Chapter 29
Moving Out
Author's Note: Ok, reception for the last chapter was mostly positive with a few exceptions. By the way, I did receive a couple of complaints about various unrelated things, but all you need to know is that I've made a couple of tweaks to chapter 27, mainly the part where Fawkes is talking to John. It's not something that completely changes the plot, but you still might want to check it out. Ok, let's move forward.
XXXXX
Volker grit his teeth as he stared at the wall in the lower section of the Normandy, his pistol in his hands. "And...go!" He spun around, raising his gun, five targets appearing in front of him as he did. He fired off two shots, taking down the first two targets, but when he fired the third shot off, he missed the target, the bullet soaring over it. Biting his lip slightly in frustration, he fired off another shot, this time getting it. He took down the fourth target, but as he brought his gun to bear on the fifth target, he accidentally overshot it and missed it. "Damn it," he whispered, lining up a shot and taking down the last target.
"TIME!" a voice called out. He lowered his pistol and glanced over his shoulder, spotting Ashley looking down at her omni-tool "Final time is...4.59 seconds...5 shots out of 7." She lowered her omni-tool, smiling at Volker. "Overall I say you're doing pretty well. This morning you fired off an extra shot and your time was 5.24. You're getting better."
"There's still room for improvement," Volker grumbled, looking down at his pistol.
Ashley laughed slightly. "There always is. Ok, it's Liara's turn now. Think that you're up for it T'Soni?" Liara, who was standing right next to Ashley, nodded as she walked towards the front of the Normandy's firing range, Volker walking away and standing next to Ashley as she did.
"You ready!?" Ashley called out, activating her omni-tool as she did. Liara drew her pistol as she turned away from the range. "And...GO!"
Liara spun around as a fresh set of targets popped up. She quickly squeezed off three rounds, taking down the first three targets, but she aimed too low as she fired at the fourth one, missing it. Her hands tightening noticeably, she shot down the remaining two targets, not missing but being noticeably slower than she was before, taking the time to line up shots. "TIME!" Ashley called out, Liara lowering her pistol at the same time. "Ok, you only missed one shot, but you took a little longer than Volker, your time was 5.89. Almost six seconds. Still, one less shot wasted makes up for it, I'd say that you two are around the same."
"What does that mean?" Liara asked, looking at Ashley.
"It means that this is a good moment for a lesson, Volker for you this might feel like retreading the basics, but a good refresher course never hurts. You see, when your in combat, you have to make a decision. Do you want to get more shots off at the cost of reduced accuracy, or do you want to take the time to pace your shots and have them be less frequent? The thing is, neither one is going to help you in every situation that you can possibly run into. If you're facing a massive mob that's charging at you, then it'd probably be for the best to just point your gun in their general direction and start spraying, where as if you have a lone gunman aiming at you, you're probably going to want to take your time and kill him with a single shot. On average at least."
"What are you trying to say?" Volker asked.
"What I'm trying to say is that when you're on the battlefield, you need to make a judgement call of how you want to approach killing your opponent, and despite the examples that I gave earlier, there is no real textbook way to teach this. It's something that you need to get a feel for, so keep that in mind." Ashley looked like she was about to continue when the door behind them slid open and John walked in. "Hey," she said, smiling slightly and pecking him on the lips. "What brings you down here?"
"Jane wanted me to see how these two are doing, not really sure why she needed me to though, the world isn't going to end if she misses out on a couple of minor details."
"Well, they're doing just fine you lazy ass," Ashley said dryly. "Damn fine shots. I was thinking of checking up on Volker's aim with automatic weapons before moving on to testing Liara's biotics...not quite sure how I'm going to do that though, haven't worked with biotics before. I'll come up with something."
"Sounds good...is there anyway that I can steal you for a few minutes? We really haven't had time to talk since this whole mess started."
