My Own Alternate what if I not specifically me but someone who could be me came entered Mass effect in some way or form and knowing I shouldn't be here.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything bioware has done and make no profit in this
Corporal Ryan Sheppard
Earth, Iran
The sight of Operation Flaming Boulder
The mako was tearing its way through the desert dunes. It wasn't much further until they would hit the compound; so far they have yet to hit any geth activity. However, that reaper was still in far the distant, looking towards the skies. What looked like Rubble was falling all around them, remains of alliance drop ships that had been hit by sovereign. The sky looked as if it was burning. Locking Up Ryan could see the remains of a ship heading straight towards them.
"Um…Ashley" he said towards her with a slight worrying felling in hisvoice.
"I see it" she replied
The mako was still heading forward, not making any effort to turn.
"Yeah Ash, I want to live past today you know"
"So do I Ryan"
Quickly she hit the thrusters of the mako, and it streamed into the air, just nearly avoiding the falling ship. The mako barely missed the flaming hunk of metal, as it jumped over the ship, which exploded on impact on the ground.
"Was that necessary ash" Ryan asked catching his breath.
"What…was just trying to impress" she laughed continuing to drive the mako straight forward getting them all back on track.
"Chief you can impress your boyfriend when we're not in a war zone" Jackson sighed from the back of the Mako.
"I don't know, that was pretty impressive" Raider stated.
The mako came over the last dune, before they reached the compound. They could see old husk of tanks that hat rotted off with time.
"Chief, stop the mako" garrus yelled from the makos gun seat.
Ashley did as he commanded, but nobody else could see anything. Although with the guns turret having a view higher than what they could see, there was no reason to disagree with him.
'Garrus, what do you see?" Ashley turned towards the back to face Garrus, who was just above the others.
"A pair of geth armatures dead ahead, supported by some infantry"
'Great' Ryan thought, he knew it was too much to hope for that this would be easy. He wanted to wait for someone to come up with a plan, but he figured it was time for him to step up. "Ash, I have an Idea"
"I'm all ears"
Ryan looked around his surroundings out the front window. He could see the dune they were behind offered some good cover. "Bravo, Raider and I can get out here"
"Um corporal, I think I'm the ranking officer of us" the lieutenant spoke up.
"Shut it Jeff, let the man talk" Mark barked towards the LT.
"I thought you said you didn't want to die here Ryan"
"Just listen, we'll get right on top of the dune, spreading out. We'll attract there fire, while you and garrus in the mako can follow the dune around flanking them from behind."
Jackson, without acknowledging anything, already went for the Makos hatch to open the thing. "You jerks coming, or are you all just going to stay here screwing off." He teased walking out the hatch. Specialist Killian was already following him out, Mark just nodded towards the LT, while it looked like the LT was in debate, he however followed the specialist with mark in tow. Raider glanced towards Ryan and Ashley before joining the team.
Before Ryan could get out of his seat, Ashley grabbed him. "Ryan, I'm not so sure if…."
"Trust me ash, we'll be fine. See you in a bit." Reassuring her as he gave her another look" Once more into the fray Ash" she finally let him go. Climbing out the mako Ryan turned towards garrus above him. "Hay garrus, don't mess"
"I never mess corporal…Don't die before we can flank them," He shot back.
Exiting the mako Ryan closed the hatch behind him. The mako had driven off before he could even turn around. The wheels threw sand all around casing him to lose his off balance. When the sand finally cleared, he could see the rest of the squad was already setting up on top of the dune. Ryan quickly ran up towards the guys, before he hit the top mark tripped him onto the ground
"Stay down Sheppard" he said quietly.
Ryan poked his head upwards. He could see all those geth garrus mentioned. He couldn't imagine why he would come up with such a dumb plan. "So any Ideas Mark?" Ryan asked knowing the sarge had way more combat experience than he. Then Again Ryan knew more about geth than anyone on this dune, except for Raider. The sarge gave a quick look. The LT was just shaking his head.
"Man this is stupid, no way we can hold against that" The LT cursed throwing his head down.
