A/N: Okay. Last time, Wrex was alive and Tali was said goobye to. Now, is the big chapter. Awfully short for being a pivotal plot point of Mass Vexations, but hey. You know all that build-up? Well... I'm going to tease you with it for now.
A lot's happened between the time I posted the last MV chapter and today. I turned 20 years old on Wednesday, this story hit it's 50th review (a record as far as I'm concerned, as I only have one other story that managed to get 50 reviews by the time it reached chapter 15), I learned how to read Baroque choreography notation, I've been getting used to proper Baroque performance practice, and I've gotten plenty of new ideas for this fic. Will we see them here? Probably not. Will we see it elsewhere?
Well... read to the end of today's chapter and find out.
Yes, I'm sadistic. Why do you think I make you guys lose the game so often? *winks*
Okay, enough chatter. I bring you the next chapter of the MV saga.
Chapter 15: Virmire Part 2
Okay, so we leave the camp. We enter, the salarians around me doing some last minute ammo checks as Kirrahe steps to the front of the pack. I fall into step behind him as the other salarians quickly come over behind him. I look back to them. Wow, there are a lot of us here. But it likely won't be enough against the mountain of geth waiting inside. It's… disheartening, really…
But we have to do this. I have to do this. It's for everybody's good.
I look over to the skies as Kirrahe does a quick check. Jarel walks over to me and nods.
"We'll be fine, Art," he says. "Don't worry."
I nod as he leaves. It's not any one of you guys I'm worried about…
No, Art, you have to stay in this until the very end. You can do it. It's all up to you, m'kay?
I look around, and then we wander over by an area where there is cover. I just hope Shepard can help us out. It's all up to her whether Kirrahe makes it out alive or not. I just hope she saves Ash over me.
Right. I ready my assault rifle as we round the corner. Already, I see geth units there, and they're patrolling it seems. I look over to Kirrahe, gesturing to them. The captain nods, and the salarians crawl up against the walls. I notice that there are some lining up against the opposing wall.
"On my mark," says the captain.
All right. Let's hope this goes smoothly, because I really hope it does. If it doesn't… I don't know what I'll do. And that is kind of scary.
The captain looks to all of us, and the rest of the forces nod in reply. I do so hesitantly, knowing the full cost of what could happen.
With this, Kirrahe gave a hand gesture.
And all of a sudden, a hail of gunfire rained down on the patrolling geth on the opposite wall. Right. That hand gesture? Fire at will. All right, got it. I turn out of cover and see one last geth unit. I fire my rifle at it, and it goes down without too much ceremony. We see the hallway clear of geth, and Kirrahe nods to us.
"Let's move!" he says.
And with this, we flood into the corridor, holding our weapons up. I come up just behind Kirrahe, Jarel being somewhere behind me. We advance in the hall well enough, and then we see the geth come in.
Right. Cover, cover… Oh, that crate! I fall back behind it just as Kirrahe gives another hand signal to the salarians.
I peer up to see quite a few geth units there. I see a rocket launcher wielder among them. Oh, shit, I forgot there were the rocket launcher geth! Take it out first. I line up my assault rifle at the geth as it's readying it's launcher. Wait for it…
He pulls the trigger. Not a second too soon, I open fire on the rocket. And sure enough, after a few bullets impact against it, the thing blows up barely a few feet away. It manages to take out quite a large stock of geth as the rocket launcher one is seen staggering back. I quickly duck behind cover just as a few bullets whiz over me. I look up to see that there's a large enough hole to give the others ample time to reload.
All right! Looks like shooting the bombs really does work in real life! Thanks very much for the tip, Starfox! Now I have to figure out how to do a barrel roll with my body and all will be fun…
Right, back to the battle.
I peer over my cover to see more geth coming in. Right, time to take these out. I shoot at them with my assault rifle, taking a few down as I feel my shields deplete.
Fortunately, my fellow salarian soldiers are right behind me as I pop out the ammunition and reload. I hear the rounds whiz over my head as I do so. I peer back out and see that there are more fallen geth.
And I see another one over there. I look over to it and fire my assault rifle as it goes down. I have enough ammo left in this clip to take down another one. So I look to the side and see another geth there. I look at it and gun it down. The other salarians take care of the rest.
At the end, I reload as Kirrahe comes forward.
"Let's move!" he shouts.
And then we move down the corridor, our weapons at the ready. We come down to an area, and then I see the wall that is guarding the base. I look over to see more geth, with another rocket launcher wielder.
