Chapter 26 – Wrex's Mission & Chatting w/ Ashley
That next week, four weeks since Eden Prime, they found a few more geth outposts, not nearly as prepared as the first one. And then she called Wrex down to the cargo hold. "Wrex, I told you if we got to this system and we had nowhere else to be, we'd go get your family's armor."
"Why do you want to do this, Shepard?"
"It's important to you," she said. "Wrex, I normally do not like krogan. The few I meet usually try to kill me. Maybe they are young and foolish, and you are just old and wise. But, ultimately you have become my ally, and I'm going to help you out. However we're keeping this off the mission reports and the rest of the crew thinks we're just going to scout the mercenary base we found."
Wrex chuckled, "I normally don't like humans, Shepard. But you are alright."
They dropped in the Mako, and made their way to the base on the planet. It was Blue Suns, a group that mainly hired turians and batarians, but there were a few humans, too. It was guarded, but not heavily. Between her and Wrex and the Mako they had the outside of the base cleared in a few minutes.
Inside the base was more heavily guarded. Blue Suns were often a well trained group, many of its members former military. Wrex had no problem barging in, spraying them with bullets while laughing, taking a few hits to his armor and going toe-to-toe with the mercenaries. While Wrex had his fun, Shepard used cover to carefully work her way through them. Wrex didn't fight stupid, but he often held back and listened to Shepard's tactics before. Now, he was letting himself go. Letting his bloodlust take over, and enjoying it.
"Ugh, this place is already starting to smell," Shepard said, wrinkling her nose.
"I am going to search…see if my family's armor is still here," Wrex said. "You can wait outside."
"I am so going to do that," she agreed.
It took Wrex twenty minutes, but he came out with a crate over his back. He shoved it into the Mako, and got in next to Shepard. "Thank you."
She smiled, "If anything that had let you get rid of any frustration you had built up."
He chuckled, "That was nothing. You should see me when I really get into it."
"Oh…kay," she said, and radioed Joker to pick them up.
"Shepard, my people once valued courage, strength, and honor in battle. After the war, most would rather die in battle than rebuild our society. They were reduced to glorifying pointless violence. You would have been a great krogan."
Shepard looked at him, it took her a moment to realize that had been a compliment.
Once back on the Normandy she looked at the armor Wrex pulled out of the crate. Like he had said, it was a relic. But she could understand sentimental value of things, the importance of family heirlooms.
"That is the ugliest thing I have ever seen," she said.
Wrex chuckled, "Maybe. But it is mine. Thank you, friend."
Wrex grabbed her forearm in a handshake, then walked away.
It had only been a day since Shepard had helped Wrex, she had just finished looking at the geth data with Tali, seeing if they could make some progress. Tali was hoping with a little more work she may figure a way to hack into the geth, of only temporarily. Before that she and Liara were working with the Prothean visions in their heads. She was, overall, concerned about the mission and just wanted to forget about it temporarily.
"Hey, Ash, you have a few minutes?" Shepard said.
Williams turned, "Oh, sure. I was just watching some mail from home."
From the terminal Ashley was working on there was a voice, "Oh, before I go! We saw Kaidan in a news vid about the Normandy. He's cute. Later, sis."
Ashley let out a nervous laugh, "Let's, uh…pretend that never happened."
Shepard laughed, "Afraid the damage is done, Williams."
"Oh, shoot me now," Ashley muttered, her cheeks turning pink.
"Your sister, I assume?"
"Until I get home and kill her," Ashley said tensely. "That's Sarah, the youngest. But you didn't stop by to eavesdrop on family mail. What's up?"
"Nothing," Shepard said. "Just needed a break, I guess. Your family seems to be important to you."
"Yeah, we've always been close. Me and my sisters, especially. With Dad on duty so much, I had to help Mom raise them."
"More than one sister?"
"Yeah, I'm the oldest. Then Abby, then Lynn. Sarah's the youngest. She's still in high school. With four girls Dad used to say he felt more outnumbered at home than on maneuvers."
"You are lucky to have a close family," Shepard said.
"Sorry!" Williams said quickly. "I forgot about your…situation."
"Or lack thereof. Relax, Williams," Shepard said. "If you really think about it I had over thirty brothers and sisters at any time. Just most of us were never all that close."
"Ask me to clear a bunker of armed hostiles, no problem. Dealing with the foot in my mouth? Not so good with that," Ashley laughed. "You still talk to any of them?"
Shepard shook her head, then stopped, "Well, not any of the kids. Not really. Every now and then someone sends a message. Something like 'Hey, remember me?' and some random reason they have for contacting me. There were a handful of adults, caregivers, that ran the orphanage. Doris was one of them. Whenever I'm on Earth I always stop in, check on her. She was always old to me, but she is getting close to a century now. Still runs the orphanage, takes more kids than she can handle."
"So you two were pretty close?"
"Actually, no," Shepard laughed. "I could not stand her. But, after joining the Alliance, my first break I went back to Earth and stopped in. See some kids that were still there, try and find other friends that had moved already. I ended up sitting down and talking to her for hours. My whole life I felt like she was some sort of dictator, just there to ride my ass and I could not wait to get away from her. But, found out she wasn't all that bad."
"Is she what made you join the Alliance?"
"Um, I'm not sure," Shepard said. "Doris wasn't a miracle worker, there are a lot of kids that never became more than petty criminals after they left. But, every time I go back to Earth, after a three month patrol or a six month cruise, whatever, I always stop in to say hi. We sit, drink crappy coffee, and talk. She's the only person back on Earth I make an effort to keep in touch with. Just something to remind me what I'm fighting for out here."
"Well, she did something right by you," Ashley said. "I think everything that happens in our lives molds us into who we become. I imagine if you didn't have someone riding your ass when you were a kid you may not have made it here. And we'd be pretty well screwed if that was the case."
Shepard shrugged, "I won't disagree with that but hell if I know. I don't have any miraculous story that made me. Just after being with the Alliance, everything sort of clicked into place. I can't imagine being anything but a soldier anymore."
"I hear that," Ashley said. "Well, I should get back to my duties. Rifles don't maintain themselves…at least not yet. Talk to you later, Commander."