"We have to try; this is our only ticket home" Said the specialist.
"Just keep your heads cool, I've been through worse" Raider reassured, while he was setting up on their far right side.
While everyone was debating, mark gave a look towards Jackson and they just nodded their heads. They threw themselves up firing, with no way out now; the rest of the squad joined them. Firing for a few short seconds which was feeling like minutes. All the geth forces turned towards them. Ryan could see the armatures about to fire.
"Crap" Raider cursed throwing himself behind the dune.
"Shit…Everyone down, Now!" Ryan yelled out.
Hitting the sand below him, Ryan saw everyone had done the same. One of the armatures blast flew over them, while the other hit the dune throwing sand everywhere on impact.
"We aren't going to last long against that Sheppard" Jackson called out.
"We don't have a choice" Ryan replied throwing himself back up to fire.
The specialist tried to get up thinking he wanted to run, but the sarge just pulled him back.
"Oh no you don't" mark threatened "stand your ground Specialist" Mark joined Ryan opening fire towards the oncoming geth as well. The specialist now did the same. The geth infantry was advancing, but before they could gain fire on them, the armatures fired another blast towards their squad. Just like the last time they all hit the sand avoiding their fire.
"Hope your girlfriend doesn't take long Sheppard" Mark covered his head from the falling sand of the armatures blast that had impacted the dune.
Ryan gave out a slight laugh. "Don't worry, she'll be here"
"She better be" Raider muttered, but nobody else could probably even hear him.
Gunnery chief Ashley Williams
Back in the Mako, flanking the geth forces.
Ashley was determined to flank the geth as quickly as possible. She could hear and see the battle back behind them. She knew was running out of time, and that they were all counting on her.
"You want to take an easy chief, Go any faster and you'll flip the mako" Garrus mentioned from the turret seat behind her.
"Just keep your fingers ready on the trigger Garrus"
Making a quick turn on the end of the dune, she put the Mako in full gear. She could see the geth forces dead ahead. Ashley swung the Mako more to the left, so they could still catch them from behind. Luckily the geth still hadn't caught sight of them. They were close to Sheppard and his team, real close. There was no time to spare. Not slowing down for garrus to get any clean shots, she rammed the first armature making it fly towards the other, both collapsing on the ground. Ashley put the mako in full stop on impact. While both armatures were together, garrus fired the main gun with no hesitation. Because the ram of the mako brought the first armatures shields down, the cannon blew the damn thing up. The explosion of the armature set the other one in a blaze of fire.
"Nice shot Garrus"
"At least you're a better driver then the commander ever was" he joked, not taking the chiefs compliment.
Garrus now used the secondary weapon of the mako, cutting the rest of the geth to pieces. They were now between both the mako, and Sheppard's team with nowhere to escape. The Makos gun was overheating, before Ashley could radio Ryan she could see they were already charging the rest of the geth, finishing them off.
The mako was now staling; Ashley must have wrecked the thing while hitting the geth from behind. Without even thinking, she left the mako to join the others. Exiting the Makos hatch, she was met by a geth trooper immediately. Before she could do anything, the geth forced her against the makos hull. She tried to reach her weapon, but had no such luck. So she kept bashing the things head with her other free hand. The geths grip was now getting tighter. Ashley was running out of time, she was now starting to lose breath. Before everything faded the geth flew off her. Ashley looked to see Ryan, with the help of Raider shoved the thing off her. With no hesitation, Ashley raised her Assault rifle shooting the geth, as Ryan was no longer blocking the shot
"Took you long enough" Ashley huffed loosening her neck collar to catch her breath.
Sheppard came over to help her up. "You okay ash" He asked while Ashley was gaining her balance.
"Just fine Ryan"
"Why did you get out of the mako ash, we had the situation under control" Sheppard stood next to her. She could see he had a worrying voice after seeing what had just happened.
"The thing wouldn't move, I think it's busted"
"You sure ash, I mean are you a mechanic now or something"
"Funny Ryan…. Just give me a second"
Ashley looked under the mako, to see the thing was wrecked far beyond repair. "Damn, guess we have to continue on foot, from here on out"
"Terrific" Raider commented leaning on the mako.