Right. When Kirrahe gives the signal, I come out of the cover I've picked and shoot at the rocket launcher thing first. It goes down quickly. Okay, good, that's a preserved rocket launcher. We can use that against the aerial units later. If I can get to it, that is. As it is now, there are too many geth in there to get it now.
So I just go behind cover and reload quickly. When I peer out, however, I see a geth rushing straight for us. Oh, shit!
Without thinking, I bring the butt of my rifle up, the butt connecting with the geth's facelight. It falls to the ground on its back, where I quickly turn and fire some holes into its synthetic head. Okay, it's dead, it's dead.
I turn back and look out of cover as I see another rocket launcher geth come in. Oh, shit! I fire at it, but thankfully another one of the salarians is able to come out of cover to shoot at it. This is enough to take it down. Eh, I have to reload anyways.
I duck back behind cover and reload, hearing gunfire all around me. Good think I'm going home soon. If there was one thing about this place I could never get used to, it's the sound of gunfire. Honestly, gunfire scares the shit out of me. No thanks to my phobia of loud, sudden noises. But… I've gotten used to it. There's a kind of strangeness about how quickly a guy can get used to the same loud sudden noise played back seventy times. Well, except when your name is Iannis Xenakis; in which case, I can only take so much of the loud, dissonant, almost always relentless chords that you're infamous for before I begin to get bothered.
I peer out of cover as I see more geth come out. None of them has gone for the rocket launcher yet. Good. The geth are almost out. I fire my rifle at one that is rushing towards us before we pause.
I look to Kirrahe and then to the rocket launcher. "I think we should get that rocket launcher," I say. "We could use it against some of these things."
The captain nods. "Good call," he says. "Men, let's move! And take the rocket launcher with us!
And we advance slowly. I see Jarel grab the rocket launcher before bringing his weapon in front of him, lugging the huge thing with him. We come to another area, where I manage to get behind cover. I duck down, and then when the geth come I shoot at them. It's the same kind of thing over again, really.
Wait… why am I getting flashbacks to Time Crisis? This is reminding me a lot of it… Well, wait… Yes, it makes perfect sense. We're firing at geth, clearing a room, and moving on after a command. Yeah… this is exactly why I'm getting that flashback.
All we need is a foot pedal and the setup will be complete.
We advance forward, heading down hallway after hallway in a similar manner. Finally, we come to an area after entering the base that is mostly outside.
Several small gunfights and a few stray geth later, and we come to an open area. It's large enough for aerial units to fire upon. Shit… I better warn Kirrahe.
I turn to the Captain as I see him advance. I look back to Jarel, who is holding on to the rocket launcher as we advance. I nod to Jarel. He nods back, and advances around as he takes cover. Kirrahe notices this, and nods after quickly checking the sky above us.
"Perfect place for an aerial geth to ambush us," I murmur. "We better find cover and work our way across slowly."
The captain nods. "A wise choice," he says. "You make a better leader than would be proper for a musician," he adds.
I glance at him. While that does tick me off a bit, it is true. Best not to comment on it, then. I shrug, switching out my assault rifle for my pistol. Kirrahe makes a hand gesture to the other salarian soldiers, and we move out.
I take the time to count the salarian heads as we go around. Huh… we've only got one casualty. Thank god it's not the medic. If it was, we'd be screwed. Big time. And I wouldn't want Kirrahe to end up dying the way Tom Hanks' character in Saving Private Ryan did. Because that would be sad. And it'll happen if Shepard didn't take out the aerial units.
We slink along cover, keeping one set of eyes skyward and another ahead of us. Hm… The geth have gone strangely silent as of late.
"They're going to ambush us," I say, noticing Kirrahe stalking behind me. "I just know it."
"How?" asks Kirrahe.
"It's always like this in vids," I say, glancing around.
The captain blinks. "But this is not a vid," he says. "This is real life."
Oh, please. "Trust me, if we were to switch bodies and turn back time to three months ago, I think you'd agree with me," I say, holding my pistol back up as I hear the whirr of something. "I think I hear the aerial units coming."
Kirrahe nods and then turns to his comm unit. "All units, stay behind cover, no matter what," he commands.
I see silent approval from everybody else. We slowly slink along, and then before long, we hear a ton of sounds. These sounds turn to marching, and then we see a huge amount of geth in the distance. I turn and see that the geth are coming up behind us as well, and an aerial unit is hovering over us.
I quickly turn to Kirrahe and give him the quirkiest I-told-you-so expression I can make. Almost immediately, we hear the sounds of gunfire.
