Chapter 14
Shepard held Ashley's gaze, heart pounding in her throat.
Virmire's sun blazed down on her armor; she was sweating even with the most advanced cooling system her armor had to offer. The planet was beautiful—sandy beaches, blue sky, yet Shepard felt her decision weighing her down like a krogan on her shoulders. Then, Ashley's clear, strong voice in her ear: "I don't regret a thing, Commander."
Shepard's HUD pinged at her, and she cursed. The Cerberus commandos were edging up on their position. She hurriedly plugged the last bullet hole that she could see on Ashley's torso. "Stay down."
Ash grimaced. "Yeah, I'm not going anywhere soon."
Shepard edged around the rubble, mentally going over her options. She couldn't stay behind cover for long. The commandos would just keep pressing forward, using their superior numbers to their advantage. Unclipping the arc projector, she edged forward, peering over the rubble and checking her HUD. Three at two o'clock and the other two at nine. This would be tricky.
She set the arc projector down beside her and unclipped her sidearm. She fired over their heads, deliberately missing, hoping that they would take the bait. They did.
The three clustered troops advanced in a classic attack pattern that she recognized: these were former Alliance soldiers. Scowling, she charged up the arc projector and let it rip. The current cascaded over their bodies, though with their shields, it would only slow them down temporarily. Inhaling sharply, Shepard biotically lifted a large piece of rubble and pushed it at the struggling commandos. They screamed as they were knocked aside. That was three down.
She paid for her few seconds of exposure, however. The other two remaining Cerberus troops took the open target she provided, whittling away at her shields until only a sliver remained. A bullet hit her shoulder and she hissed in pain, ducking back behind cover as her shield's warning alarms blared in her ear. Her armor's medi-gel dispenser kicked in, dulling the pain and stopping any potential blood loss, but she'd need to attend to the wound sooner rather than later. And Ashley still needed help.
Gritting her teeth, Shepard readied her sidearm. She only had two heat sinks left.
The Cerberus red dots on her HUD suddenly disappeared, replaced by two blue ones: friendlies.
"Shepard," Kaidan's voice came over her earpiece. "You okay?"
"Yeah," Shepard said in relief. "But Ash…"
"We're coming," Garrus said and soon she saw their armored forms hurrying toward her. She led them to Ashley, still laying where she left her.
"Still playing doctor, Alenko?" she said with a wan smile as Kaidan leaned down, inspecting Shepard's field medicine.
"Only to marines who should know better than to let themselves be turned into Swiss cheese an hour after brain surgery," he said in a grim voice. "Pressly would eat you alive for this, Williams."
"I'll do 100 chin-ups when we get back, sir."
"Not if Chakwas has anything to say about it," Garrus rumbled, his mandibles flaring in a turian grin.
Kaidan looked up at Shepard. "You stopped the worst of the bleeding, but Ashley will need surgery to repair the internal damage. She's probably hemorrhaging. We need to get her to the Normandy, Shepard."
"Artillery at 100 percent power," EDI's calm voice spoke in her ear. They all looked up as the anti-aircraft cannon swiveled to point at the Reaper, the ground shaking as it boomed its first shot.
"Commander, the Migrant Fleet has arrived in the system," the AI said again. "Admiral Tali'Zorah is preparing to initiate the Rael'Zorah Protocol."
"Good." Shepard blew out a breath in relief.
In that moment, Ashley slumped over. Her skin had gone ashen gray. Kaidan bent over her and his omni-tool blared an alarm. "Shepard, her blood pressure is dropping. We need to get her to the Normandy, now!"
Shepard tapped her earpiece, mouth dry with worry. "Vega, get the shuttle and lock onto my position. On the double!"
"Roger that, Commander," he replied. "On my way."
Shepard watched and waited, helpless while Kaidan did what he could—which wasn't much. Above them, small, agile quarian fighters were zooming into atmosphere toward the Reaper. They would probably die, but they had to get close to establish a link to the Reaper for the Rael'Zorah Protocol to work. The Protocol was the result of Tali's father's experiments on geth during the Collector crisis. With some help from Legion, the young quarian managed to turn it into a weapon to use, not against the geth still occupying the quarian homeworld, but against Reapers whose shielding capabilities were the main barrier to their destruction. Turn off their shields and Reapers could be destroyed just like any other ship. It was the getting there that paid so dearly.
The Normandy's shuttle arrived. Shepard helped Kaidan carry Ashley inside. "I'll go with her; make sure she's okay." He reached out, grabbing Shepard's hand. "I'll come back when she's with Chakwas."
Shepard shook herself, tearing her gaze away from Ashley who was no longer laughing about her wounds but still and pale. "No. It's okay. I have Vega and Garrus. Do what you need to. I'll see you—both of you—soon."
Kaidan searched her gaze a moment and then nodded. He glanced to the side, but no one was watching them, so he reached out, pulling Shepard forward for a quick, hard kiss. "It'll be okay," he said and she knew he wasn't just talking about Ashley.
She nodded and stepped out of the shuttle. A moment later it was gone, flying back to space. She put her helmet back on and gestured to Vega and Garrus. "Let's go gentlemen." She spared one more glance for the shuttle, now nearly a speck in the sky. That fight was out of her hands now, and she reminded herself that there was still a battle to win down here.
#
Hours later—or was it days? Weeks?—Shepard limped onto the shuttle, Vega and Garrus on her heels. Her HUD was flaring warning lights at her—no medi-gel, no shields, permanent damage to the left gauntlet, and her shoulder wound hurt like molten lead had been poured into it—but she ignored them all for now. The Reapers—at least the two on Taetrus—were destroyed. The Rael'Zorah Protocol had worked. But the cost had been dear. Hospital ships had arrived in system shortly after the Migrant Fleet to triage incoming wounded and to transport the less severely injured and other survivors to another turian world. Taetrus would never be the same. Shepard knew that among the survivors, many would die from eezo poisoning from multiple ship drive cores detonating in atmosphere. If any pregnant women had survived, their unborn children might likely become biotics… or they might die from cancer. Other survivors might never recover from their injuries, and the few that were uninjured might have crippling psychological problems from the trauma they witnessed.
She did her best not to dwell on those facts, trying instead to remember that two more Reapers were dead and that meant that the galaxy was fighting, that they had a chance at surviving this calculated, mechanical genocide.
But for now they had won some breathing room. At least she hoped. The Reapers always seemed to hold back after one of their attacks was foiled. Mordin had speculated that it was a response to a new stimuli: when their tactic didn't work, they pulled back as if to analyze their errors and eliminate them. Or maybe they expended a lot of energy to travel and needed to rest between battles. Of course, it was all speculation. The Reapers were not exactly forthcoming with the details of their plans. Whatever the reason, Shepard would be glad for a breather, if only because it gave them more time to prepare for the next attack.
Kaidan had not come back from the Normandy after he'd left with Ashley. Whether that was a good or bad sign, she couldn't decide. But she was so exhausted that her worries only registered dimly instead of pounding away at her like they usually did.
The shuttle arrived in the Normandy cargo bay without issue. Shepard stepped out, wearily wondering if she should grab a shower before checking in with Dr. Chakwas. She knew she smelled horrible—sweat, gun oil, husk slime, and who knew what else.
As she, Vega, and Garrus waited on the elevator, she decided to take a shower, a quick one, if only for sanitary reasons. She'd been in worse shape before; her shoulder could wait a few more minutes.
The elevator pinged, opening to reveal Kaidan. His eyes came to rest on her. He wasn't smiling.
"Shepard," he said, swallowing. "Ashley… Ashley didn't make it through surgery."
A/N: I'm sorry. :(