Samantha

Now that she knew Ashley was safe, Samantha's thoughts turned to her family. Her mother, father, and her brother Richard were on Horizon, thank the Lord. Timothy, Richard's twin, was at Grissom Academy, making it into their accelerated engineering program while also going through military training. It was a new pilot program, the first time one got a college education while receiving their military training, and he was in the first year of students accepted. Everyone had been so proud of him. She should… she should check on Grissom, see that everything was all right. It was full of students who may not have anywhere to go with Earth taken…

Ashley's mum had been on Earth, as well as two of her sisters. Were they okay? Would Ash be able to get a hold of them to find out? Would she be able to let her family know she'd made it off planet? One of her sisters had just gotten married; was in fact on her honeymoon. Sam had accompanied Ash to the wedding in Taiwan the week before. It had been lovely, and Sam loved seeing Ashley with her sisters. The girl's husband was a soldier. They'd probably be recalled so he could fight. What would Sarah do? Where would she go?

Samantha's heart was threatening to beat right out of her chest. She needed to calm down. Reaching to the top of her display, she contacted a friend. "Joker, what do I do? I've never served active-duty before."

{Kinda busy here, Sam.}

She frowned. "I know you're busy. I want to help. I need something to do. I'm going crazy."

{Just hold tight-}

"Joker," she interrupted, feeling the tears in the back of her throat as a lump the size of a grapefruit. "Joker, my fiancée is Ashley Williams and she is going down onto that planet armed for battle and there are Reaper forces headed this way and we are racing the clock and I need something to do so that I do not go insane."

There was a pause, then, {Shiiiiiiiiiiiit. Okay. There's a dust storm headed this way. We're going to lose comms at some point. Pull out all your tricks to keep us in touch. It's the best I got, Sam. Until you have a commanding officer, that's all I got.}

Samantha nodded. "I can work with that. Patching in to their comms right now."

{That's the spirit. I've seen her get through a lot, Sam. Her and Shepard. She'll be fine.}

"Thanks, Joker."

She affixed the radio bud to her ear, patching in Ashley, James (That's his name!), and Shepard's new signal. She didn't say anything. She knew enough to know that unless she had something to add or some warning to give that it was not appropriate to hold up the comm line with chatter. Shepard didn't even know who Sam was.

This was all so odd. The ship had been in the air for all of five minutes before they were sent to do something. There'd been no time to assign duties, no time to set up a chain of command. Hell, Ashley, Shepard, and James were the only people on the ship who were even trained for ground combat. Everyone else on this ship were techy geeks who were there as part of the retrofitting team. But it didn't matter. They simply had to throw themselves in and go. A job had to be done, and they'd been ordered to do it.

Samantha's thoughts were pulled out of herself at her lover's voice.

{Well, they know we're here now!}

"Oh shit, is that… gunfire?" Sam whispered, horrified at the sounds she was hearing. She had only heard gunfire in a combat situation once before, had indeed only been in a combat situation once before: when Ashley shot down a Collector drone in her parents' house on Horizon. And it was only one creature that died, and it wasn't even human. Now, though, Sam could hear bullets chewing through the Martian landscape. She could hear the grunts of all three soldiers on the ground. She could especially hear Ashley, hear noises she never thought she'd hear issue from her lover's mouth, grunts of discomfort, a shout of triumph, a quick prayer to her God for her soul, for the lives she was taking.

"EDI," Sam said, furrowing her brows in worry at the sounds she heard.

"Yes, Specialist Traynor?"

"I know the storm headed in will cut out our communications. But in the meantime, shouldn't I be able to access their helmet cameras?"

"That is correct, though per Alliance protocol it is only Commander Shepard's helmet that the specialist observes."

Sam frowned. "So what's wrong? Why can't I see it?"

"We are not receiving signal. It is not Shepard's usual helmet, and she never activated it. However, I can activate the camera from here. Would you like me to do so?"

Bloody VI my arse… "Yes, EDI. Please do so."

An icon on her console began blinking, and pulling it up, Sam saw a sight that horrified her. A man in armor, white with black and yellow detailing, fell to the ground. Blood spurted out from the space between helmet and chest plate. She could only imagine the sound he made.

Shepard's voice whooped. "Nice one, Ash!"

