"Fuck! Freddie's down!"
Bullets hissed overhead, around them, thick and heavy like rain in a storm. It was all that the STG troopers and Marines could do to not be overrun. Moving forward was impossible. This was going to be how it ended. Part of Ashley had known that morning that it was the end of the line.
She flicked a glance over at where Jaz had screamed, punctuated by bursts from the carbine he'd borrowed from one of the dead salarians. His hand was bloody and red; Yokan had taken the LMG from him when he'd been hit. There was a crack in her helmet visor, and she couldn't remember when it'd happened. She couldn't remember when she'd been hit again either - only that her shoulder was on fire and blood was trickling, warm and wet, down her back.
PFC Fredricks was lying face down, rifle beside him, and he wasn't moving.
There was no time to think about it. The geth were pressing again, and without them keeping up sustained fire they'd be overrun. She snarled, gunning down a geth that crept too far out of cover.
She couldn't think about any of it. Freddie, Nick. Her sisters. Her ma getting a knock on the door. There was only the rifle in her hands and the next target.
"I'm not dead! I'm not dead!" Fredricks sat back up. "Fuck, I got shot in the fuckin' face!"
Williams stole another glance in between firing. His visor was cracked down the middle, and there was a trickle of blood down the side of his face from a laceration, but he was breathing, talking, and his skull was free of holes.
"You're alright, man!" she called to him. "Get back on the line!"
"I can't." He shook his head, blue eyes wide as he wrapped his arms around his knees.
"Yes, you can," she insisted, "we need you, okay? We need you. We need everyone fighting if we're gonna get out of this."
"I got shot in the face." He flinched beneath a crackle of rounds, his breathing coming in pants. "I got shot in the fuckin' face. I'll die. We're all going to die."
Frustration snapped deep in Ashley's gut. Her heart was a thrum in her ears as she ducked down, changing her shield batteries over with trembling hands. She wasn't Shepard. She couldn't ask someone to walk off a cliff and get them to thank her for it.
"I swear to God, Freddie, you will get up and fight, or I'll shoot you my damned self!"
Where entreaties had failed, her rough tone seemed to cut through the shroud of panic that'd fallen over the younger Marine. He swore, a hint of hysteria corroding the words, and then he crawled to his knees, scrabbling for his rifle.
Fredricks shouted a formless noise of rage or fear or both, in time with the first two round burst from his rifle.
God help her, she didn't care. He could hate her so long as he fought.
"Eagle, Shadow. The bomb is nearly set. Where are you? Get to the rendezvous now, over!"
Her lips were dry when she licked them. Part of her had known, in the salarian camp. Maybe she should've said something to Shepard - but what? Even if she wanted a Marine with an unimpressive career, foot in mouth syndrome and a cursed family name, her honour meant she could never say anything back. "Negative. The geth have us pinned down at the AA tower! We've taken heavy casualties."
I have a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade,
When Spring comes back with rustling shade
And apple-blossoms fill the air—
I have a rendezvous with Death
When Spring brings back blue days and fair.
There were handfuls of Aeghor and Jaeto still moving. Mannovai had ceased to exist. All she could see at their position were lumps of unmoving bodies. She hoped to God Kirrahe was with Jaeto.
It may be he shall take my hand
And lead me into his dark land
And close my eyes and quench my breath—
It may be I shall pass him still.
I have a rendezvous with Death
On some scarred slope of battered hill,
When Spring comes round again this year
And the first meadow-flowers appear.
"We'll never make the rendezvous in time! We'll hold them as long as we can - set the bomb and get the fuck outta here, over!" A strange calm stole over her.
Ashley Williams was going to die and she was not afraid.
God knows 'twere better to be deep
Pillowed in silk and scented down,
Where love throbs out in blissful sleep,
Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath,
Where hushed awakenings are dear...
But I've a rendezvous with Death
At midnight in some flaming town,
When Spring trips north again this year,
And I to my pledged word am true,
I shall not fail that rendezvous.
She hoped her grandfather and father were watching. She hoped they were proud.
Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko splashed through the water that came up to his mid-calf, towards the lowering ramp of the SSV Normandy. The sleek, dark painted frigate had managed to squeeze into a space that he was honestly kind of surprised she'd fit. But Joker and Pressly had found a way. He met three salarian explosive experts who'd stayed on the Normandy to help Wulandri and her people turn one of the ship's nuclear missiles into a bomb as they came down the ramp.
