I have to give credit Freshman19 for giving me the idea for behind this story. I have I have offended him in anyway, I am truly and rightfully sorry.
Losing someone in combat is part of the job as Commander Alice Shepard knew from her reputation on Torfan where she sent multiple troops to attack a batarian stronghold. That does not mean it ever got any easier. "Butcher of Torfan" most troops called her. Some soldiers looked up to her, others thought she was ruthless due to the amount of casualties from Torfan and the slaughtering of surrending Batarians. One of those who did look up to her was Corporal Richard L. Jenkins.
"Damn it" Shepard cursed under her breath as she lost another soldier to a recon drone.
"Tore right through his shields. He never had a chance." Lieutenant Kaiden Alenko said as he closed Jenkins' eyes. Kaiden was a good friend and an excellent soldier. Shepard and Captain Anderson both thought highly of him due to his numerous accomadations. Unlike some Alliance troops, Alenko was a biotic.
"We will arrange for him to have a proper burial." Shepard said with a grimace.
"Aye, aye ma'am." Alenko said as he focused back on the mission.
Fighting through more synthetics, Shepard and Alenko saw another soldier who was getting chased down by drones, the same ones they saw gun down Jenkins. One beam had hit the soldier and she fell to the ground only to quick draw her pistol and quickly gun them down. Just as she saw that two synthetic troops placed a soldier on a spike and killed him instantly. Shepard and Alenko both sprung into action gunning down the synthetics.
"Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212. You the one in charge here ma'am." Williams said as her saviors had arrived.
"I'm Commander Alice Shepard of the Normandy and this is Lieutenant Kaiden Alenko. Are you okay are you hurt?" Shepard asked Williams .
"I'm fine ma'am" Ash said with a smile. "I'm the one left from my platoon."
"Any idea the enemy we're facing?" Shepard asked looking around to make sure no one snuck up on them.
"Now you may think I'm crazy but I think they're geth."
"The geth haven't been seen outside the Veil in over 300 years. Why are they here now?" Kaiden asked with a quizzical expression on his face.
"They might be here for the beacon the scientists recovered." Ashley said pointing to the digsite.
"Can you take us there?"
"Yes ma'am. Time for some payback." Ash said with evil smirk on her face.
After fighting through more geth, the group finally reached the digsite. "Where is it?" Shepard asked in general with a hint of frustration.
"It was here earlier, it must have been moved." Ash said carefully trying not to frustrate the Commander.
"By who, our side or the geth?" Kaiden asked Ash who too was frustrated.
Over the radio was the turian spectre Nihlus Kyrik who was assigned by the council on the Normandy. "I'm at the spaceport Shepard. I'll wait for you here."
"Roger that." Shepard quickly said. "Williams can you get us to the spaceport?"
"Yes ma'am, it's just over that hill." Williams said as they moved out toward the spaceport.
"Saren?" Nihlus asked as he saw his former mentor who was also a spectre.
"Nihlus." Saren said without turning around.
"This isn't your mission Saren. What are you doing here?"
"The council thought you needed some help on this one." Saren said as he walked by Nihlus and drew his pistol when Nihlus wasn't looking.
"This is bad Saren, I wasn't expecting the geth." Nihlus said letting his guard down.
"It's all under control." Saren assured Nihlus as he put the pistol to his head and pulled the trigger sending Nihlus to his death.
There was a gunshot in the distance and the ground started shaking. "What is that?" Kaiden said pointing over the horizon with a shocked face.
"That's a ship. Look at the size of that thing." Ashley said as the ship blasted away in the distance.
"We got Geth below us!" Kaiden yelled as the Geth were now aware of their presence.
"Roger that! Open Fire!" Shepard ordered as her squad light up the geth. They were heavily outnumbered by the geth but still Shepard and her team prevailed. The three broke off and made sure they were dead. "All clear over here." Shepard said looking over at Kaiden.
"Same here. Ash?" Kaiden asked as he and Shepard were both looking around trying to find Williams. Just as quickly they heard gunfire.
"DIE! That's what you get you fucks for killing my squad!" Ash was screaming and kept putting rounds into the already dead geth with tears coming down her face.