"Oh for the love of God," Ashley said, rubbing her forehead. "All right you two, I need to babysit John here, so head over to the workbench and clean your guns, I'm going to look over them after to make sure that you did a good job." Liara and Volker nodded as they headed off, Ashley looking at John as she did. "Christ, you and Jane are gathering up quite the team here. A Krogan, a Quarian, a Turian, an Asari, and a member of a race that we've never heard of until a little while ago. Christ, this hardly feels like a Coalition military ship anymore."
"I think that they're pretty helpful. Wrex and Garrus helped me check the plasma cannon to make sure that it didn't overheat and melt the platings."
"You let aliens look at the plasma cannon!?" Ashley shouted, looking at him, "are you insane? What if they managed to get a scan of it? Do you really want Turians and Krogan running around with plasma rifles?"
"Whoa, where did that come from? EDI was keeping an eye on them the whole time, it's not like they scanned it or anything, they were just helping me check it for melted plates."
"We happen to have engineers on this ships, it's THEIR job to do that, not a Krogan bounty hunter and a Turian Spectre, who happens to work for the galactic power that would kill to get their hands on some of our technology, including the cannon that you just let him take a peek at! John...do you ever think before you act!?"
"Christ Ashley, where did all of this come from? I told you, EDI was watching them the whole time, if they had tried to scan it, she would have caught it immediately, and they can't learn how the thing works by glancing at the outer shell."
Ashley took a step back, folding her arms. "Are you sure about that?"
"I asked her, she told me that there was no way that any classified Coalition data could have been leaked."
"Well...good."
"Ash, what was that all about? You act like Wrex and Garrus are actively trying to steal Coalition secrets and...wait a minute...Ash are you...racist?"
"Oh...oh my fucking God," Ashley swore, pinching her forehead in exasperation. "Did you REALLY just say that?"
John held his hands up in self-defense. "What was I supposed to think? You were just getting on my case about letting aliens into the main battery."
"That doesn't mean that I'm racist! I just don't want Coalition secrets falling into the wrong hands, so pardon me for being a little nervous about aliens being on one of our most advanced starships until further notice."
"What about Tali and Liara? You've been chatting with Tali since she got on and you were working just fine with Liara sixty seconds ago."
"Well one, Liara isn't military and she doesn't kill for a living, and two, Tali's race sold us the blueprints for this ship, so I'm not exactly worried about her sending the designs back to her people. Besides, she helped me fight the Geth back on Eden Prime, she's earned my trust."
"I've served with Wrex and Garrus," John protested.
"Yeah, well no offense John, I haven't been on a single mission with Wrex and the one mission that I was on with Garrus had one firefight that lasted thirty seconds before a space hobo blew everyone up with a rocket launcher. Plus that still doesn't change the fact that Garrus is a Council agent and Wrex is part of a species that has a history of violence. I'm not saying that I hate them, I'm just saying that we shouldn't throw caution to the wind and let them poke their noses into every corner of the ship."
"Yeesh Ash...where did this come from?"
"Oh gee, I don't know," she replied, sarcasm thick in her voice. "Maybe it has something to do with the fact that my grandfather was the one who defended Shanxi when the Turians attacked it. So yeah, pardon me if I'm not lining up to snuggle every Turian I see."
"But...I don't get it, your father won that battle. He killed a Turian General with a sword. He's a Coalition war hero, how come-"
"Yeah, he did, but here's the thing John. The Coalition and the Council are enemies, that's a fact, and people who spearhead the hated against the Council like to look to my grandfather as a figure to aspire to, the man who stood is ground against hostile invaders from unknown parts of space and fought them off, him and Admiral Marcus. But now...now I've got to carry on his legacy," she continued, her voice bitter.