Ashley didn't even notice Garrus had got outside the mako and was now standing behind them. "You know chief, the commander never ruined the Mako" He stated with what sounded like humor, but Ashley could never be sure with him.
"Shut it Garrus, we have enough problems to worry about then to know if you're joking or not" Sheppard groaned grabbing the rest of the gear out of the mako.
"I hope you have a plan corporal" Garrus asked looking down towards the compound. "That reaper is quiet big"
Ashley walked next to garrus, looking down towards Sovereign. She knew it would be damn near imposable to get there without that giant taking notice. For the first time since Eden prime, she was scared to death.
Back to Corporal Ryan Sheppard
Not far from the old Compound
They were about a mile from the compound now, all that lied between here and there was debris from alliance ships. Ryan Gazed his eyes down there seeing no geth forces anywhere ahead of them. He guessed with a reaper guarding the area, the geth probably didn't need to patrol an area this close to the old base. Ryan wanted to do nothing more than just run, but he knew that option wasn't on the table.
"Guys" Ryan started speaking up. "We've no choice but to move forward"
"What are you crazy Corporal, that's some real war of the worlds shit right down there" the specialist argued walking a little ways away from the group in despair.
"Don't pussy on us now" Raider called out towards the Specialist who was walking away.
Jackson came up next to Ryan. "Don't worry Sheppard, I'll talk some since into him" He whispered into his ear.
"I appreciate it Taylor" Ryan replied, as Jackson then ran towards the Specialist.
Everyone, but Jackson and Killian were now in a circle standing around Ryan. "Okay listen. If we don't stop saren right here and now. Time as we know it will be changed." he took a deep breath, as everyone was listening. "Who knows what he will change, humanity itself could be enslaved or destroyed. Other species history could also be changed and…there will be no one left to defeat sovereign and the Reapers"
"I'm with you Ryan, you know that" Ashley was the first to speak up.
"So am I Sheppard" Mark said. And Garrus just nodded towards him not speaking.
"What the hell, I got nothing better to do" Raider joked.
"Hell, if this gets me home…I don't care" the lieutenant said, Ryan could tell he really didn't care what happened, as long as he got back to their time. Ryan wouldn't convince him otherwise if that was his choice, yet he wished he would reconsider. Knowing there's dozens, if not more American soldiers trapped somewhere out here in the galaxy in this time.
Jackson and the specialist rejoined the group. "Where all with you Shepp" Jackson said, while the specialist didn't say anything. Ryan could tell whatever Jackson said to him had convinced the specialist to stay in the fight.
"So you have a plan Ryan?" Ashley asked.
"You're the one in charge Ash"
"True, But you seem to be doing a good job at the moment"
Thinking to himself there really wasn't many options. The alliance still couldn't break through the geth forces to hit sovereign. They were probably the most advance ground units right now since sovereign was shooting down incoming drop ships.
"Like I said we have to move forward, we can use the wrecked ships as cover between here and the compound"
"Well, I don't see much other choice" Ashley agreed with his thought.
"Alright then, let's go before I change my mind" mark pushed Jackson and Killian forward, as the lieutenant and Raider blindly followed them.
They all started running through the wreckage; everything seemed to go well so far. Ryan thought that they might just pull this off without a hitch. It all seemed too easy. Then before he knew it, it happened. The sky began to turn red all around the, and before he could think, this exact moment was as if Ryan had saw this all happen before.
"Everyone GET down!" Ryan shouted to the group. Everyone did as he yelled, finding any form of cover, sovereigns beam stroked all around them. Luckily they reacted just in time, nobody was hit.
"Corporal" Mark yelled towards his position, ducking in a hole he had found. "There's no way we can get past that"
The sarge was right, if there was more cover ahead they could jump between cover to cover. However, the rest of the way to the compound was now open sand, and they were just on the edge of the debris field.
"Ryan, I'm radioing Joker" Ashley yelled from behind him. They had both ducked behind the same wracked ship together. Actually before Ryan yelled he had grabbed her, throwing them both to cover before he could even tell everyone else to get down.