Fortunately, we're all already behind cover, so it's only a matter of making sure stuff goes—
Wait, a boom? I turn my head and… Oh, shit, the wall's falling.
"Get down!" I shout, more out of instinct than anything. I quickly duck down, and then a monumental noise comes up around me. Wow… falling rubble sounds more grating than it does in the movies.
I peer up, and I see a plume rise from the far end as what I assume to be Jarel fires a rocket at the aerial unit. It blows up unceremoniously, the rubble falling to the ground. A piece of it bounces off barely three inches away as I look overhead. I don't see any more aerial units.
All right, Shepard helped us out! All right, now to see to—
Holy shit!
"Captain!"
I turn to the rubble. Shit… It completely crushed Kirrahe! His hand is sticking out of there… Oh, fuck, we're without a commander now! Jesus Christ on a pikestaff… He's dead! Even with Shepard's help! Is this… Is this because I showed up here…?
Wait… it falls on me to lead these guys now, doesn't it? Oh… oh shit… No…
"No no no no no…" I mutter.
Oh, no… I'm going to have to lead these people. Worse yet, I have no leadership experience. Fuck… I'm going to get everybody in this strike team killed. And then I'm going to fuck up the mission so that the bomb doesn't go off in the first place. Shit… I can't believe…
No… There's no time to think! I've got to act. I turn to the other salarians by me as they continue firing, oblivious to the passing of their captain. I look across the open area and see the other salarians fighting just as hard as their fellow salarians over on this side. Okay… no casualties yet. I tune in my comm channel as I look around.
"Serviceman ********* to all units!" I say. Okay, gotta keep this professional. It's nothing personal, Sonny. It's strictly business. "Kirrahe is down and out, I repeat, Kirrahe is down and out! Stay where you are until every one of these geth suckers is scrap metal!"
I hope Shepard heard that…
I don't get any recognition as they continue firing. Okay, I think they got it… Or do they? I dunno, and I don't have time to think about it. I've gotta act.
I look behind the bit of rubble to see geth coming towards us.
All right, fuckers. Let's see how you like this!
I grab my assault rifle from behind as I peek out of cover very quickly. I fire my pistol into the geth, taking down a couple by the time my clip expires. I unload my pistol and quickly bring it under my arm as I aim at the oncoming geth with my assault rifle. I grab a spare unit of handgun ammo before I let loose with my assault rifle, taking down another two geth as they come along.
Okay, time to play the part of badass, and…
I jam the handgun ammo back in as a couple of salarians rush over to my side to help me fend the geth off over there. I hear another rocket explode somewhere, but I don't hear the rubble fall over the gunfire. Okay, good, that was us firing that thing. I jam the ammo into its respective slot and come out, taking out a few geth.
We're surrounded on all sides, but somehow, through some miracle we manage to make it out. I keep on firing at geth the entire rest of the time, and their numbers dwindle rather quickly. The other salarians are able to come and help me out when they take care of the geth in front of them. And so I keep on firing, and eventually, it's such that we don't see any more geth.
I look to the other salarians, seeing a whole bunch of eyes looking at me.
"What do we do, Serviceman?" asks one of the privates nearest me.
Shit, it does fall on me to lead them… Oh, dear…
Well, I've gotta give it my best. Right. I activate my comm unit, looking out.
"Serviceman ********* to the guys at the other side of the plaza, respond!" I say.
"Jarel Brosca, sir," I hear him say. "We don't have any casualties. Seems our Captain was the only one to not make it out alive. What do we do?"
I look around, first to where we came from, and then ahead of us. Well… since we followed Shepard in the game… Yeah, knowing what's ahead of us would be nice.
"Scout the coming area," I say. "If they're setting up another ambush, we should find a way to go around it. Beat them at their own game."
"Got it, sir." A random salarian seems to come out, and then I see a drone. "Sending out scouting drone now!"
Okay, that's all fine and good, but shouldn't we be moving? Nah, let them. I gesture to the other salarians, and we get back behind cover. The units on the other side get the message, and they all fall back behind it as we wait for the scouting drone to make some rounds. After a few minutes, I hear something from the other camp.
"Scouting drone has returned," says the same random salarian over the comm unit. "It detects a three way path. Two of the pathways go straight over a geth ambush. There are geth all over the lower levels, but none in the higher levels."
Okay… Think, think, think, think, think… I'm just a little black raincloud, hovering over the honey tree, I'm just a little black raincloud, pay no attention to me… Everyone knows that a raincloud never eats honey, no not a nip, I'm just floating… Okay, why the hell am I thinking of a Disney movie when I'm supposed to be thinking strategy? Screw that!