"So far I've been managing to keep up, Tali and I were able to down a Geth ship on Eden Prime all on our own but...the second I fuck up, the second I do something wrong, the media is going to jump on me and rip my entire family to shreds, saying what a disappointment the Williams family has devolved into and how we've let the entire Coalition down. That's the thing, people love a hero...but they love the fall of a hero even more, they just eat it up. I'd rather shoot myself in the head than make my sisters go through that, make my mother go through that, put that stain on my family's history, the same family that's served the Coalition since it was founded, but if I just do one thing wrong, or if it looks like I did one thing wrong, it'll take years to undo the damage. That includes being on the same ship where aliens were able to steal the design for the weapons that the Coalition holds near and dear. That's why I don't like Wrex and Garrus being on this ship. Frankly that's why I'm a little uncomfortable around some aliens, especially military, because practically half of the Coalition sees aliens as the enemy and...if...if they can just get one sucker punch in, then bam. I screwed up and if it gets out, the Williams family is disgraced, and it's all my fault. So...yeah."
"I...Christ," John whispered. "Ash...I swear I didn't know."
"No...no you didn't," Ashley said, sighing as she did. "I never told you, I admit that."
"Why? Why didn't you?"
"To be honest, I didn't really realize how much I had to carry on my grandfather's legacy until my first deployment when everyone started asking me if I really was related to the great General Williams. I started realizing that they were all expecting me to be cut from the same cloth as him. I didn't tell you because when I was enlisted I was moving around a lot, and when we did meet up I was trying to take my mind off of the stress of my military life and enjoy myself for the few hours that we had together, so I didn't exactly feel like bringing it up."
"I can't imagine what that must feel like."
A small smile spread across Ashley's face. "No, I guess you wouldn't. No offense but your mother kinda flew under the radar in the First Contact War, even if my granddad did like talking about her."
"Oh screw you. She kicked just as much ass as everyone else down there."
"That's your main concern? Christ, you really are an idiot."
"Sorry...Ash, I really wish that you told me about this sooner. I don't want you to have to go through all of this by yourself."
"Do you have a suggestion?" she asked, raising her eyebrow.
"Well, you said that your scared that if you mess up your family will be disgraced. I promise that from this point on while we're tracking down Saren, I'll have your back. That way if something does happen, I'll do everything I can to make sure we can salvage the situation, and if we can't? I'm the Commander who was given honorary Spectre status and given the job of hunting down Saren. They'll be after me as much as you if this all goes bad, we'll take the fall together."
"That's supposed to make me feel better?"
"It's all I can think of," John said weakly.
"It...is kind of sweet," Ashley admitted. "But I don't want you going through a public massacre either, so I'll cover your back too."
"You have my back and I have yours?" John said, "sounds like we have a plan here. And don't worry, I won't steal all of the glory."
"...Hug me before I decide I want to punch you more," Ashley said. John complied, wrapping his arms around her, Ashley mimicking his moves.
"I'm not even sure what you're worried about," he whispered into her ear. "I know you, you're not the type of person who would let your family down. In fact, I'd be willing to bet by the time that this is all over, you'll have topped your grandfather."
Ashley smiled. "You're just saying that to make me feel better...but thanks."
"So, I take it that you can handle our non-Human passengers?" he asked, pulling away. "Because while you may not have served with them, I can and I can vouch that they're not the type of people who will compromise us. You worrying about them is a little paranoid to be honest."
"Then called me paranoid, I'm still going to be keeping an eye on them. Still...I guess you do have a point. Doesn't mean I'm going to completely let my guard down around them, though. I'll play nice with them though, but if they try anything, don't expect me to hesitate to shoot them."
John smiled. "Well, you wouldn't be the woman I loved if you did."
Ashley blushed slightly. "Shut it."
XXXXX
"Well...I can honestly say that I wasn't expecting to have an alien working down here, let alone two," Engineer Adams said, looking across from his Terminal at the drive core. Tali and Opifex were standing in front of it, Tali pointing at it and explaining the fundamental basics of Element Zero and Mass Effect while Opifex listened with wide eyes.
"Aw come on, that's not fair. You've worked with Ken before haven't you?"
"Oh, ha ha lass," the Scottish engineer said. "Took ya all night to come up with that one didn't it?"