"What ash?" he replied turning towards her.
"The Normandy's stealth system makes it the only ship to get close enough to hit the thing"
Ryan nodded, agreeing to what she suggested. Ashley was right; the Normandy is the only ship that could get anywhere close to the damn thing. "Alright ash, do it" Ryan replied. She got on the Comm calling in joker, and he listened in on his own comm. Unit.
"Joker you there" Ashley screamed "Joker, come in'
"Jeez chief, do you order takeout out with that voice" Jokers humor never sized to amaze them. He had also picked the wrong and inappropriate times to be funny.
"Joker this isn't the time, we need you to hit the Reaper ship with the main gun"
"Unfortunately the Normandy was hit not long ago, main gun is offline"
"Crap, can you get the things attention?" Ashley asked, now being more disparate.
"Won't last long doing so, at least it won't survive long enough to buy you enough time chief" Joker replied, with a tone as if he had another idea. Ryan then joined In reaching for his Comm.
"Joker, what's on your mind?"he asked
"Hay there corporal, don't worry I'll take care of that reaper for you"
Ryan was a little confused with what he was suggesting. "Joker, What are you talking about?"
"I'm coming in hot. Going to hit that reaper dead on"
"Joker you're going to ram it, ARE YOU CRAZY"
"Don't worry, already having everyone getting in the escape pods. Hell I even have a security team with that crazed unconscious Shepard in one of them" Joker replied with a slight laugh in the end.
"Joker, this isn't a time to be funny. What are you thinking?" Ashley cut in, worried with what he was about to do.
"Doing my duty, don't worry I'll try to get into my pod before I hit the thing"
Ryan cut back in "Joker c'mon man, I know you don't want to lose the Normandy"
"I don't, but we don't have another choice. I didn't save you all back on virmire so you guys could just die down there" Joker now cut the comm Off.
"Joker…JOKER" Ashley and Ryan both continued to scream into the comm, but were met with nothing but static.
they both looked into the sky, looking high and above Ryan could see a dot in the sky quickly getting closer. They figured that must have been the Normandy. Other little specs were coming off of the ship, which were probably the escape pods. The ship drew closer and closer, Joker must have had the ship in full speed. Ashley and Ryan both drew their eyes on the Normandy, hoping to see the last escape pod come out.
Sovereign looked as if he was about to fire another shot towards their group. With what little cover they had they wouldn't survive such a blast. "Everyone down" Ryan yelled. Ashley was still standing up gazing into the sky; Ryan quickly pulled her down.
Ducking both their heads, Ryan could hear Sovereign about to fire. Ryan thought this was probably his last minutes on this earth. Next all they heard was an explosion.
"Um…Ryan" Ashley said as everything became quiet.
"Yeah ash"
"Can you let me go?"
He didn't even notice he was holding her; he then did as she asked "sorry" Ryan said
She just smiled in reply "don't be"
They both got up looking down towards a huge blaze of smoke and sand. While everything began to become clear they could all see the remains of sovereign collapsing.
"He did it" Ryan said to himself
"Yeah, he sure did Ryan. But…did he make it out in time"
Ryan was doing nothing but hoping Joker did, but sadly now was not the time. "I don't know ash, but we have to keep going"
Looking around Ryan could see the rest of the guys were making their way towards them.
"Crap shepp, I can't believe what just happened" Jackson stated in disbelief.
"C'mon lets go" Ryan said to everyone.
'Right behind you Sheppard" Mark replied.
They now made their way inside the compound, with sovereign destroyed and no geth forces nearby; the rest of the path was now cleared for us. The sight they were now standing in all seemed so familiar. Ryan thought that this was close to where their APC had dropped them off when they first got there. It's funny how to them it felt like a few weeks ago. When in reality it was way over a hundred years ago.
"So Ryan, where do you think Saren is" Ashley asked
"Well, he's probably where the device is"
"And where's that"
Jackson came between Them pointing. "In the remains of that building over there"
"Quickly, no telling if Sarens got the thing to work or not yet" Garrus said with a commanding voice, already running towards the building as the rest of us followed.