The Lieutenant herself followed them down, a pensive look splashed across her face and the Normandy's three Masters-At-Arms flanking her, carrying HK-M7s. She was dressed in a white Navy hardsuit: thin ceramic plates over the important parts, rank stencilled on her shoulders, helmet over her head. The Navy hardsuits were lighter, more flexible, with a larger visor that allowed for a better field of view.
They could be used in a firefight in a pinch, but their primary purpose was in case of decompression or dor EVA walks.
One of the Masters-At-Arms broke off, taking Thanoptis off Waaberi's hands and then marching her aboard the ship - to be ensconced in the brig for now.
"Guns," he greeted.
"Hey, Alenko. So, uh, those spooks did most of the work. Once it's on the ground, it's not really my forte, yes? But it's ready to go. You'll just need to set up the trigger mechanism. Just remember to set it for remote detonation and not on a timer."
"I don't think I'll mix it up," Kaidan said with a kind smile.
Wulandri smiled uneasily. "Yes, this is more your specialty than mine after all."
He clapped her on the shoulder. "Hey, Sergeant?"
"Yes?" Sergeant Sewak Dizori, the leader of the salarians, looked up. His face was a pale green under his visor, marked here and there with faint creases and lines.
"We'll just put it over there, near the geothermal sink." When the nuke went off, it would cause apocalyptic damage to this part of Virmire.
"Of course." The three salarians and two Masters-At-Arms began guiding it over, water sloshing around them.
The warhead was surprisingly small for a thing of such horrific destructive power.
"Listen, Alenko…"
He glanced back at the other officer. She shifted from foot to foot, fingers brushing her holstered SMG.
"I heard that it's been pretty bad down here."
Kaidan's eyes were unwillingly drawn to the side of his HUD, where the biosigns of his MSOT flickered. Ashley, Gung Ho, Freddie, Nick, Jaz...they all had suit breach warnings now.
"It's been a tough fight," he said, "but it's nearly over."
Williams and Kirrahe were supposed to be here already. There was a stone heavy in his gut, and it only sunk lower when Shepard splashed over, a scowl fixed on her face. Her comm was crackling.
"-get the fuck outta here, over!" Williams' voice was a low, pained growl. Her biosign indicator blinked at him. His mouth was dry.
Shepard ignored it, her mouth a hard line. "Alenko, Williams and Kirrahe are pinned down at the Tower. From what little she said, they're under heavy suppressive fire, and they're close to immobile due to casualties. It's too hot to send in the Normandy alone. Not without infantry to pull security."
Wulandri swallowed. Alenko crossed his arms. "I need ten minutes to set the bomb up for detonation anyway, ma'am."
Shepard's eyes met his, and after a moment she nodded. "Wulandri, tell Pressly and Joker to get this bird in the air. I'll radio in the new LZ and then we'll grab the bomb team on the way back. And...tell the X we'll need triage set up."
"Aye, ma'am," Guns said and slapped Kaidan's shoulder in passing as she ran back up the ramp, followed by Rogers and Choe.
Shepard turned to him, their shoulders brushing in a rub of ceramic. "I'll leave Mohamed here. That leaves you a team of four with the salarians for security."
"Sounds good to me ma'am."
"Shadow to Eagle. Alenko needs time to set up the bomb, so we'll come to you, clear out the LZ so the Normandy can pick you up then grab him on our way out, over."
"...Understood, over."
"I'm coming, Ashley," she said, her tone gentling. "Just hang on a little longer, over."
"Roger that."
"I'll see you soon, Kaidan." Shepard's gaze touched on him, a moment of warmth seeping through the iron hold she had on her emotions.
"Go get our guys, ma'am."
She nodded and turned, followed by the rest of their team. Waaberi gave him a jaunty wave, smacking Mohamed on the back of the helmet. The younger Marine grumbled at her back, moving to kneel in the rushing water.
Kaidan bent over the bomb and got to work. In the distance, gunfire rumbled.