Okay… Oh! I know!
"All right," I say. "We'll split up into three strike teams."
I turn to one of the salarian units and point at him. "You," I say. "Name a random salarian city."
He blinks. "Sir, what does this-?"
"Just do as I say!" I command.
"Uh… Aeghor," he replies nervously.
Okay, that was one of the cities Kirrahe would have mentioned if he were still alive. "All right," I say, turning to another private and pointing at him. "Name another city."
"Mannovai, sir," he replies, quickly.
Okay, another city. "All right," I say, turning to yet another salarian. "Name another city."
"Orzammar, sir," replies the salarian.
"Okay, good, now—" Whoah! Wait a minute…! "Wait, there's a salarian city called Orzammar?"
"Yes, sir," he says. "It's an underground city, if you can believe it, sir… Why do you ask?"
I shake my head. And here I thought that one mention of the Grey Wardens in that one vid Garrus showed us would be the last I hear of Dragon Age in the Mass Effect universe. "Reminds me of something I read about in human fantasy fiction," I reply before turning to the other strike team. "All right, here's what we're going to do.
"We're going to split into three groups. We'll reconvene before this hallway that was mentioned and figure stuff out with who goes where. Teams Aeghor and Orzammar will take to the two higher areas, and team Mannovai will take to the ground. Aeghor and Orzammar will take the preemptive strike against these geth. As soon as we clear the hallway of most of the geth, Mannovai will work its way into the hallway and take out the rest of the stragglers on our signal. I'll take control of team Aeghor. Commander? I want you to take control of team Mannovai."
I turn to the other side. Yeah, the salarians have their own commander. "Yes sir," he says.
I nod at this. "All right," I say. "Jarel Brosca, you'll lead team Orzammar."
If Jarel is unprepared for this, he doesn't show it. Salarians and their hyper-professionalism… At least in this case we're benefitting from it. "Yes, Serviceman," he says.
"All right," I say. "We reconvene before the hallway where this is true. Get into any group at all, and let's get moving."
With this, we advance towards the hallway that the scouting drone saw, and we reload our guns.
And after we reconvene, Aeghor and Orzammar teams head up on the higher area, with Mannovai staying behind. We can see each other from there, and so we advance. We check each other's position every so often as we advance along.
And then, we see the geth setting up the ambush point. There are at least a hundred of them down there, and all of them are planning without seeming to notice us. I see a bunch of krogan down there too… Hm… That will be a bit harder. But hey, what can we do? Okay, this all sounds fine and good.
I look over to Orzammar team as they slowly and stealthily get into position. All right, we're in good hands here. I nod to them, and we prepare our weapons.
The geth don't notice us until we fire right away. This manages to get rid of a geth rocket unit on one side and plenty of geth units elsewhere else. We fire down, and more geth fall.
I myself? I'm just using my assault rifle as we see fit. I fire down with the rest of them, keeping an eye on the other units.
Okay, suppressing fire goes well. And in the chaos that ensues, the krogan have just helped us with eliminating all the geth. They're so confused they don't even think to look up. That dwindles their numbers even more significantly as more geth come flooding in. I then see some of them enter some holes in the side.
Oh, dear… This might go badly.
"Aeghor and Orzammar teams, watch out!" I say, sheathing my assault rifle and grabbing my shotgun. "We've got company heading straight for us!"
We turn, and suddenly we see about three krogan rush at us. Okay… This is a little worrying. Krogan are brutish. Take that against fragile salarians and we have a problem… Unless…
Well, there is one way I can distract them, but it's probably going to be extremely painful… Well, they only look armed with a shotgun, so I suppose it's worth it.
"Melee these krogan over the head!" I shout.
Two of the salarians pause in getting their weapons ready as they look at me with disbelieving looks on their faces. "Are you serious, Serviceman?" they ask at exactly the same time.
"Yes!" I shout, turning to see the krogan already rushing towards us. "Now shut up and do as you're told!"
They both stand at attention right as the krogan come for us. And then, I unleash a cry as I rush forward. The two of them seem to follow hesitantly shortly afterwards as the others fire on the group below. I don't pay attention to the other two now. I only rush at the krogan, and let out a yell. As he cocks his shotgun, I sprint at him, closing my eyes… Okay, brace for impact…
And with a satisfying crack, I feel my skull connect with that of the other krogan.
Okay, ow. That hurt. That really fucking hurt. O-ho-how… Oh, boy, that was an extraordinarily bad idea. Ow… I'm going to be feeling that for a few days. Ow… Yeah, that was a bad idea… Don't let it distract you… Ow…
But it does its job, as it stuns the krogan I headbutted. I hear gunshots beside me as the other two krogan take hits to their faces. All right.
