Anger Management


Angry.

Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams didn't have time to calm her nerves before her military training and the adrenaline surge kicked in. She didn't have time to replay what had just happened. Which was just as well—being covered in someone else's gore was not something she needed to focus on. Hell, her armor was still streaked with the blood of the 212 and those unlucky civilians who had gotten in the way of the invading geth on Eden Prime. As it was, Ash barely had time to pull out her rifle, much less aim it at the mechanical creatures that were shooting plasma, strange slugs, and rockets at the team of three marines.

Ash took hold of the irrational fear that had suddenly made her choke up as she braced herself against the quickly scavenged cover, focusing only on the anger she felt when she saw those things—those geth. Those mother-fucking flashlight heads. The word angry didn't do her feelings justice. But she fired at the enemy with an angry snarl anyway, sadistically pleased when the tungsten rounds hit their marks.

The fresh specks of blood, meat, and bone matter that splattered all three marines' armor spoke volumes. The colonist hadn't stood a chance against the geth rocket that had exploded against him, torn his flesh and rendered his insides molten in single instant. And she had heard the sound of the rocket as it was fired before she could reach out and grab him, pull him to safety. If she had been quicker then maybe, but—

"Joker!" the Commander's voice cut across the comm. as she and Ash surged behind a container for cover. The Lieutenant had rushed for cover on the opposite side of the pier bringing his side arm to bear as though it were second nature. "We're taking heavy fire!" She fired a shot from her shotgun that took down one of the snipers, bathing the deck in white fluids. "Tell Tali, Wrex and Garrus to get their asses out here! And bring up the ship's fucking shields!"

It was strange: the things one thought of as enemy fire reigned down on them. They were ambushed. All they could do was fire helplessly and duck for cover as a rocket trooper fired rocket after rocket at them, as a sniper carefully aimed at any exposed body part. They couldn't fall back to the ship lest they lose whatever strategic position they may or may not have. And they couldn't abandon Feros. They could only press onward. Kill the fuckers. And all Ash could focus on was the fact that geth bled white. Who would have thought that? Hydraulic fluid, maybe? The quarian would know.

Death was a possibility—a very real possibility. Just as real as it had been on Eden Prime as she watched in horror as Bhatia and Gomez and Thompson and all the rest had fallen, leaving only her and Kingston alive. As she had agreed with Kingston to separate and find help and had run for her life from the drones that wanted her blood.

As Kingston had been impaled on a spike. The Commander had called it death-on-a-stick. The Lieutenant called it a dragon's tooth. Ash called it Hell.

Angry. So fucking Angry.

The staccato flare of the assault rifle in her hands and the jarring sensation against her shoulder and wrists kept Ash's mind on killing the creatures who had invaded their space. It grounded her. Kept her sane, she supposed. Kept her focused, that was for sure. The Commander had been right to choose Feros first. How many lives had been lost so far? How many lives would have been lost had Shepard chosen to go after that other alien? Benezia's daughter? Feros didn't have an Alliance patrol. Feros was owned by a corporation. They had their own security force. The geth had slaughtered two squads of trained marines. How many rent-a-cops were left on Feros?

Shepard was glowing with dark energy. So was Alenko. Together they used their biotic skills and slammed two crates into the rocket trooper, effectively squashing it between them, its white liquids splattering on the pier. It sparked and belted out a mournful, spluttering hiss-clicking sound as it died. Ash shot it in the head, eliciting more white wash that was oh, so satisfying.

"Alenko, take point," Shepard instructed, surprising Ash. He didn't hesitate. "Wrex, go with." It was at that point that Ash realized the rest of the team was there and the eight geth were down. "Williams and I will bring up the rear. Tali, Garrus. Go."

Shepard's shot gun was smoking, over heated. The pale skin of her face below her eye shield was splattered with the colonist's blood. Her armor was gore-encrusted and red streaked-more blood. A sniper round had been slowed by her shields, but it hadn't stopped it. The heavy gray armor had. There was a hole in the chest plate near the N7 engraving, but she didn't seem affected by it. It must not have broken the skin.

She looked at Ash, her brown eyes wary. "A bit of an over kill, don't you think, Williams?" she asked. Damn her if her tone wasn't gentle.