Running towards the building Ryan tripped on something on the ground. "Crap what was that" he cursed towards himself.
Mark picked the object Ryan tripped on. The thing looked like a ruined rock that was really old.
"It's mine" mark stated.
"What?" Ryan asked
"Sorry, it's a smoke grenade I threw, when I was running towards the building to find you guys"
"I'm surprised it's still here"
"Me too" Mark placed the old thing back on the ground.
"How do you know it's yours?" Ryan asked
The sergeant pointed to a marking on the old smoker grenade.
"Hay" Ashley yelled back towards them. "You coming"
Mark helped Ryan back on his fight, as they ran to catch up with everyone else. Coming up to the entrance of the building, everyone else was now waiting.
Raider looked around, as if he been there before. Ryan hit himself mentally remembering he was from the past too. Although he wondered how he got here In the first place.
"SO, who's going in first" the lieutenant asked.
Ryan went to the doorway taking a look inside; he could see the device still sitting where it always was. Something was wrong, the ceiling of the building was missing, so the rubble inside looked to be cleared out recently. Taking a deeper look Ryan could see a patrol of geth troopers walking by. He threw myself backwards not wanting to alert them, but it was too late. The geth already started firing on them.
"Looks like we've got a fight on our hands" Jackson joked, already rushing his way inside with the specialist in tow.
'I guess we're fighting this out' Ryan thought. He joined them while everyone else already did the same. Running inside he shot a burst of fire towards the first geth in his sights. Ryan slide into a half wall on his right, where Jackson was already hiding behind.
"Sheppard...Jeff and I are going to flank around to the right. Give us covering fire" Mark screamed from the other side of the building. They did as he asked, Jackson, Ashley, the Specialist and Ryan all opened fire, giving the sarge the suppressing fire they needed. And Raider, well he was doing his own thing like always, working his way on the left.
What Ryan thought was just a simple geth patrol, turned out to be twenty or so Geth troopers, which were converging on their position. It felt just like Virmire for some reason. That thought hit Ryan. 'Where's Saren' Ryan started thinking 'with all these geth still here, he must still be around'
"Ashley Cover me" Ryan shouted running towards the device.
"RYAN, WAIT!" she tried to stop him, but he simply wouldn't stop. So she did as he asked and continued firing.
Reaching the device just barely, Ryan could see the geth were all around him. However, they were all still converging back the rest of the squad's main position. Ryan was investigating the device. He could tell the device had not been touched in such a long time. Ryan remembered what happened last time, how he pressed something. Yet he didn't exactly remembered pressing the damn switch, as if for some reason he blocked the memory out of his mind, like it never happened In the first place. Without thinking Ryan once again pressed the switch, as if the device was made to take over your mind in order to activate the thing.
"Thank you …corporal Sheppard" a voice from behind him said. Ryan turned around to see Saren standing right over him.
He tried reach for his weapon, but Saren just threw him across the buildings room. Sliding away Ryan tried to now reach for his side arm, but Saren just like on virmire stomped his foot on top of his hand.
"Now…Should we finish what we started" Saren said with pleasure in his voice.
"Yeah, we should" Mark spoke up out of nowhere, punching Saren in his face.
Taking the situation to his advantage, Ryan now reached out his side arm. He quickly fired into a geth trooper that was blocking his path between him and the brawl. With his sights now cleared, he could see Mark lying on the ground badly beaten up. Saren was now walking towards the device. There was no way Ryan could stop him. He tried shooting his side arm, but the weapon was jammed for some reason. 'Crap now what am I going to do'
Looking around he saw Raider over the geth trooper that Ryan had shot dead; its husked body was holding a rocket launcher. Raider knew what Ryan was thinking. He quickly grabbed the thing, Tossing it towards Ryan. Catching the launcher Ryan started pointing the weapon towards the time device that Saren was walking towards. 'This was our only ticket home, and now I am about to destroy it'
There was no time to waste, so Ryan shot the rocket straight at the device. The explosion of the rocket engulfed Saren into a firing blaze. 'It's over' Ryan knelt on the ground knowing they were now all stuck here forever. The battle was over; the team had finished off all the geth forces.