I cock my shotgun and fire at the krogan in front of me. The shot connects with his face, and the krogan falls back as orange blood billows all around him. Not wanting to wait, I rush over to the fallen krogan as he looks up. I then cock my shotgun again and shoot him there at least three more times. There's no kill like overkill, after all. My adventures with the fly during composition seminar can attest to that.
After I shoot him again, I turn my attention back down to find that there is another krogan. This time, though, we're ready for it. I fire at it with my shotgun as the salarians around me fire at this krogan. His shields get depleted. All right, here—
Ow! I get sent flying back, a shotgun round having been fired at me. Shit… Okay… Check shields…
Okay, that took out all of my shields. But I'm not dead or anything yet. Good, because then these salarians would fail greatly. I quickly sit up and fire my shotgun again at the krogan. This time, it goes down, and a few more shots from the other salarians take care of it.
And the sounds of gunfire seem to die down as I suddenly hear a bunch of war cries. Right, looks like Orzammar gave the signal to Mannovai. And chaos goes all around us as we take care of all the remaining geth and krogan units. All right, we've got it all under control. And soon enough…
Yes, there are no more geth and krogan remaining. I look back to team Aeghor to find that we haven't suffered a single casualty. There's a severe injury from one of the salarians that dealt with the krogan, but our medic is handling that as best he can, and he doesn't look mortally injured. I nod and bring up my comm unit.
"Mannovai, Orzammar, status report!" I say.
"It's Jarel," says the head of Orzammar first. "We're fine. A few geth rushed us and we have a few injuries, but so far we have no casualties."
"Mannovai team here," says the other commander. "We're all in one piece here."
I nod. "All right," I say. "We'll reconvene soon. Sit tight, and keep that seeker drone out to spot stuff. Let's move!"
All right, I don't suck at leading! Well, as much as I thought I would anyway. Right… Okay, we've got a lot more to do until Shepard can get that bomb set up. I'm going to wait on that call.
For now, though. We've got geth to distract, and stuff to do. So I'm going about attending to my business as best I can. And that means planning more, and making sure the salarians don't die on my watch. Because if I can lead these salarians out alive, I can do anything when I get home.
At any rate, I can live with the knowledge that I've led a strike force in combat without ever having to leave my couch. A real one.
So I reconvene with the other two strike teams and plan out our next course of action.
So we went around taking down geth for several more minutes. By this time, we've picked up two casualties. I'm really starting to worry; the geth keep coming in droves and we have less than thirty salarians to fend them all off. All my plans have worked miraculously, but I'm very worried that we'll see casualties very, very soon. And that will not be a good thing.
As we're going around taking down geth (wow, did Shepard take this long to get stuff done in the game… I don't remember…), I suddenly get something ringing in my comm unit.
"Shepard to ground team, respond!" she shouts.
Okay, I think that may be it. "Serviceman ********* to Shepard," I reply over the comm. "We've lost Kirrahe and a few others, but otherwise we're doing fine. Feel free to put some ándale into getting those defense towers down, though!"
"No need," says Shepard over the comm. "They're already down. I just radioed Joker, and he's heading to the location Kirrahe pinpointed. Take your strike team and head to the rendezvous point."
Okay… Heading to the rendezvous point is when we'll run into a couple of problems. Shit… Okay, now I have to engineer my own death.
"Roger, Commander," I say, turning to the rest of the strike team as they bury bullets into a rather large bunch of geth.
Okay, so we'll head to the rendezvous point… Where are we? Hm… I swear that's the AA tower in the distance. It's where we'll get swarmed by the geth… Okay…
"Serviceman ********* to strike teams Aeghor, Mannovai, and Orzammar!" Seriously, I can't believe I'm using the name of a dwarven city to refer to an alien strike team. "Shepard's just taken down the defense towers. Head to the rendezvous point!"
The others don't change their expression. "And maintain cover at all times!" I add as a footnote. It'll slow us down, but getting slowed down is currently the name of the game. If we move to fast, we might outrun the geth and get to the rendezvous point before long…
So we stay put for a bit before advancing along. We're careful as we advance, keeping ourselves behind cover at every viable opportunity to do so. Wow… there are a lot of geth coming from that one side… It seems like fate is giving me some kind of opportunity. Or something. Either way, I don't like this.