"Just making sure, Skipper," Ash told her, inwardly cursing at how defensive she sounded.

Shepard only nodded as they waited for her gun to cool off. Looking around the docking bay only confirmed their fears. Feros had taken heavy attacks. The walls and floors were scored with burn marks and rounds. Debris littered the area. Even the shipping crates had blast imprints. The geth had—and still were—doing a number on the colony.

"Negative contacts, Commander," Alenko's voice affirmed over the comm. and both Shepard and Ash breathed a small sigh of relief. "Correction, ma'am," he voiced again, much to their consternation. "Targets sighted."

Ash tensed, looked at Shepard. A muscle ticked in her jaw as the Commander looked disgustedly at her inoperable weapon.

Alenko's tone changed. He was no longer talking to the Commander. "Use your visuals. They're jamming our optics. Don't know how many are out there."

Irritated, Shepard dropped her shot gun on the deck and pulled out her pistol. "Copy that. Save some for us, will ya?" She and Ash were already moving towards their position.

"Where's the fun in that?" he retorted. A handful of seconds later he added, "Ma'am."

Shepard rolled her eyes, surprising Ash. "Someone needs to pull that stick out of his ass," she grumbled. Ash added her own, "Amen," to the comment.

Ash liked Alenko, but damn if he wasn't square. However, Ash didn't hold that against him. He was one of the only officers that she had met or served with that treated her decently after learning her name. She didn't know if he'd read her file or if was interested in knowing about who she was related to, but he didn't seem to care. And he had recommended her to join them on the Normandy. Who wouldn't just love a guy after a recommendation to serve with some of the finest men and women the Alliance Fleet had to offer on the most advanced ship in the Fleet? He was sweet too. Though a little anal retentive.

And cute.

Wait.

Where'd that come from? Focus, Ash. Priorities: Colony to save; geth to kill; vengeance to be had; name to clear.

Besides, she was a Williams. Nobody but nobody in the military was interested in a Williams. Alenko was a career man. No way. After Shanxi, her family was lucky to be liked in a civilian climate. And there were Regs. She wasn't even commissioned. Like that would ever happen. Not even in the same league as the LT. Not to mention said LT was smart and funny and good looking.

Ash mentally snorted. Not her type. At all. Well, the good looking part and possibly the funny part too. But she generally only liked the bang more than she liked the man. The LT? He was the type you brought home to mom.

No, definitely not her type at all.

Kaidan didn't know what the hell they were fighting, but the damn thing kept jumping around like a damn grass hopper. Its mechanical hiss didn't seem all that threatening. Until it shot at him. He swore loudly when his pistol overheated.

"Alenko?" Shepard's voice cut over the comm. channels. "Sitrep."

For some idiotic reason, his mouth quirked with humor. "SNAFU, Commander," he replied using an old acronym his father used to use to piss off his mother. He and Wrex ducked as the geth hopper thing fired at them again. "There's some kind of thing that hops around. Watch out, it'll overheat your weapons. I wouldn't trust letting it hit your armor either. It may be able to overload the shield generators, too. Who the hell knows?"

The others had entered the tower now, edging closer to the hopping menace. "Tali?" Shepard inquired. She fired a few rounds from her pistol, but the creature continued to jump from beam to beam, seemingly growling at them.

"I've never seen anything like it before," the quarian proclaimed, her voice ringed with stunned disbelief. She fired a shot from her shot gun. "Amazing."

"Kill it," Wrex grunted. He fired a shot. It missed, and he cursed colorfully. "What the hell does SNAFU mean, Alenko?" He didn't so much ask as demand. Apparently the merc didn't like being in the dark about things. He powered up his barrier as he avoided a volley of fireworks from the hopper. Kaidan wasn't so lucky. Knocked to the ground, he did what he could to increase his shields, the amber glow of his omni-tool glowing eerily in the confined space.

"Situation Normal: All Fucked Up," Kaidan translated with a grimace as he got up from a round that had clipped him in the shoulder. It burned like a bitch. However it wasn't any more painful than a migraine, so he considered himself lucky. He slid behind cover next to Tali and Williams. "Shields down," he reported. He was right about it shorting out the shield generators.

Wrex snorted. "You humans make too much noise." Kaidan blinked at that, baffled at the krogan's words. Why the hell did he ask then?

