Mass Effect Project Renegade
Chapter 16: Sticking Together…
Jack looked at Ashley, he wondered what she was doing here, and didn't her shift end three hours ago?
"Ashley?"
Ashley gave Jack a smile while crossing her arms.
"Being a bit informal on me eh skipper?"
"Well normally I am… but at this hour…" replied Jack.
Ashley realized that he was right about the time.
"Oh that's right sorry about that…."
Jack just shook his head while chuckling.
"What can I do for you 'Chief Williams'... Better?"
Ashley gave off a quiet laugh.
"Its fine Shepard you can call me by my first name, if you want."
"Yeah you too, if you knew my first name." Jack replied.
Ashley smiled at Jack's comment.
"I would, but your foot locker says 'Shepard'."
Jack's left eyebrow rose from Ashley's statement.
"Why were you looking at my foot locker?"
Ashley started to trip around her words then, leaving a smirk on Shepard's face.
"I wasn't… I mean at first, I saw other members of the crew checking it out, then I … Uh well I decided to check what the fuss was about."
Jack was concerned of who was checking out is locker, if there was an agent who was spying on him…
"Relax Ashley, wait…. Who was around my locker."
Ashley was thinking of the crewmembers who were there.
"Let's see there was Liara, Zoey, Bethora, and Tali."
…
"Did you see anything particular that was wrong with my locker?"
Well….
"No Sir…. Just this red glow coming out of…"
Jack's eyes widened from the formula in his locker.
"If you'll excuse me I'll be moving my possessions in to the Captain's Quarters, stay here I'll be back."
A minute later, Jack comes back with four stacks of black boxes, and proceeds to put it on the Captain's desk. Ashley was curious of what type of possessions were in those boxes.
"What's in the boxes Sir?"
"My private possessions, now what brings you up at this hour?" replied Jack.
Ashley was thinking about this all day since Bethora joined on.
"Right… I need to talk to you about the people we've been picking up Shepard."
Jack stepped by his door and checked out in the mess hall.
"Step in, so we can talk about it then."
As soon as Ashley stepped in the room the Captain's Quarters door shut and turned red, but before Jack could start the conversation he offered her a seat as he took out a cigarette from his bed drawer. Ashley just raised an eyebrow at Shepard's action.
"You know those are bad for you, right Shepard?"
Jack gave off a grin, before looking at Ashley.
"A lot of things are bad for me, like bullets… yet you don't hear me complaining about it, now what's wrong with the crew members we've been picking up Ashley?"
"It's the Aliens we've been picking up, Wrex, Garrus, Liara, Bethora, Zoey, and Tali…"
Jack took a deep inhale and put out his cigarette in his ash tray on his desk.
"What's wrong with them?"
"For starters Wrex." Replied Ashley
Wrex hasn't done anything wrong, not anything Jack was aware of.
"What's wrong with Wrex?"
"For a bounty hunter, Wrex isn't loyal to anything but his next pay, he can even be bought out, plus he's a Krogan, which mistrusts all species generally, because of the bad run they had with mostly every species in the Galaxy." Replied Ashley
"I would stop you if I could…" Jack tried to get out before Ashley continued her complaints.
"Then there is Zoey and Liara, Liara the daughter of Benezia, the one we'er also supposed to be hunting down. Moving on to Zoey, her story for looking to rescue Liara, and take down Saren's Assassins, she could've been hired by Saren for all we know."
"Well Zoey, has a bad past with…" Jack once more tried to get out before Ashley continue to barrage the complaints not giving Jack the option to clear the air.
"Also including to the dangers of this mission, we brought Garrus and Bethora with us, I mean we were at war with their species just twenty years ago, a lot of their kind still hates us for losing a war they started."
"Ashley I know we've…"
What Ashley said next got on Shepard's nerves.
"To make matters worse, we let Tali a Quarian on an Alliance made ship, she could be hacking and siphoning data off our ship and sending it back data to her fleet, plus her kind created the Geth!"
Jack, had enough of Ashley's Xenophobia and Bigotry.