"To be honest, aliens are are a welcome change," Adams muttered. "They're a Hell of a lot less annoying and getting them to do their job is so much more straightforward and-oh! Captain when did you get here?"
Both Ken and Gabby looked up to see Jane standing in the doorway, a small smile on her face. "Not very long. I just wanted to pop in and check on Opifex."
"Oh, he's right over there," Adams said, pointing at the drive core. Jane nodded as she walked towards them, Tali's voice coming into focus as she neared them.
"-it's what makes faster than light travel possible, because when a ship's mass is zero, it isn't affected by time dilation."
"Amazing," Opifex said. "This engine isn't as nearly as large as the one on Mothership
Zeta, but if what you said is true than it still might be able to power a Theta energy cannon. It's a possibility that deserves to be explored."
"I'd rather not to be honest, at least not on the Normandy," Jane said, causing the two of them to turn and look at her. "John would probably think that it would be cool, but the Normandy already has enough experimental tech in her. I'd rather not pile on more. If it ended up not working or backfiring, things could get messy. Anyway, didn't you say that you were working on a couple of protects?"
"Oh, yes I did. I haven't made much progress but I can show you what I've managed to do so far." Opifex walked towards a small makeshift workbench and stool that was near the drive core. Jane couldn't help but find it humorous how small it was, almost as if it was for a little kid, but various pieces of equipment were spread across it."
"Your Admiral Hackett managed to get me everything that I asked for," Opifex said, sitting down at his bench and moving around the various pieces of silvery equipment that were scattered across it. "I haven't had enough time to make anything major, but I have been able to make power cells for Volker's pulse gun, and I've also been able to replicate some of our repair fluid." As he spoke, he pulled a small tray towards him, a dozen tubes of the blue liquid in it. "You should be able to use them for field maintenance in case your weapons or armor is damaged."
"That should be useful," Jane said, taking the tray of tubes as Opifex handed them to her, holding them up to the light. "Everyone's been issued the equipment that we got back at Mars now, even Volker has had some heavy grades parts put into his MP-40. Just as good as Spectre equipment, but just as expensive, we don't want to go around trashing it. I'll be sure to ration this around. Thanks Opifex."
"Oh that's nothing, it's more or less basic materials. I'll make more when I get the time. Now then, I've also been trying to make addition Theta Energy weapons but...it's proving to be a little more difficult than I expected."
"Is something wrong?"
"No, nothing is wrong, I have all of the raw materials that I need, it's just that the process is turning out to be longer and more complicated than I estimated. It will probably be some time before I will successful replicate them, until then you will have to make due with Volker's weapon." He looked up. "By the way, has he used it yet?"
"Not yet," Jane said.
"Well, please tell him to be careful with it. Exulan repair solvent may be advanced but it isn't a miracle worker. If pulse pistol is reduced to a pile of smoldering ash, then no amount of repairs will be able to fix it. He should also be conservative with the power cells that I have given him, I can only make so many and I can only do it so fast."
"I'll be sure to tell him that. Is there anything else?"
"Well, Exulan technology does include teleportation, I was hoping that I could replicate that and find a way for you to use it in your mission. Sadly though I'm making even less progress with that than I am with the weapons, so I make no promises. Apart from that there's not much else that I can do. I'll be sure to tell you if I manage to make a breakthrough though. I'm going to have a lot to keep me busy, your engineers are constantly asking for my help in maintaining this drive core of yours."
"You're managing to do that?" Jane said, looking down at Opifex with surprise. "I thought that it might take a little longer than that for you to learn how Mass Effect technology works."
"Oh, like I said, I was specifically bred to be an engineer. My memory isn't perfect, but it is very good, I hardly forget anything important. Tali has been telling me everything I need to know, and while I still have I lot to learn, I'm managing to keep up with everyone."