Shepard was behind a fallen piece of debris. Kaidan's eyes met hers for a brief instant. All business, but something loitered there before she focused her attention back at the hopper, fired consecutively as the creature jumped up the stairs and then to a pillar. He kept his back to the wall, felt the trickle of blood down his shoulder and mingle with the sweat under his arm. He suddenly felt the need to bathe.

Wrex reached out impatiently and froze the hopper with his biotics. The crack of Garrus' sniper rifle took the thing out and it hit the ground with a resounding clump.

"Tali, see if you can't salvage something from the memory core," Shepard ordered, "I want to know what they're after." With a sharp nod, the quarian did as told, powering up her omni-tool and ripping off a panel on the thing's chest.

She shook her head a few minutes later. "No good, Shepard. It probably began the wipe as soon as Wrex captured it." She powered down her omni-tool.

Shepard nodded, eyed everyone, her eyes lingering on Kaidan's shoulder. "Anything serious?" she questioned. When no one answered in the affirmative, she gave the order to move out. "Let's find this Fai Dan."

The colony was a wreck and its colonists were shell shocked at best. Fai Dan, the colony's appointed leader, seemed happy to see them. His assistant was not.

"You're a bit late, aren't you?" the dark skinned woman accused. Shepard thought she looked more shell shocked than the rest of the colonists, took note of the dark circles under the woman's eyes, the state of her armor: standard grade security. Damn rent-a-cop.

"Arcelia," Fai Dan scolded. The woman didn't look like she regretted anything she had spoken. With a sigh, Fai Dan turned back to Shepard. "Sorry, Commander. Everyone's on edge since—"

He didn't have time to finish as a metallic wail sounded. The woman named Arcelia threw herself against Fai Dan. "Watch out! We've got geth in the tower!"

"Protect the heart of the colony!" Fai Dan shouted, his eyes glazing over, ready to protect his people.

"Garrus, Tali, Alenko, overload their shields," Shepard ordered as she, Wrex and Alenko took cover behind a crumbling piece of outcropping. The others disbursed to find cover as the geth started a barrage of fire. "Williams, time to earn your assassination badge. Wrex, knock 'em over."

"What about you, Shepard?" Wrex wanted to know. He watched as Alenko primed a proximity mine.

With flourish and a grin, Shepard pulled out a grenade. "I'm gonna blow the fuckers up."

Alenko threw his mine. "Works great for anger management," he told them knowingly as the mine blew, throwing electrical sparks out in cacophony of green and blue arcs, rendering the geth's shields inoperable. Shepard threw her grenade next, the resulting explosion taking out the four geth in the gangway. Six more appeared. Garrus and Tali both threw their mines, electrical arcs of blue overloading the machinations' shielding. Wrex snorted and powered up his shields, charged into the fray much like a rhino on earth would. He smashed the butt of his gun into the face of a geth, spraying himself and the ground in its white fluid. The rest of the squad was on his heels firing their weapons and charging their mines.

As they made their way slowly up the second tower, Tali was amazed at the geth's evolution. Never had she expected that the sentient AIs would evolve. This was…terrible and enlightening all at the same time. A part of her couldn't wait to get back to the Flotilla. They had to know what was going on. They had to realize that the AIs who drove them from their home world were more than mere machines. She wondered if Shepard would help her get any information she could take back to them. If she could find a way to regain her father's good graces… A geth sniper's slug came a little too close to her head, and she ducked with a yelp. Wrex took it out easily with two rapid shots from his shot gun and battle cry.

A drop ship spat out more geth on them. Tali grunted as she threw a proximity mine at the newly arrived reinforcements. It exploded on impact. Her HUD display showed that their shields were inoperative. Garrus and Ashley charged out of their hiding spot firing a steady volley of rounds from their assault rifles. They were in too close quarters to snipe the synthetics. Kaidan had even switched out his pistol for an assault rifle.

"Williams, Garrus, pull back!" Shepard shouted over the din and whir of drop ship's engines. Williams was suddenly surrounded as Garrus followed orders. "Damn it."