"You son of a bitch" a voice from the right side of Ryan yelled, as he turned around Ryan could see the Butt of the lieutenants weapon hitting his face. On the ground seeing the sky above him, Ryan could see the alliance ships hovering above. The sight was now blocked with the barrel of the lieutenant's weapon.
"LT stop" Jackson said trying to pull him away, but the LT just turned around swiping his weapons onto him like he did to Ryan.
Raider held up his knife, but kept his distance, as he had lost his weapon during the firefight.
"We're stuck here because of what you just did Corporal…You have to pay" The LT was serious; he wants to kill Ryan right here and now.
"I'll put you down before you have a chance to pull that trigger" Ashley threatened standing beside Raider, weapon pointed directly at the LT.
"Oh yes the chief, don't worry. As soon as finish this insubordinate grunt you'll be next"
"Like hell" Ashley barked "Drop the weapon, NOW!"
The Lt now looked at raider. "Say goodbye to your…father again" The Lt smirked. And that revelation completely stunned Ryan as he looked over to Raider or Jeremy as he was known as.
Lieutenant Overstreets Finger started to squeeze. The trigger would be pulled any second; Ryan now closed his eyes seeing faces in his head. His parents, his brothers, his friends left behind, Jackson And now Ashley. He didn't even think of imagining Jeremy, thinking how the bastard couldn't reveal such a thing to him if it was even true. Ryan heard a shot, ready to leave this world he could tell it wasn't him who was shot. Ryan opened his eyes to see blood flushing from the LT's mouth. The bastard fell to the ground, and Ryan could see the sarge struggling to stand behind, he was the one that pulled the trigger. Staff sergeant Hamilton had just killed his friend.
"C'mon Ryan" Ashley grabbed Ryan's arm holding him up. "Let's get you to a medic and get that head check"
"What about the others?" Ryan asked seeing Jackson on the ground, and the specialist helping the sergeant up.
"The medical team will help them, now let's go"
Ryan now looked at Jeremy, who was facing head towards the ground. As Ashley had helped Ryan by he looked at Jeremy, who now looked at Ryan.
"Is it true?" Ryan hissed. He knew Jeremy was hiding something big, but this isn't exactly what he expected.
Jeremy simply nodded, as he slid what looked like a set of photos out of one of his pockets on his arm. Ryan quickly took the photos, completely stunned at what he was seeing. The first Photo was of Jeremy in his Army uniform standing next To Ryan's dad. The next was a photo that looked like it was taken in an alliance ship. It was of Jeremy, looking like to be four or so years old, with Ryan, although a few years older standing above him. What stunned not only Ryan, but Ashley as she looked at the picture with him. Ashley saw she was also standing next to Ryan behind the young Jeremy, also a couple of years older.
"How…how did you get back to my time, how is this even possible?" Ryan asked, seeing Ashley was in disbelief with everything.
Jeremy sighed. "Remember how I told you how when I came back here it was five years before you guys?" He asked, and Ryan nodded. "The first time it was you who came five years before eden prime. As you can imagine things turned out completely different, I'm not completely sure about the whole details, but…let's just say nothing went right. You found another way to get back to your past, realizing it was the only way to survive the war. However, bad people I guess is the only way to say it, I don't remember who, were attacking us. As we were about to go back with another device you found you…..you sacrificed yourself so mom and I could escape. I…..I don't remember much afterword's. Although I do know we were prisoners in a soviet facility when we came through." Jeremy stopped as Ryan took this all in.
"Wait…..there's more devices?" Ryan asked realizing what Jeremy just said.
"Yes, but I don't know where I'm sorry" Jeremy paused for a second before continuing. "That's when your dad and his taskforce found us, when they raided the soviet facility."
"…Ryan…we…we should get you checked out now." Ashley finally spoke up stuttering as she looked at Jeremy. "I don't know who you are, but there is just no way you could be my son" She hissed not taking the news well. Jeremy just nodded in understanding. This was just too hard for her to take in; hell it was nearly imposable for Ryan to take in. If his father found him did he know Jeremy was his son all along, and if he did why would he hide it. Then again it would probably be too hard for Ryan to believe in the first place.
