Chapter Two: Search & Rescue
It had only taken a matter of twenty minutes or so for Garrus, Liara and Ashley to reach the main base camp of London. Upon reaching the entrance there were shouts and cheers in celebration as well as tears in the mourning of the dead. Ashley pushed her way through the crowd and headed towards the destroyed building up ahead which was also established as the headquarters for London. Liara and Garrus were in pursuit behind Ashley as they climbed up the rubble to the second floor where they were then greeted by their fellow comrades of each Normandy crew that John had put together. Looking to Admiral Hackett who had a genuine smile, Ashley gave him a look of despair, "He is still out there, we need to find him" Ashley said firmly as a statement not a request.
Admiral Hackett gave a long stern look to Ashley, "If he is out there, then we will find him. Has any words come in from the other members of the team that were down there with him making way towards the Citadel?" It was then that they heard soldiers erupting into a greater cheer and each member in the room looked out to see what the commotion was all about. There stood in bruised and bloodied, Tali'Zorah and James Vega. Admiral Hackett looked to John's crew and saw a look of hope and then firmly shouted, "Well what is the hold up, go and find your commanding officer and that's an order."
Ashley, Garrus, Liara, Jack, Jacob, Miranda, EDI, Javik, Grunt, Wrex and Samara didn't need to be told twice. They grabbed their gear and all darted out of the base camp with Ashley at point. She had saw him fall, so she knew a general area of where to search, but the problem is the reapers had been destructed and caused extra rubble to be present on the already destroyed land, which meant most likely the man she loved was buried under rubble. The allies and friends of Shepard all followed Ashley as they climbed over fallen reapers and finally came to a halt right by where a large thick metal pole and been sticking out of the ground. With one quick turn Ashley looked at the others and barked out, "Garrus, Liara and EDI take the South end and search within a ten mile radius from this pole. Javik and Jack take the West end and search within a ten mile radius from this pole. Jacob, Grunt and Samara take the East end and search within a ten mile radius from this pole. Miranda and Wrex you are with me and we are taking the North end and searching a ten mile radius from the pole. I saw him fall within this area from the sky, he is probably in critical condition and may even be dead, but we will dig and search until we find him and have his body found" Ashley did her best not to choke on the tears she felt build up in her and continued, "Each search group has someone capable of using biotics so let us use that to our advantage to move pieces of rubble and work together to find him; keep the radio calm open and notify over comm once you find him so we can get a medevac here" With her final words each search group took off to their designated directions to start their search and rescue operation for Shepard.
Each party had searched what felt like only minutes but turned into hours to point of darkness, everyone looked to Ashley and they could see the distraught and fragile state she was encumbered in. Garrus took one look to Wrex and nodded, "Ash, I think it's best you head back up to base camp for some rest... If he is out here we will find him" Garrus was greeted with a firm shake of the head from Ashley and a near death glare.
Garrus looked to Liara for better input and Liara gave a sympathetic look to Ashley and simply stated, "Why don't we have Grunt, Garrus, Wrex and Javik continue the search while the rest of us go to camp and get some food and water. Ashley we will be of no use to John if we are too worn and exhausted to extract him from wherever he may be."
Ashley wanted to shake her head at Liara, but the damned Asari had a point, they would be useless to John if they weren't strong. Part of her has been dying to get rest because just for a moment maybe she will wake up and it will all be a dream and he will be there next to her to tell her that he loved her. With a reluctant sigh she nodded and Liara, taking one last look out to the rubble she thought to herself, John, I will find you and we will be able to know life without war and death. Ashley and the others had started to walk away toward the camp when over to her left she saw a type of glimmer coming from a pile of rubble. Shaking her head she knew she had to be seeing things from exhaustion so she looked again and moments later there was another small flash of light. Ashley stopped in her tracks which caused the others to look at her and Miranda spoke up, "Is something wrong?"
Ashley looked to Miranda and Jack and said in haste, "On my gear is there a part where a flashing light would illuminate as a distress signal for searches?" Miranda and Jack looked at each other and then at Ashley in a confused daze and Ashley barked at them, "Is there port where a light would come out of my suit if my vitals were barely responsive!"
Miranda and Jack quickly looked over Ashley's gear and they got to the back part of her armor and saw what appeared to be a small light on her back plate, "It seems the Alliance has placed a possible placing of a light on the back plate in the event…" Miranda had started to say but was long out of ear shot from Ashley as she darted towards the flashing light. Miranda looking to where Ashley was running saw the light too and then it dawned on her, that it could be Shepard she looked to the others and screamed over to Wrex, Javik, Grunt and Garrus, "Boys, I think we might have found someone, possibly Shepard!"
It only took a moment for everyone to start running toward where Ashley had now been standing trying to peer into the rubble where there was indeed someone stuck under reaper rubble. Ashley looked to the others and said, "I need a light of some sort to see if its N7 armor or not" without hesitation each member took out their flashlights and handed them at Ashley and she could only give a small wry smile in return as she took one of the flashlights and poked it into the rubble. The light was a bit hard to center on the body but when it came into view of the light the sight was nearly devastating, the soldiers' armor had basically been burned into their skin; the problem was it was the back plate so she couldn't see any clear identification of N7 logo. In haste she ran around the pile of rubble and peered in from the other side with the flashlight and as she moved the flashlight she saw the N7 barely on the breastplate. She slowly raised the flashlight to the head of the N7 soldier and came to see the face of Shepard. A look of relief and panic filled her all at once and she barked out to the other, "We got him, we need a medevac here pronto and to get all this crap off him now!"
In moments Liara, Samara, Jack, Jacob and Miranda were using biotics to slowly but surely remove the rubble pieces off the commander. Meanwhile Garrus opened the comm system and reported in to Admiral Hackett that Shepard was found and was in need of a medevac as soon as possible in order to determine his state of being. They didn't know if he was alive yet or not, but if he was he was going to need immediate care. It only took moments for a whole medical unit team to arrive as well as more soldiers for the digging. Ashley had gotten fed up on waiting as they reached the last layers of rubble and ran into the rubble to get to John. She had felt the damage being done to her gear as she was working her ways in rubble but she was nearly there at John's side and that is where she wanted to be. As soon as she reached his side she put her index and middle finger up to his neck to check for a pulse and surely there was a weak but very present heart beat pulse. He was alive, badly beaten but alive and that was all that mattered. She took his hand in hers and held it until all the rubble had finally been removed and the medevac immediately extracted him and took him to the nearest medical station at base camp. The whole crew of the Normandy had a look of relief but they all knew it was not over yet; the commander still had a lot of repair to be done to his damaged body.