Tali noticed that Williams' shields were precariously low. Shepard handed off her grenade to Alenko. He seemed shocked. At least that's what Tali assumed his raised eyebrows meant. The young quarian was curious as to what Shepard had planned. Never did she expect that Shepard would run into the fray. She focused on Shepard instead of the fact that humans appeared to be so hairy. Eyebrows were weird. And she didn't want to even think about the facial hair the ass in the pilot's seat on board the incredible ship sported. That was just… gross.

"Stay here. Throw it once I reach her," the human woman commanded, and Tali gasped. "No proximity mines. Just throw the grenade."

"But, your shields—"

"Don't question me, Lieutenant," she yelled and took off. Tali held her breath as she watched the Commander sprint towards where Ashley was punching, kicking and firing at the geth who surrounded her. "Now, Kaidan!" Shepard barked as she slammed into a sniper.

Please let her know what she's doing. Kaidan depressed the button, extracting the stabilizing fins and arming the Mark 14. He said a small prayer as he threw it like a discus. It stuck to the wall near the geth and his compatriots.

Ten seconds.

Kaidan licked his lips, readying his rifle. He didn't dare shoot lest he hit Shepard or Williams. Their shields were weak enough. Even Wrex had backed off, his shotgun smoking. Shepard punched a shock trooper in its glowing eye, bathing her gloved hand in white fluid.

Five seconds.

Shepard slammed her weight down on Ashley, taking her to ground and activating her biotic barrier, extending it around herself and the Chief. The grenade blew sending a blast of fire and a shower of debris into the air. The blast took out the remaining geth, spewing the area in sparks and white geth blood.

Kaidan didn't bother hiding his concern as he broke cover and sprinted towards the two women.

Not again. Not like Eden Prime.

Now he had two people down. One who commanded him and one whom was under his command. He knew that both his commanding officer and the NCO had equipped Medical Interfaces onto their armor, but he didn't know if that would be enough to protect them from the blast. He hadn't felt this impotent since—

The geth ship was taking off. The sight brought no relief as he knelt down, his mouth tight and grim, bringing up his omni-tool and running an interface with both women's armors.

"That should keep Fai Dan and the others safe for the time being," he advised the others absently as he waited with baited breath for the readings on their vitals. It was more of a coping mechanism. "Shepard's going to need new armor. We'll have to go back to the ship. Then we'll head out for the main geth encampment."

It amazed him that Shepard had been able to extend her biotic shield to encompass the Chief. Thousands of questions about her training and implant came to mind, but he put them away for later. He had to make sure she was still breathing first. Cracks in Shepard's gray armor spider-webbed across her back, blood oozed from several holes. His omni-tool read back her vitals. Her blood pressure was low, and she was taking shallow breaths but her temperature was up. Probably from the exertion of running to tackle Williams. As gently as he could he pulled Shepard off Williams.

"Ow," Williams breathed, gave a cough. Ash had taken a beating, but the microprocessors in her suit were administering the miniscule doses of medi-gel. It made her tingly all over. Course, it didn't help that she felt like she'd been run over by the Mako. At least twice.

She saw the concern on Alenko's face fade to relief. That made her tingly too. That… was unexpected. Sure, he was cute. But… goddamnit.

"You with us, Chief?" he questioned, a hand on her shoulder.

She nodded then the world started spinning. "I'll be with you in a sec." She unlatched her helmet and tugged it off, blaming the ringing in her ears and the dizziness for the sudden hormonal shift. Almost getting blown up by your commanding officer will do that to you. She was sure of it. Yeah.

Filing away her feelings (or whatever)—she would have time to be girly later, and maybe she could find some Jorge to relieve her…frustration during the next Liberty—she focused her attention on Shepard. The Commander hadn't budged yet. Ash eyed her with concern. The older woman was still glowing with dark energy, and Ash's HUD showed that she still breathing. That counted for something right?

"Kaidan, there's a medical station around the corner," Tali told him coming back with what appeared to be an upgrade kit. Kaidan mentally kicked himself. He hadn't even made sure the area was secure. What the hell kind of leader—?

"Any more hostiles?" he asked, mentally cutting off his inner tirade. He had to focus. He couldn't get bogged down by self-doubt. His team needed him. Shepard needed him. Williams needed him. And Williams looked like she wanted to be anywhere but there.

The quarian shook her head. "That grenade took out the last of them."