"Are you sure that you're comfortable working down here?" Jane asked, looking at the small bench. "I've told you we've got a lab on this ship. I'm not sure what the Hell the designer was thinking when he put that in...though to be fair the design was Quarian in nature." She glanced at Tali, "is that typical on the Migrant Fleet?"
"We do tend to modify our ships so that they can serve multiple roles, such as weapon manufacturing and repair, so yes, a lab on a frigate isn't the strangest thing that I've ever heard of," Tali replied.
"I can see how that works...but this ship isn't supposed to be supporting a race that's bound to a fleet, it's supposed to be a stealth frigate for the Coalition military. It's so impractical it's...kind of frustrating. Still, I may not like it but I know that I need to make the best of what I have. So Opifex, are you sure that you don't want to use it?"
"Oh no, I'm much more comfortable down here. I'm used to being near the drive core of a ship and I often help down here anyway...besides I can't reach anything in that lab. Compared to your kind I'm...I'm awfully short."
Jane fought back the urge to grin. "I won't argue that. Just remember Opifex, if you never need anything from me, don't hesitate to ask."
"I understand."
"By the way, where's Volker?" Tali asked, "I haven't seen him all day."
"Oh, he's down in the shooting range with Liara and Ashley. She's just making sure that they're both on the top of their game."
"Well if you see him, tell him that I'm still free tonight."
'What am I? A messenger?' Jane thought internally. "All right, seems like I've got a lot to tell him when I see him again. Anyway, I really should be getting back to work, I just wanted to make sure that you were ok Opifex."
"Well, thank you that. I find myself settling in quite-"
"Captain, there is something that requires your attention." All three of them looked up to see EDI's avatar materialize on a small plinth.
"What is it EDI?" she asked.
"I have received an encrypted message specifically directed to you. It appears to be of the utmost importance. Should I send it to your omni-tool?"
"Please do that. Also, how much longer until we get to Noveria?"
"Considering our current distance from the planet, it will take a least another day."
"Got it," Jane said, activating her omni-tool as she walked away and exited engineering. She typed into her omni-tool and the message that EDI had sent to her popped up. She began to read.
Captain Shepard, first and foremost, I want to thank you for what you've done. Words cannot describe how relieved I am that my daughter is now safe. A handful of my closest commandos and supporters turned on me when they discovered that I was making moves to uncover Saren's plans. I am not certain if they turned on the spur of the moment or if they were longtime supporters of him, I am currently looking into that.
I apologize for my vagueness earlier, but I was being watched by my former supporters and could not afford to try and contact the Coalition or my daughter without drawing attention to myself and placing Liara in danger. I barely managed to get half a minute alone to send a message to Admiral Hackett. I can assure you though, now that my daughter is safe, I have taken measures to make sure that the turncoats that were watching me will never pose a threat to you, myself or my daughter ever again.
Recently, I was contacted by Cerberus, who informed me of my daughter's safety and the hand that you played in it. They also informed me of the information that you were able to extract from the mercenaries sent to kidnap my daughter. Currently, my informants are collaborating with Cerberus, doing everything that they can to find additional leads, while I am currently on a ship with my best and brightest commandos, heading for Noveria even as I type out this latter. I suspect I will arrive there shortly before you do. I will make sure that you are not ambushed when you land, and once you do arrive, I will do everything in my power to help you.
I suspect that you, and many of the Matriarchs of the Republics for that matter, will take issue with me going to the front lines to get my hands dirty, but Saren's men, my former supporters, threatened to do unspeakable things to my daughter, things that I do not wish to repeat in this letter. Saren made this personal, the man that hired the Eclipse mercenaries made this personal. I do not know if you are a mother Captain, but when someone threatens your child, you cannot simply sit back and watch from the sidelines, especially when you are as old and have as many enemies as me. Many of my followers that turned on me are still alive, and I intend to make sure that the people who did this never have the chance to do this again.
Matriarch Benezia T'Soni
P.S. Keep Liara safe.