"Hey! That's gone too far, Tali hasn't done anything wrong!"
Ashley body shifted back in the chair from being startled form Jack's outburst.
"Yeah and what about the Geth? Sir are you going to say that's not their fault too?"
You would assume a smart person would know when to shut up, but Jack knows words have started wars.
"Chief Williams as I can recall, the Quarians tried to rectify that mistake by trying to put down the Geth."
"Sure looked like that on Eden Prime when our Colony was attacked by those things."
Anger was boiling up in Jack, and he didn't know why.
"Tali and her people have already suffered enough; they can't go back to their home world. The Quarians are always used as a scape goat to use, abuse, and harass. To add on to their endeavors, they've been exiled from the galactic community, because the Council refused to help them, if the Quarians found a suitable world they're threatened to be bombed, if they tried to settle on it."
Ashley thought a lot about it, the Quarians did have it rough, and they are suffering for mistakes of a past leadership, which refused to help.
"I guess you make a point about that skipper."
Jack calmed down a bit, he was confused of why the hatred towards every non-Human on the ship.
"So what brought on this resentment to the Non-Humans?"
Ashley got up and paced around the room.
"I feel this way is, because as 'Noble' the Council races seem, they'll turn their backs on us, when we head in to trouble."
Jack knew that was obvious, the Council Races were only interested in looking out for their own self-interest; it just seemed so inhuman, politics sure, but still…
"Of course they will the Council always had a grudge against us since their protectors of Council Space got their asses handed to them."
"I don't think it's a grudge, it's more of…. Look if you're up against the wall fighting a bear, and the only way to survive is sic your dog on it, you'll do it, as much as you love your dog, it isn't human."
…..
Jack just stayed silenced.
"It's not Racist not really, we… Humanity has to stick together, just like we did in the First Contact War, when we beat the Turians back to Paleven."
Jack just rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Ashley if your Earth first, vote for the Terra Firma Party."
Yes the Terra Firma Party, The Pro Human Political that's growing with huge support. They're not Anti-Alien, like Citadel News Network, keeps bashing Earth with. They've been seeking separation from Citadel Council for a while, and they're gaining many seats in the Parliament, it's only a matter of time.
"Terra Firma is a bunch of Jackals, playing xenophobia, the founder had ideas."
Jack just rolled his eyes her buying the Citadel News Network Bull Shit.
"So this must come from being related to General Williams?"
Ashley stayed quite for a moment and continued to listen to Shepard.
"Look Williams you can't be angry at Aliens because of your Grand Fathers Mistake."
Ashley glared at Shepard, for that comment about her Grand Father.
"Mistake?! How would you of handled it then?"
"General Williams took the cowards way out, Ashley, I would have died, before surrendering to the enemy, that's how I was raised up, Death before Surrender. If I was in your Grand Father's position, I would've fought bitterly to the last man, bringing them with me, I fight for our freedom, the people who I took an oath to defend, the right to choose our own fate, and if I died, I died knowing that I did everything I could stop them, and I'd have died a free man."
Ashley was still trying to find a way to defend her disgraced Grand Father.
"He was protecting the citizens of Shanxi!"
"The Invading Turian force executed a third of the civilian population, they didn't care for whom they were shooting, the Hierarchy wanted us dead. We were fighting an unknown enemy at the time Williams…. Look I get where you're going with this, Humanity has to stick together, and you're right, no one is looking out for us, or looking to help us, but we have to work with the Multi National crew on board for this mission…. Look about your Grandfather…"'
Ashley just shook her head while looking at the desk.
"No, I see where you were going, but Its still not right Shepard, my grandfather fought bravely, they shouldn't have disgraced him like-"
Joker interrupted the two on the comm.
"Commander we've arrived at Noveria's docking station, but some Assholes are giving us a hard time landing."
Jack got up followed by Ashley.
"Alright Joker see you up there, Williams Suit up, I need you out there with me."
Ashley smiled, and gave out a salute.
"Aye, Aye, Skipper!"