"I'm dry." Yokan's voice was a thin thread of sound, and the salarian sergeant grabbed for his sidearm as he let the LMG fall. His arm was true despite the thick green dripping down his arm, and a drone fell into the water with a large splash. Williams could see the flash of white bone amongst the tattered wreck the geth had made of his left leg. Yokan wasn't going anywhere without help, and there was little of it to be found. All she'd been able to do for him was fasten a tourniquet above his knee - they were out of medigel now.
She could hear faintly Kirrahe ordering the remains of Jaesann Company to fall back, set up a defence near the LZ so the Normandy could pull them out as quickly as possible. But Aeghor wasn't going anywhere. They were long past 'combat ineffective' even though the geth hadn't seemed to get the message.
She'd long stopped looking at the warnings her HUD was showing.
Ashley raised her rifle and pulled the trigger. The barrel was so hot that the blood she'd somehow got onto it sizzled and stunk.
It was all she could do to keep fighting, keep dashing in between positions, convincing or haranguing the Marines and STG soldiers into not giving up.
They just had to hold on a little longer. Shepard was coming. Shepard always managed to get them through. Ashley wasn't afraid but she didn't really want to die either - and she definitely didn't want her Marines to.
Overhead she heard the rumble of a ship's thrusters and looked up. Light glanced off the silvery insectoid hide of a geth dropship. Cold, icy fingers wrapped around her chest and squeezed. Those ships could carry whole platoons of geth, and Aeghor was hanging on by the skin of their teeth as it was. They couldn't take much more of this.
Shepard had seen the ship too. "Overlord, Shadow, can you take that dropship out, over?"
"Negative - not without bringing it down on top of you, over." Pressly's voice crackled with frustration.
The ship arced gracefully away from them and -
No, no, no. "Heads up, you've got a geth dropship inbound, LT!"
"They're already here!" Had she ever heard Alenko - calm, dependable Alenko - so tense? "There's geth pouring out all over the bomb site!"
Mohamed's LMG was a scream in Alenko's ears as the younger Marine laid down suppressive fire, punctuated by the crack of the salarians' rifles. Geth were crawling all over the area - Primes spearheading the assault, hoppers bouncing around and trying to drive them out of cover.
With one hand he fumbled for a tech grenade, flipping the trigger and then flinging it as hard as he could. Electricity burst over the plated metal of the lead Prime. It stumbled and fell when Specialist Fesan Saenok shot it through the face.
"Can you hold them off?"
He turned back to the detonator. His fingers flew as he programmed. "There's too many of them!" As he spoke, Saenok screamed, high and shrill, his chest plate blown open by a geth plasma cannon. "I'm setting the nuke on a timer! Get Williams and get the hell of here!"
"What the fuck are you doing, Alenko?" The snarl in Shepard's voice was audible. It was the tone she had when someone really pissed her off - and it was the first time it'd been levelled at him. It didn't matter. She could write him up, but he'd never read the reprimand.
"I'm making sure this bomb goes off no matter what! It's done! Get Williams and get out of here." There were nightmares waiting out there, hungry nightmares. He'd never put much stock in fate or God or destiny, but maybe this was Shepard's destiny. To fight Sovereign and the Reapers.
Maybe this was his. Square, blocky numbers popped up in a violent red on his HUD, counting down the seconds Kaidan Alenko still had to live.
Four minutes. They just had to hold that long.
"Screw that-"
He wished he had time to tell Ashley that she was the closest thing he had to a best friend. That was she was going to do amazing things.
The clatter of the Typhoon light machinegun cut out abruptly. Mohamed. He looked over, firing his assault rifle blindly. The young Lance Corporal was slumped in the water, blood surrounding him like a crimson cloud. A geth round had caught him in the neck, cutting through the ballistic weave and tearing his throat open.
His biosign flattened into a thin line.
"-radio Joker and get him to meet us at the AA Tower."
"But - aye aye Commander. I…"
"It's the right choice, and you know it, Ash." Ashley Williams and the rest of his team would live. Dying for his fellow Marines was something he could live with - for the next three and a half minutes at least.
"Stay alive, and I'll be there as soon as the others are on the ship." There was an order in the sharpness of Shepard's words.
Alenko smiled. Bullets ricocheted off the bomb casing. Specialist Gural went down, clutching his side.
"I think we both know that's not going to happen, Commander."