In the back of her mind, images of a Matriarch flinging bodies through the air with a look of pure rage on her face appeared. Jane fought back the urge to shudder. From what she had heard, Asari Commandos and Matriarchs weren't exactly numerous, but they more than made up for their lack of numbers with powerful biotics and centuries of training. "I'm glad that they're on our side," she muttered, continuing to walk forward.
XXXXX
Sheryl allowed herself a slight smile as she sat in the mess hall of the Normandy, a knife in one hand and a block of wood in the other. "Hello there." She glanced up and saw Adam sitting down across from her, a bottle of Nuka-Cola in his hand. "What are you doing there?"
"Oh I...it's just a little hobby that I picked up when I was younger, I carve figurines when I have spare time. Jenkins asked me to make him a Deathclaw and I'm trying to get some work on that done."
"How does it work? The process I mean."
"Well, first of all I need to cut off the larger chunks, get it into the rough shape of whatever it is that I'm trying carve, then I need to do the detail work. That's the really hard part, because one screw up and I have to start all over again. I need to take it very slowly, and get specific details done one at a time. It takes weeks sometimes to get just one done."
"Wouldn't that be frustrating? Spending weeks on each sculpture?"
"For the first couple of year I definitely thought so. But then again at that point I either completely butchered them or did a very rough job. But as I went on, I learned to be patient, learned to take it slow and really focus on each one and then I started getting better. There's still a lot for me to learn though. I may have been doing this for years but I'm self taught, so I figure things out by trial and error. I've done some ones that I would call good, a few that I would call great but never one that I would say is perfect."
"How is that one coming?" Adam asked, leaning over the table and looking at the hunk of wood in Sheryl's hand. It was a rough four limbed figure that was hunched over.
"Still getting the rough figure out. Might want to spend another day or two doing just that. It's really just carving off bit by bit until you're finally done. There's not really a lot to talk about, it's actually pretty boring, the end results are a lot more interesting."
Adam smiled, sipping his drink. "Are you trying to avoid talking about this?"
"I...no," she said. "It's just...I don't know, no one's ever really taken an interest in this before."
"No one?"
"No. Back in my village everyone liked to pretend I didn't exist except an old medicine woman who took me in. She...she was pretty nice. She took care of me, put a roof over my head."
"What's her name?"
"I don't know. She gave up her name when she became the medicine woman of the village. My people were a little bit like Krogan in that respect, but she wasn't really a spiritual leader, she just made medicine, and treated people. I helped her from time to time, gathering herbs for her, helping her mix her brews, not to mention I delivered more than a couple of babies with her."
"It appears that we have a couple of things in common," Adam said. "As part of my Left Hand training, I spent a lot of my younger days at the Vatican's refugee camps, helping people that managed to get away from harsh conditions in Africa." He shook his head slightly. "That continent is still dangerous, we only have footholds in the very top, and nowhere near enough manpower to move any further down."
"Is it really that bad?"
"You bet your ass it's that bad." The two of them looked up to see Roger approaching them, an apple in his hand. "The place was never a paradise, even before the bombs dropped. Now the place is crammed with warlords, raiders and all sorts of mutated ship. You ever try to take down a mutant Elephant? You have to shoot the fucking thing in the face with a rocket launcher if you want it do die before it steps on you."
"You've been there before?"
"Two years in the Earth Reconstruction Project. Thought I could use a change of scenery, biggest waste of time I've ever had. I still can't believe people want to live on that shit hole."
"As much as I hate to say it, I agree with you," Sheryl admitted. "I joined the Coalition military just to get away from it all."
"Glad someone has some fucking common sense. Maybe Earth was a nice place to live before the Great War but all of it's resources are depleted, it's filled with things that want to kill you, and I'm willing to bet that it'll be completely abandoned by the Coalition within the next couple of years."
"I doubt that," Sheryl said, glaring at Roger. "There will always be people living on the planet, just because I didn't want to doesn't mean that everyone will. And the Coalition isn't going to abandon them."
