The Williams family had a long history of service to their country, first for the United States, then with the Systems Alliance marines. With the blame attached to general Williams for surrendering Shanxi to the Turians, it seemed this distinguished linage would come to an end, had it not been for one courageous woman who kept going when all the odds were against her. Ashley Williams was steeped in her family's history and the same moral courage that enabled her grandfather to surrender his command when circumstances demanded it from him, despite the consequences it had for his career, saw her stay in an Alliance military that despised her. – Ashley Williams, Hero against the Odds, Diana Allers
Ashley Williams only told me much later how she felt on Eden Prime when she saw me coming over the hills to save her. Even decades after the Reaper Wars that moment was still imprinted on her memory. She had been on patrol with her best friend, Nirali Bhatia when the Geth attacked. When they tried to rejoin the rest of their unit, Nirali was shot down by the first Geth they encountered. Ashley could do nothing for her, barely managing to get away herself. By the time we landed, she was the sole survivor of her company, frightened and exhausted.
It seemed her luck had run out when a couple of those annoying little flying drones that had been harassing her for what seemed like hours managed to get off a lucky shot, hitting her in the back. Her shields down, she managed to roll and turn to avoid their next shots, then shot them both out of the sky. Any relief she felt was short lived as two Geth foot soldiers appeared on the scene. She ducked behind the nearest rock and knew she was going to die there.
At that moment a shot ran out from behind her and the nearest Geth fell to the ground, exploding in a sea of sparks. Another shot and the other Geth was down. It was then, as she looked bewildered around to see who had saved her, that I came over the hills.
To her I looked an avenging angel, only the single red N7 stripe on my chest breaking the black of my armour. She said it was the most beautiful sight she had ever seen, well, apart from seeing Miranda nude for the first time, but that was a long time later. She said that when she saw me coming over to her, taking off my helmet and seeing the fierce expression on my face, she knew she was saved and everything would be all right.
Had she known how much my stomach was churning and how my bowels had turned to water, Ashley wouldn't have been so sanguine. It had always been my luck – bad or otherwise – that fear never showed on me. Instead of making me pale, it drew a scarlet flush on my face, something that most people mistook for anger or determination. I never trembled either, but grew still.
Yet the honest truth was that I'd been scared ever since I saw the first images of that gigantic, claw like spaceship attacking Eden Prime coming in over the FTL video line on board the Normandy. It had confirmed all my worries that the presence of a Council Spectre on the ship had brought up. Spectres were bad news. Having one on the ship to "evaluate its maiden voyage", even if the Normandy had been built with Council money, was such obvious bullshit that nobody believed it. Only minutes before the emergency broadcast from Eden Prime had reached us I'd learned just why and for whom the Spectre was here, but the news from the colony had put that out of my mind.
Only an hour later I was leading a scouting mission to the colony, with only two marines as backup, the Spectre having gone ahead. My second in command was lieutenant Kaidan, a biotic. Unlike many marines I had no problems with biotics. If nothing else having a biotic nearby meant always having an emergency shield handy.
Speaking of emergency shields, the other marine, a young Eden Prime native fresh out of basic training, served as one less than five minutes after we had landed. The fool had just prattled on about how harmless the gasbags were we'd just encountered at the landing site, when I sent him around a corner straight into an ambush.
Three silver drones of a type I'd never seen before shot through his shields as if they weren't there and killed him on the spot. "Well, that's why I sent him ahead" I thought. Lieutenant Kaidan looked distraught, but what did he expect? Between us we shot the drones out of the sky without problems, then moved on, eventually meeting up with Ashley.
As I walked over to Ashley after the fight, I took the opportunity to get my first good look at her. A plain open face that was pretty rather than beautiful, her dark hair tied back in an efficient knot, muscular body encased in armour, she was everything a marine should be. Looking at her I felt a familiar stirring in my stomach, proof that even when stricken with fear my libido was still active.
To be honest, any other time I might not have looked twice at Ashley, but after three weeks first getting the Normandy ready, then taking her out on her first cruise, spent amongst a crew that was almost all male, I was happy to see any woman. The Normandy was such a sausagefest the only woman that was even remotely attractive was the ship's doctor, Chakwas, who was much too old for me.
While I had been looking her over, Ashley sprung to attention and saluted. "Gunnery chief Ashley Williams of the 212th. Are you the one in charge here, ma'am?"
I took off my helmet and answered. "I'm commander Shepard. Are you wounded Williams?"
"A few scrapes and burns. Nothing major. The others weren't so lucky. Oh man.. We were patrolling the perimeter when the attack hit. We tried to get off a distress call but they cut off all communications. I've been fighting for my life ever since."
I nodded. "Any idea what kind of enemy we're facing?" Ashley took a deep breath and looked me straight in the eye. "I think they're Geth." Lieutenant Kaidan scoffed. "the Geth haven't been seen outside the Veil in nearly two hundred years. Why are they here now?"
Ashley had an answer. "They must've come for the beacon. The dig site is close, just over that rise. It might still be there." As she finished her report I was thinking furiously. I really didn't want to encounter more of those machines, Geth or not, but it was clear we needed to get to the beacon. In which case, three guns were clearly better than two and the gunnery chief certainly seemed capable of handling hers. Even if she hadn't, she was still better company than lieutenant states-the-obvious next to me.
"We could use your help Williams." She didn't hesitate. "Aye aye ma'am. It's time for payback." I was a bit worried about her gung ho attitude, but I didn't let it show. "Let's move out". Time to go and not get killed.
Author's note: this was a difficult chapter to write, to get Shepard from the Normandy to Eden Prime without boring everybody with the same scenes we've all seen so many times before.