That was Ashley. That's what she's capable of, what she's been trained to do. I… I don't even know what to do with this information. How can someone so soft and lovely and generous with herself be so deadly and efficient in killing? Then another thought hit Samantha. Wait… if that man could be shot by a sharpshooter, then Ashley could be, despite all that armor I know she wears that I've never seen her in…

She was suddenly incredibly afraid.

But the marines on the ground were not. Sam had missed some of their conversation in her musing, but was pulled back in by Ashley's voice once more.

{I need a straight answer, Shepard.}

Shepard's voice sounded dubious as her helmet cam swung to look right at Ashley. It was… strange, to see her lover like this. {About what?}

{Do you know anything about this? What is Cerberus doing here?}

Oh fuck… that armor. It was Cerberus, Sam thought to herself, absently scanning code on a second screen for anything that wasn't right. Ashley is going to be absolutely livid.

{What makes you think I know what they're up to?} Perhaps Sam was imagining it, but she could have sworn that Shepard was very careful and… deliberate with that answer.

"C'mon Ashley, now is not the time," Sam whispered, knowing she would not be overheard by those on the ground until she hit the command on her console to transmit.

{You worked for them. How am I supposed to believe you cut all ties?}

Sam could almost swear she heard Shepard's irritation. {I was never with Cerberus, Williams.} Sam did not miss how it had gone from "Ash" to "Williams."{It was a temporary alliance that I was glad to be done with once I took out the Collector base. I haven't talked to anyone affiliated with them since, nor would I should they try.}

{It's true, Ash,} James chimed in. {Shepard was under lock and key the whole time she was Earth. I was her regular guard. No communications in or out, no omnitool, and she was debriefed extensively. She's clean, they just needed to look they were doing something for the Batarians.}

Ashley only gave a noncommittal hum.

{Cut the chatter,} Shepard snapped suddenly. {I hear something.}

Sam hadn't heard anything, but she admitted to herself she was fully engrossed in the conversation. She could read Ashley's defensive body language on her screen, and knew from her tone that Ashley was not convinced. But they were in the middle of a ground mission, and the lieutenant-commander merely lifted her sniper rifle and walked forward as Shepard's helmet cam swung around once more.

With the three of them quiet, Sam could hear the metallic racket Shepard must have heard. What on earth could that be? Sam asked herself, peering intently at the view from the camera now. Are those shots from a rifle? Who's shooting?

Suddenly a ventilation grate burst outward, a blue and white figure following after it. The figure jumped to the ground, turned, and some kind of blue fire flew from the figure toward the opening to the ventilation shaft. Caught in mid-air were two white, black, and yellow-adorned Cerberus soldiers. Shots rang out, and the men were dead. The blue fire extinguished, and the figure on the ground – an asari, by the looks of her – walked up to the dead men, aiming her pistol and ensuring their deaths.

Oh shit. I've officially seen an asari's biotics for the first time…

Shepard's helmet began moving, her arm shooting out to lower a rifle just barely in the camera's view. {Easy there, lieutenant. She's with us.}

Shepard sounded… happy? Excited? It was tempered by some slight nervousness. A quick glance at the crew's vitals showed a sharp increase in the commander's heart rate.

{Shepard? Thank the Goddess!} the asari shouted in relief as she turned, dropping her pistol as she broke into a run. Samantha watched as the blue-skinned woman adorned in a white lab coat came running for her, and then her arms were around Shepard's neck, Sam's view mostly obscured.

{I'm here, Liara} she heard Shepard murmur.

This must be Doctor T'Soni, Sam thought. Ashley mentioned their relationship. Clearly it's alive and well.

She listened as they discussed the device Liara had uncovered. It was interesting, but what was very interesting to Samantha was the little interactions she saw. Ashley and Dr. T'Soni hugged, clearly were friendly with each other. But whenever Ashley came into view she held herself defensively. Clearly, the woman was still in a hostile place regarding her once-best friend.

Shepard and Liara, on the other hand, were a hot mess of awkward. Their tones were… stilted. Their movements were not of familiar lovers but rather of people who did not know where they stood with each other. They spoke of Cerberus and the device, yes, but underneath was an unspoken conversation about their relationship and whether or not it would continue. It was utterly fascinating.

Suddenly James was being sent away to the shuttle, very much against his wishes, and the three women left in the Archive building were headed to the door, where it was clear Cerberus soldiers were attempting to hack their way in.

{We've got company,} Shepard said, lifting a pair of SMGs from the holsters on her hip. {Let's do what we do best, ladies.}