Ryan didn't argue for now, as Ashley helped carry him out of the building, one arm over her shoulder, leaving Jeremy behind for now. Ryan still couldn't believe what just happened. The lieutenant was really going to kill him, but he didn't blame him; Ryan just destroyed their only way home. At least the only way they thought was home.
Exciting the building an alliance team of marines entered. They started securing the building they had just cleared out beforehand. Walking towards a medical drop ship the two were stopped by Captain Anderson.
"Chief, good work" he said towards the chief as Ashley tried to salute with her free hand. "And I take it you're Corporal Sheppard"
"Yes sir, that's me" Ryan offered his hand to shake the captains.
"I can see you're injured, but I have a little bit of bad and good news for you"
"Start with the good" Ryan said wanting some form of good news for the day.
"The council wishes to speak with you"
"Is that so" Ryan groaned with a smirk on his face.
"Yes, something about an apology"
"Well that's something" Ryan replied in disbelief
"Also the alliance brass wishes to have a word with you later"
"Understood, which one of that was the bad news"
"I'm afraid I still haven't told you the bad news"
"Well Captain, now is a good time"
"We recovered all the escape pods from the Normandy"
"And" Ryan spoke impatiently, disparate to know.
"The pod with the commander, well…the marine detail that was with him is dead"
"Dead, as in Shepard's body wasn't with them" Ryan interrupted
Ashley held her hand up "hold up Sir, where they dead from the impact?" she asked
"No they weren't, one of the marines neck was broken, while the other was shot between the eyes"
This was bad news. Ryan couldn't believe what he was hearing, did Shepard kill those Marines. "That's imposable he was in a comma after the surgery" Ryan replied in more disbelief.
"I'm afraid it's true, we'll let you know when we have the escape pods camera footage" Anderson said letting the two go, as he started walking back towards the building they just came from.
"Anderson wait" Ashley called stopping him.
Anderson turned back around towards them "What is it chief?" he asked
"Where's…did Joker make it out?" Ashley asked, as Ryan himself completely forget about Joker after the whole ordeal they just went through, and learning some crazy story about their so called son.
Anderson just pointed to the medical shuttle that they were originally heading towards. With that they continued to walk away again.
"What does that mean?" Ryan asked towards Ashley.
"C'mon let's keep moving" she replied liked she knew what Anderson meant.
They continued their way towards the shuttle, and the hatch opened to reveal Joker.
"Hay, what took you lovebirds so long" Joker said, Oh was Ryan so happy to have his humor back.
"Nice to see you too Joker" Ashley rolled her eyes
Ashley helped Ryan inside as they sat down and a medic looked at his head injury. A few minutes later the medic was finished and Ryan just continued to set, relaxing for what seemed like the first in years.
"Do you believe him…Jeremy?" Ryan asked towards Ashley, he was quiet for only her to hear.
Ashley shook her head. "I don't know, it's…..it's just a lot to take in at the moment. I have to think it over"
"I understand, so do I…for now we should just relax, will figure this out later"
"So Ryan, anywhere particular you want to go" Ashley asked as the shuttle began to take off.
"What do you mean Ash?"
"Well, I figure we get some leave for a while before we continue this mission of yours. The one were we find your men"
"Yeah…that would be nice"
"I'll get Anderson to make it happen, so where do you want to go"
Ryan thought for a moment, knowing there was nowhere for him to go. Thinking of his past life, of learning there was now questions to be asked he knew exactly what to do. "Ash, I like to visit my old home…see what it's like now and" he paused for a second at his next thoughts of what he was about to say. "Visit my family's graves"
"Sure thing Sheppard, but I'm coming with you" she replied, slowly placing her head on his shoulder.
Ryan just smiled. "Wouldn't have it another way ash'
"You two know I'm still setting right here, Right?" Joker asked from across the shuttle.
"Of course we do Joker" Ryan laughed.