"Ash! Calm down!" Shepard said pulling her away from the corpse that was riddled with bullet holes. "Ash. What's wrong?" Shepard asked making sure she was fine but heard no answer. "Ash! Snap out of it." Finally Ash caught Shepard's attention and practically broke into tears.
"Goddamn it!" Ashley said as she threw herself into the Commander's arms. "I'm sorry Commander."
"It's alright Williams. It's alright." Shepard said making sure Williams was stable enough to finish the mission. "You'll be fine. Listen…" Shepard took Ash's hand and looked her straight in the eye and said "It's going to be alright. I know what you're going through with losing troops in combat. But you absolutely cannot let it take control of you or it's going to take control of you."
"I'm just…"
"Angry, pissed off, and wanting revenge. I get it. You want revenge but think about it. Is killing every geth going to bring them back?" There was silence for a few moments. Shepard looked at Kaiden who was leaning on a wall watching this unfold.
"No… I guess not. You're right killing them won't bring them I'm back and I'm sorry for this." Ash said wiping the tears from her face.
"It's alright, you have nothing to be sorry for and I understand your frustration." Shepard assured Ashley as she said that. "Are you going to be able to finish the mission?"
Ash hesitated for a moment but ultimately assured Shepard that she was going to finish the mission.
"Alright, now let's get you on your feet." Shepard said and signaled Kaiden to get Ash's rifle. "Just remember this you can talk to me about anything. My doors always open. For now think happy thoughts."
Wiping the remaining tears from her face, Ash stood up from the crate they were sitting on and got back to the task at hand. They climbed the stairs and found turian blood, Shepard feared the worst. They reached the top of the stairs and found Nihlus' body in a pool of blood. Shepard's heart sank.
"Commander, its Nihlus." Kaiden said grimly as he leaned over to check the turian's body.
"A turian? You know him?" Ash asked both the Commander and Kaiden.
Shepard just nodded in agreement with Kaiden as something moved behind the crates. As they were trained, each pulled a weapon over to the area of the sound.
"Don't shoot. Don't shoot. I'm one of you, I'm human." The voice cowardly said and appeared from behind the boxes.
"Sneaking up like that almost got you killed!" Shepard yelled at him in frustration. "What are you doing behind those boxes?"
"I...I... was hiding from those things when the attack hit." The man said with a little stutter in his voice.
"What's your name?" Shepard asked as she signaled Ash and Kaiden to holster their weapons. "How come you're the only one hiding over there?"
"My name's Powell. I usually take a nap back here when I'm not on shift." Powell said still scared shitless.
"So you were being a coward while those out there were being slaughtered?" Ash screamed at Powell.
"Let it go Ash." the Commander said looking at Ash.
"You're lucky the Commander's here Powell." Ash said with a pissed off expression.
"I did see who shot that turian though if that helps." Powell nervously said
"Well? I'm waiting." Shepard looking with a glance said.
"There was another turain who your friend called Saren. It seems they knew each other because your friend let his guard down." Powell was careful about what he saying. "Saren pulled out his pistol and shot right in the back of the head in cold blood."
"Do you know where he was headed?" Kaiden asked
"He seemed to be headed for the other side of the spaceport. He took the tram over there." Powell was still talking nervously.
"Alright thanks for your help Powell. Williams, Alenko, move out."
"Yes ma'am." Both answered in unison. The three of them encountered geth on the their way to the front of the tram. During the fight Shepard looked over at Williams to make sure she was stable enough to handle the firefight. While looking at Williams, Alice started thinking weather she really did care about her and meant what she said earlier or was just saying that to make her feel better.
"Do I really care about her that much? I mean I've only known her for a few hours." Shepard thought weather or not she really cared about her despite not really getting to know her. Just as she thought that a laser blasted the crate in front of her and she quickly snapped out of it to return fire. The team made it down to the end of the tram and took to the other side of the spaceport. Just as they arrived, they realized that Saren was going to blow this place to kingdom come. Fighting through the relentless geth and disarming the bombs they came upon the Prothean beacon.
"Look at that, actual Prothean technology." Kaiden was amazed by it.
"Normandy? Package secured and ready for pick up." Shepard said as she called in the Normandy.