Okay, resist the urge to just forge ahead. Your life back home depends on it…
I shoot at some more geth. This is getting chaotic fast. It's definitely a far cry from battle scenes I've seen in video games. Wow… Now I know what the siege on Denerim must have looked like up close. They say war is glorious. All Quiet on the Western Front seems to have it more correct. The bodies of the dead enemies are… disturbing. Sure, they're synthetic, but that just seems to make it worse for me. Frayed wires from gunshots somehow disturb me more than the sight of dismembered legs and stuff. I guess possibly because that could have happened to me before it happened to these geth units. Wow… I don't know. This is why I'll never be a soldier after this. Ever. Just seeing death all around is beginning to get disturbing.
Shooting at some more geth, I fall back behind my cover, holding my head. Wow, all this thinking is giving me a headache. Maybe I should just stop. Okay, Art. Think of something…
Ah, rock music! Of course! Think of that rock and roll bit in the first Transformers movie where Megan Fox's character is driving Bumblebee on the back of the pick-up truck to deal with that tank thing. Yeah, just like that.
I come out of cover and shoot at some geth that get dangerously close to strike team Mannovai. I continue to fire on the geth that are beginning to swarm us in droves as we move along. We get into new cover, and I hear Jarel fire the rocket launcher. It clears out a whole bunch of geth, and then…
Oh! We're already at the AA tower! Wow… That was certainly faster than I expected! Okay, let's hunker down here and wait for Shepard to secure the bomb. Once the bomb is in place, I radio them about how we're overwhelmed, they come here, they send the drop ship to the nuke, and it's all
I look to the other salarians.
Wait… Something just occurred to me… If I'm letting all these guys die for myself… Wait, no! No no no no no! Art, what the hell are you doing? No… I can't believe myself…
Shit… I'm separating team Aeghor from the rest of them somehow… What if the other two teams didn't stay with us… And besides, they still have an opening. They can get through!
Oh! Okay. I think I've got this. Besides, there are a ton of geth heading this way, and we'll likely do enough damage as we get ourselves cornered.
"Mannovai and Orzammar teams!" I say. "Head to the rendezvous point! I'll hunker down here and see if I can hold these people off!"
"Serviceman, are you crazy?" asks Jarel. "You can't possibly hold them off here!"
"We'll rejoin you at the rendezvous point!" I reiterate. "Go! You might be able to thin the crowd for us!"
Not so, but hey, I need something to get them with.
And with this, they seem to get the message that we're not moving. And so, I see Mannovai and Orzammar make extremely fast exits, shooting at geth behind them as they leave the AA tower. I see their forms rush out. Okay, they'll be safe. I hope. I only need a few more minutes and we'll be closer to home than ever…
"Aeghor team, stay behind cover!" I say. "And whatever you do, do not come up unless you're shooting something!"
I don't get anything confirming my response. Okay. I'm taking that as a good sign, because they've been regarding me with silence the entire battle. Okay… I grab out my assault rifle, looking up to the sky softly.
Okay. You're getting so close to the plotline death. Focus. You can ponder how your family will react to your resurgence when you actually get there. Don't worry, Art. You'll be fine. This will just transport you back home… But what if it kills me for real? What then? No, it will send you home. Just… No matter what, you died a good man here. A good, brave, man. You'll be sent home either way. And then things will be wonderful when you get there.
My focus needs more focus. Because this thinking is getting ridiculous.
I take a deep breath before looking outside to where the geth are. The synthetics are coming in droves now, such that we're being overtaken.
Well, if I'm going to go out like this, I might as well go out with a bang!
I come out of cover with assault rifle in hand, aiming at a large cluster of geth. I take this cluster out, and then I turn my assault rifle as it's firing to sweep through. This takes down the shields of a rather large amount of the geth, and then another of the salarians are able to finish them off for me. Okay. Reload, and let's try killing some more geth.
I peek out of cover again as more geth come in. My assault rifle manages to take two down, but as soon as it does two more take its place. I duck back down behind cover as my shields take a hit. Okay, stay under cover, reload…
I come back up, and suddenly I see a bunch of geth troops surrounding us. They're firing at our position, and they don't seem to want to stop. I look out there, and I suddenly see that there is an opening. A drop ship just showed up here, it seems. Shit… Okay, this was a bad idea.
I grab my assault rifle and fire another series of shots at some geth, but I'm forced to retreat to cover quickly. I turn to the other salarians, who are firing at the geth around them. I've gotta admit their bravery. They'll fight to the bitter end of whatever comes their way without any qualms later. I admire them for this, even as we're being surrounded.