Something punched into Kaidan's left hip. He fell, gasping and spluttering, the back of his head smacking into concrete so hard he heard the casing of his helmet crack. A bullet had caught him just above his thigh plating - blood pulsed from the resulting ruin.
Kaidan bared his teeth against the pain and dragged himself up, pulling his cracked helmet off. The wind was cool on his sweaty face, the sunlight on his cheeks. His rifle was gone, lost somewhere in the water - he reached for his sidearm instead.
He squeezed the trigger.
Three minutes.
"Fuck that! Just hang on!"
Shepard was not a woman to give in to defeat, but even she couldn't fudge the numbers this time.
Shepard ran, shotgun in her hands, boots pounding against concrete. Fuck Sovereign, fuck Saren, fuck Virmire, fuck it all - all of it -
Lance Corporal Akmed Mohamed was dead according to her HUD. The kid was fucking 20.
They rounded the corner and nearly ran straight into a krogan with a dull grey crest. He roared, lowered his head, and charged.
Shepard dove out of the way, anger flickering electric in her blood. When she came up she pulled the trigger on her shotgun, smashing a crater into the krogan's right leg. His roar turned from one of rage to one of surprised pain as orange blood splattered the walkway.
Wrex snarled and struck out with a ball of cerulean energy. It smacked squarely into the enemy krogan's chest and sent him flailing over the railing to fall to the ground once the field lost its strength.
"Keep pushing!" Shepard shouted. "We're running out of time!"
Two and a half minutes.
"Overlord to Shadow - we can pick up Jaeto now, but the fire near Williams is too intense, over."
"Do it! I'll let you know when to come in for the rest of us, over!"
Running. Her breath coming fast and harsh. The gate slid open before her and revealed the bloody scene at the AA Tower - a handful of salarians and Marines cowering beneath the withering fire of an enemy that had numbers and elevation on them.
"Friendlies flanking from the left!" Her throat burned. Biotic energy snapped and hissed around her in angry tendrils of blue. "Shift fire!"
The tattered gunfire coming from Aeghor moved in direction to the right of them.
"Charging!"
"Commander-" Anxiety in Liara's voice, but she stepped and was gone.
Shepard smashed into the nearest geth, throwing three platforms back and off their feet, ending their warbling with blasts of her shotgun - and in one case a biotically assisted stomp. The next enemy was a Prime - she Charged again, stumbling it, but then it crashed the butt of its pulse cannon into the side of her head.
Bright light streaked white across her vision. She stumbled to her knees, shotgun falling from suddenly nerveless fingers.
And then Wrex was there. He bowled the Prime over and set upon it like a starving lion on a gazelle, disassembling it with precisely aimed flechettes from his Spike Thrower.
"Alive, Shepard?" he called to her.
"Yeah...yeah." She struggled back onto her feet and back into it. The geth hadn't expected the sudden, savage flanking attack, and were beginning to falter and fall back. The pressure on Aeghor was relieved.
She vaulted down into the water and started jogging towards her people, reaching for her comm. They didn't have much time left, and she had another Marine to rescue.
"Shepard, look out!"
She turned. A speck from the sky rushed closer, ever closer. Light glinted off armour, a rifle, a metal arm.
"Saren! You motherfucker!"
Ashley Williams slumped in the water, gentle waves lapping over her thighs, the bright seal of medigel clamped over her wound. The brackish water had turned a sullen reddish pink around her, blood dripping down her back. Her mouth was dry, her rifle warped from cyclic firing and hanging down over her chest.
Jaz was next to her, holding his hand to his chest. A bullet had ripped the delicate bone and tendons apart, two fingers hanging on by slivers of flesh and gristle.
Her fingers were tight around her pistol. She wouldn't drop it while she lived.
There'd been a momentary lull where she'd told Dubyansky, Chou, Fredricks, and three salarians to run for the evac point - but someone had to stay behind to give them cover fire. Draven, Yokan, and Jaz had volunteered - though the salarian sergeant wasn't going anywhere anyway. Not unless someone carried him.
65 seconds.
Ashley's head lolled. The world hazed over.
"Commander!" Jaz was fumbling for the carbine he'd taken from Yokan.
She labourishly looked around. Metal face, metal arm, metal hand wrapped around Emilia's throat, lifting her bodily from the ground. Squeezing the life from her.