"It wasn't doing anything like that when they dug it up." Ash said with curiosity as green streams were coming from it. She was moving closer to the beam with caution. Just she caught close enough something happened. Shepard pushed Kaiden out of the way and quickly grabbed Ash to throw her out of the way. Not even a second later Shepard was lifted off the ground.
"Shepard!" Ash said reaching for the Commander.
"No! Don't touch her." Kaiden said keeping Ashley at bay.
Shepard was being implanted with a Prothean vision that she could not understand. As the vision ended Shepard fell to the ground unconscious and the beacon exploded. Kaiden let go of Ashley and she quickly ran over to the Commander to see if she was still had a pulse. "She's still got a pulse." Ash said looking over to Kaiden.
"Normandy to ground team. Commander Shepard has been knocked unconscious from the beacon. We need an evac. Alert Doctor Chakwas." Kaiden said quickly to make sure Shepard was dying.
"Come on Commander stay with us!" Ash said looking at Shepard's motionless body. The Normandy landed and both Ash and Kaiden helped Shepard onto the ship and led her to the medical bay. The rest of the crew came to her aid.
-About 15 hours later-
"Doctor! Doctor Chakwas, I think she's waking up!" Ash called out as the Commander was waking up in the med bay of the Normandy SR-1.
"How are you feeling Commander?" Doctor Chakwas asked just as she finished on her computer playing Solitare.
"Like I just hit by mother fucking truck." Shepard said as she reached her for head. Ash giggled as she looked at Chakwas who also had a smile on her face.
"Well it seems you haven't lost your touch." Chakwas said with a laugh. Shepard got a good kick out of it.
"How long was I out?" Shepard said finding it hard to talk to do her migraine.
"About 15 hours. We've detected some unusual brain activity that is associated with intense dreaming." Chakwas said reading from her datapad.
"More like a nightmare." Shepard said "What happened to the beacon?" looking at Ashley.
"It was destroyed; I may have triggered something before you threw me out of the way. You were knocked unconscious then the LT and I carried you back on the ship." Ash said looking at Shepard.
"Gee thanks, I guess I owe my life." The Commander said with smile looking at Ashley. Ash looked back with a smile and a little bit of a blush.
"I might have to put that in my-oh Captain Anderson!" Chakwas said with a surprise as the captain walked into the med bay."
"How's our XO holding up Doctor?" Anderson asked the Doctor Chakwas.
"Physically she's fine but a little weary from the exposure to the beacon. But other than that she's still her usual smart ass self." Chakwas said with a smirk.
"Thanks Doc. Do you two mind if I talk to the Commander in private?" Anderson asked looking at both Williams and Chakwas.
"Not at all Sir." Ash said as she snapped to attention and rendered a salute. "I'll be in the mess if you need me." With that Ash and Chakwas both walked out of the room.
"How are holding up Commander?" Anderson asked. Alice went into detail with the dream and how she saw a vision of what she thought were synthetics slaughtering organics. After telling the Captain this he told her to go up and tell Joker to bring them into dock. Alice rendered a salute and left the room where she met by Williams standing the mess hall.
"How are you holding up Ash?" Shepard asked going back to Eden Prime and her melt down.
"I'm doing fine ma'am thanks for asking. I don't like the idea of replacing Jenkins." Ash said with a little doubt.
"You'll do fine Williams. Your combat prowess is unlike any other I have seen before."
"Thank you Commander." Ash said with a smile.
"How are you holding up from what happened on Eden Prime?" Just as Alice started the conversation Ash's smile disappeared.
"It was rough but I'm ready whenever you need me. You don't need to worry about that happening again. I took what you said at heart and now I understand I can't bring the dead back with revenge." Ash said looking at the ground not making eye contact.
"You'll be okay." Alice said giving Ash a hug. "Did I really just do that?" Shepard thought to herself.
"Thanks Commander." Ash said embracing the hug. Shepard walked away to go to the bridge. As Alice was walking up the stairs, Ash took a glimpse of the Commander's ass. "Wow now that is a nice ass." Ash said in her mind just as she was questioning her sexuality. "Did I really just do that?" Ashley met up with Kaiden and went up to the bridge to meet with the Commander. When the Normandy docked on the Citadel, Anderson took Shepard, Williams, and Alenko to the human ambassador's office where the human ambassador, Donnell Udina, was arguing with the council.