I come out of cover again, and find myself facing down some more geth. I aim my assault rifle and fire as many shots as I can. Oh, hey, I got a headshot! Yay! I continue firing, taking down another geth and the shields of another.
I duck back behind cover and quickly reload. Okay… We just need to hold out until Shepard calls me up over the comm unit. Once that happens, we're home free. I come out of cover and fire my assault rifle again. One of them manages to get a shot in, but it ricochets off of my shields. It hits a salarian close by me, and then he goes down.
Shit!
"Medic!"
The medic runs over to the injured salarian as quickly as he can, and he works on patching the wound very, very fast. As he works, I peer over cover, reloading and firing at the geth from the direction whence the bullet came.
Fuck! I fucking hate these things!
We exchange fire for several minutes, and I can see that there is no end to the geth as another salarian finds himself getting injured. The poor medic is trying to patch everybody up, but I can tell he's getting tired from all of the fighting…
Shit… Any time now, Shepard… Any time…
"Shepard to strike teams, we are arming the nuke now," says Shepard. "Head to the rendezvous point."
Finally! All right… The plotline death is almost here.
I hide behind cover as I use my comm unit. "Negative, Commander!" I say. "I sent two teams to the rendezvous point, but my team is trapped at the AA Tower! There are geth everywhere! I don't think we'll make it to the rendezvous point!"
There's a pause as Shepard contemplates her actions… Okay…
"All right," she says over the comm after a bit of thinking time. "Hang tight there, Art. I'll be coming to get you!"
Right… Okay, everything's going according to plan. So now… "Wait, what about the nuke?" I ask loudly.
"Ash will be staying behind to finish some things," she replies. "Hang in there, Serviceman. I'm coming."
Okay, Ash will be staying…
Wait, couldn't I just avoid casualties altogether? I mean, have more people stay behind at the nuke. And then send a small team to get me…
No… If I suggest that, I lose my only chance of going home. I've got no choice. Sorry, Ash, but at the end of the day one of us is going to die as planned.
Oh well. At least my presence saved Kaidan Alenko. I hope it'll be enough to save Ash too.
I peer out of cover and fire at a few geth. Okay, only a few minutes until the dropship… Drop geth constantly… I reload and fire almost mechanically now. I've been fighting for what seems like days on end. And yet, I know it will never be enough. I see the medic slam his supplies against the ground in frustration at his failure to save one of his comerades, and that doesn't help at all.
"Team Mannovai to Aeghor," I hear over the comm. "We're turning back to help you."
I blink at this. Should I… Well… No and yes… I don't know. Ah, fuck it. Just let them help me. It won't make a difference soon enough.
"Okay then," I say. "Make your way back to the AA tower and let's hope all goes well!"
And with this, I hunker down, my assault rifle in hand as I fire a few last rounds into the geth all around us. Okay… just hold on… The plotline death is so close I can taste it… It tastes so bitter right now… But then, I'll miss these guys. Just hold the phone… Mom, Dad, Anneli, Augie, Pupa… I'll be home soon. Joc, Sturge, expect a phone call in the next few days when I return…
I suddenly see a massive dropship fly overhead from where I stood behind cover, Aeghor team all around me as I look around. Shit, here's where they come to Ash. I see the dropship race over to the other end of the base. Okay... so close...
"Shepard," I say, activating the comm link. "I see a geth drop ship. It's heading to your location!"
"It's already here!" replies Ash loudly. "And it's bleeding geth!"
There's silence as I hear bullets whizzing overhead. Shepard speaks next. "Can you hold them off?" she asks.
"There's too many," replies Ash. "I don't think we can survive until you get here."
I hear some buttons being pushed, and then her voice rings out the damning words that make this a one or the other situation.
"I'm activating the bomb."
I feel... tense. I'm so close to the plotline death. I'll go home. I've said goodbye to everyone. Told them how I really feel about them. Thought about it long and hard. And now... now my heart is racing at nearly ten times the speed of light. She activated the bomb. And there's no time to reverse that. And now it's up to Shepard.
"Williams, what the hell are you doing?" she asks into the comm link.
"I'm making sure this bomb goes off!" she replies. "No matter what happens!"
There is a tense period where I sit against my cover, not daring to peek out. Finally, after a few second's Ash's voice comes over the intercom.
"It's done," says Ash. "Go get Art and get the hell out of here!"
I bring myself up to the com. "No, Shepard!" I shout. "Go back and get Ash! We can hold ourselves here! Go back and get Ash!"
There is a brief silence. I look over to the geth, and...
"*********," she says. "Radio Joker and tell him to meet you at the AA Tower."