Saren.
You killed my friends. Nirali and Penny and Bates. Even that asshole Richards. You killed them. You're not killing her too.
Her arm trembled with the effort to raise the sidearm, but her aim was true. Saren's barrier sparked three times. He glanced towards her as if irritated by a mosquito. She shot him again, just out of pique. Fucker, you will pay attention to me. Shepard took the opportunity and lashed out with a biotic fist, staggering him back so he had to drop her.
He hissed, sharp teeth exposed, cold blue eyes stabbing down at the weakened Spectre below. He went for his rifle.
Ashley pulled the trigger again but there was a warning beep - the heatsink was full. She patted at her webbing - put she was empty. Saren's claws curled around his rifle.
The air split with a warning siren. Forty seconds.
Saren glanced around - at Ashley, at Shepard, at the battered remnants of both his forces and theirs - and then he growled, rushing for his hovercraft.
Shepard staggered towards her.
Ashley's chest was heavy and cold.
Kaidan…
"Move, move, move! Grab them and let's get out! We're out of time!" Shepard was shouting. She grabbed Ashley's good arm and heaved her over her shoulders. As she rose back to her feet, Ashley groaned, visor clacking against Shepard's armoured back.
"No," she tried to tell her. Put me down and get Kaidan.
Shepard ignored her and began to jog as fast as she could while carrying her. Darkness rose steadily, clouding her vision over. Pain was a red tide washing over her. Consciousness slipped right through her fingers.
No.
The Normandy roared up, up, up, seeking the safety of vacuum beyond Virmire's atmosphere. There, she'd be safe. Kaidan's men would be safe. Ashley and Shepard would be safe.
Kaidan Alenko wouldn't be. The last flame of foolish hope flickered out.
"Kaidan, I'm sorry." Shepard's voice was thick.
"I'm not," he told her, "I don't regret a thing."
Dizori fell, the top of his skull missing and his eyes wide with shock. It was strange. You always knew that soldiers died. Sometimes they were your friends. Staring down the last twenty seconds of his life, Kaidan realised he'd never quite expected it to be him.
"Tell my parents that. Tell them I wasn't afraid."
He turned off the comm line. Shepard would stay with him until the end, but it was done. She needed to focus on those she could still save.
What was that prayer? Ashley would know.
Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death-
He jerked as another round struck home, shattering through his rib cage. He fell against the bomb, fingers scrabbling at its smooth exterior. He drew in a rattling, wet breath that tasted of ash.
Ten seconds.
His body was giving up on him, betraying him, but his face was warm with sunlight.
Five.
Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko raised his face to the sun.
The countdown hit zero.
CODEX
Hardsuit Onboard Medical Suites: The modern combat hardsuit contains a multitude of systems run by its onboard computer - the Heads Up Display, communications, scanners, vision filters via the visor, biosign monitors, a transponder and the medical suite. The hardsuit itself can be used as a battlefield medicine tool.
Certain parts of the hardsuit can be made rigid, stabilising the neck or back after a spinal cord injury or making a temporary splint for a fractured bone. This feature can be initialised by the user or medical personnel; in fact, some soldiers are known to use it to stabilise injured lower joints to continue on mission.
Some hardsuits will automatically dispense medigel and/or medicinal drugs, such as stimulants or painkillers. Alliance regulations prohibit the automatic injection of drugs due to the potential of adverse reactions and overdose; most drugs must be administered by a trained medical professional such as a corpsman, medic or doctor.
In addition, breather helmets can be used to administer supplemental oxygen from the hardsuit's supply. Supplemental oxygen is particularly vital in the treatment of hypovolemia, as it increases the efficiency of the patient's remaining blood volume.
While a higher percentage of casualties are KIAs (due to the increased lethality of mass effect weaponry when compared to chemically propelled bullets), those who do initially survive their trauma are more likely than ever to survive their injuries.
A/N: what's this? A sort of regular update?
I'm trying to get back into a weekly update schedule, I swear. Honestly part of it was knowing I had to go to Virmire and not wanting to. So that's over with now.
Thanks for reviewing, Guest! I hope you continue to enjoy the fic.
Poem is 'I Have a Rendezvous with Death' by Alan Seeger