
But then surprising to the Geth platform reached under her and picked her up, the various plates on its head shifting and buzzing.
"Williams, Gunnery Chief." It said.
And that was the last thing that Ashley Williams saw in this life.
-Well there it is the first chapter of my first story, hope you enjoyed it and I will certainly be adding more chapters soon. I included the little Blade Runner reference because I think it's an incredible movie and I thought that it would be a nice touch for Tali to like this old earth movie about synthetic people who only want to live. I know that most of you who read this already know about the events on Virmire but I thought that it was important to go over it again for the reader, and to also see it through Ashley's eyes. I've also always figured that someone who was in such a situation would think about the events that brought him or her to this point. So I hope that you enjoy this first attempt of mine.