What? She's... She's coming to me? No!
"What?" I ask, too shocked to hide it. "No! Go back and get Williams!"
"That's an order, Serviceman!" reiterates Shepard.
"No!" I say. No, no no no no. You can't fucking do this to me! I wanna fucking go home, god damn it! Fuck! No! "Ash is more valuable than I am! Go the fuck back and get her!"
"Serviceman *********, that is an order!" she reiterates. "You are to-!"
"I noticed!" I shout into the comm. "And I won't fucking follow it, Commander! Go the fuck back to that fucking nuke, and get Ashley motherfucking Williams out of here! Go back to her!"
"We don't have time for this," she says plaintively. "If you don't follow that order, I'll comm him myself, and I'll make sure you are thrown off the Normandy the instant I contact the Council!"
No... Fuck... No... This can't be fucking real... Fuck... Shit... No... Fuck... I can't bring my gun to my head... Or... Fuck... No... This wasn't how... No... But why... No... Go get Ash... No... Yourself... No no no no no... I want to... No, Ash... Home... Life... Ash... Normandy...
"... Y... yes... Commander..." I say. "I... I'll-"
"You know it's the right choice, *********," says Ash into the comm link. "It was an honor teaching you."
"Hang tight, Ash," says Shepard. "We'll come and get you."
I shake my head. "Somehow, we all fucking know it won't fucking happen like that," I say darkly.
And I disconnect the comm link. Fuck... This wasn't how it was supposed to be! They were supposed to go after Ash! They were supposed to fucking go after Ashley fucking Williams! Why the fuck are they going after me? She's a fucking Gunnery Chief! I'm just a fucking earthborn, playing fucking toy soldiers in a fucking video game with a fucking... No... This can't be right... Fuck...
Hesitantly, I reach my ear piece, and I hesitantly bring my fingers up to it.
"J... Joker..." I say, barely able to contain my disbelief. "G... Go to the AA Tower. S-shepard and a few of us will meet you there..."
"Ay-ay, *********," he says. "Heading there now. I'll get as close as I can."
No... No... this can't be real... No... This can't fucking be...
Those fucking geth... If they hadn't... If Saren hadn't... No... Fuck...
My thoughts collapse, and I let out an incoherent shriek of rage so loud and so high-pitched that hurts my throat.
And all other rational thought melts away as I come out of cover. The only thing I'm aware of for the next few minutes are blurs. Geth falling by my side. Bullets chipping away at my shields. The cries of the salarians as they see me out of my cover. The glowing geth eyes. The traces of red that are haunting the edges of my vision. The blur. The motion. The amount of geth in the room. My mind shuts itself to all else, and I let loose every bullet I had in my guns, not bothering to reload. When I run out of ammo, I drop both my pistol and my assault rifle, and when I run out of shotgun ammo I resort to bashing the geth on the head with the butt of my shotgun. I see a juggernaut, and before I know what I'm doing I'm straddling its chest, bashing its head in with the butt of my shotgun. I do so repeatedly, getting faster and screaming and crying and raging the entire time.
I lose all sense of feeling. I'm vaguely aware of someone grabbing my arm, forcing me to drop my shotgun. No, let me go you son of a bitch! Let me go! I need to kill this one thing!
After a struggle, I'm dragged back by incredibly strong arms as I thrash around in the air, shrieking and sobbing the entire time. It is a haze again until I see myself in the Normandy's cargo bay. And then, feeling slowly returns to me. I'm being dragged by Wrex. I'm being held in the cargo hold. And the Normandy is gaining distance from the ground.
No... This has to be a lucid dream or something. It has to be. It has to-!
I hear the sound of a nuclear explosion go off as I lose myself in my thoughts. Wrex sets me down. I move to do something when Shepard comes and gives me a stare that causes me to freeze in place. She simply stares me down without saying anything at all. It's... chilling... And I'm suddenly aware of a few punctures in my armor from when the shields completely dropped. And I'm aware of a dull pain in my right arm.
And then it hits me. This is not a dream. Ashley Williams is dead. I'm still alive. I was not caught in the blast on Virmire. My plans fell apart. I'll never see my home again. I'll never see any of my family again. I'm trapped here. I'll be forever stuck in a world that I have no place in.
It all comes crumbling apart. I don't even reply to Shepard's gaze before the tears come from my eyes. I don't notice her expression as I close my eyes, and I collapse, feeling the floor of the Normandy's cargo hold meet me at the halfway point.
And I wail out in lamentation, the wail being the only vocalization I can muster to describe how hopeless it all is.