"Fucking fantastic," he grumbled, "I wish people would just realize that the damn place is beyond saving. I poured two years of my life into trying to fix it and I didn't even make a dent. Just let the poor thing die with grace, trying to keep it alive at this point is just fucking insulting, not to mention a waste of resources."
"I personally disagree with you," Adam said politely.
"Yeah well, you don't know what the fuck you're talking about."
"Very pleasant," Sheryl snarled.
"The truth hurts."
"The Hell are you doing?" Roger looked up to see Norman approaching them. "This guy giving you a hard time?" he asked, looking at Sheryl and Adam.
"Everything's under control," the Alaskan said.
"I didn't ask that," Norman growled.
"Oh calm down Prince Charming, I'm not hurting anyone. Sorry to kill your boner. I was about to leave anyway." He turned away from Norman, moving his apple towards his mouth.
"Christ, I feel sorry for the whore that dropped you from between her legs," Norman snarled, glaring at Roger's back. There was a loud squishing noise as the apple in Roger hand exploded, his cybernetic hand closing down around it in a snap. "Have you ever stopped and looked in the mirror. When was the last time that you ever met someone and didn't insult them? And the way that you act, Good Lord could you be anymore of a cocky arrogant prick?"
"Could you please repeat what you just said?" Roger said, his voice oddly calm.
"Which part, the part where you're a prick?"
"No, before that."
"The part where I feel sorry for the whore that's your mother?"
"Ah," Roger said, nodding said. "That's what I thought you said. Just wanted to make sure." Without another word, Roger curled his organic hand into a fist and punched Norman. The Roughneck recoiled from the blow, taking a step back before recovering, curling his own hands into fists as he did. Roger charged forward, swinging his hand again, but before he could connect a punch, he stopped in his tracks. He was faintly glowing purple, and Norman was holding his hands out.
"I'm a biotic bitch," Norman snarled before stepping forward with his fist raised. Before he could finish the punch, a fist slammed into his stomach, causing him to stumble backwards. Looking up, he saw Sheryl standing in front of him.
"What the fuck was that-" Roger began, but before he could finish, Sheryl had turned around and punched him in the face.
"Are you two serious!?" she shouted. "Are you seriously doing this? You!" she shouted, pointing at Norman. "I told you that it was under control! Why couldn't you just let it go!? And you!" she added, pointing at Roger, "Do you actively look for trouble?! You people I swear to...I need to get out of here before I do something that I regret." Sheryl stormed off, sliding her knife and wood into her pockets.
"Oh great, look what you did," Norman growled.
"What I did? You gotta be shitting me. I...fuck you pal I'm out of here." He started to turn away before stopping. "Oh yeah, one more thing. You ever insult my mother again and I'll break your fucking neck. I'd remember that if I were you." He then walked away.
"God, what's the galaxy coming to?" Norman asked, looking at Adam. The Left hand Commando said nothing as he got to his feet, draining his bottle of Nuka-Cola and walking off.
XXXXX
Author's Note: One person complained that he didn't like how Ashley was a little flat in this story, saying that because her grandfather won in the First Contact War there was no way to give her depth. Well to quote Family Guy "Oh Reginald...I DISAGREE!" I thought about it, and I came up with an idea. Why not have Ashley deal with problems from the exact opposite end of the spectrum? Anyone who has had any exposure to the modern media in the last decade knows that famous people fucking up is splattered all over the place and people NEVER let it go (Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Arnold, anyone who has ever said they don't believe that gays should be married, every last video game developer/publisher that isn't Valve) really a single fuck-up will get you a metric ton of shit for years to come...so I thought, why not write Ashley as the granddaughter of a war hero, with her being paranoid about messing up and tarnishing her family's
reputation. Basically the exact opposite of what Ashley tried to do in the game, instead of cleaning her family's reputation, she's incredibly worried that she's going to break it and that she can't live up to the high standards that her grandfather set for her.
