The Rules

Notes and Notices

Hi: Sorry for the lack of updates. I was distracted by something shiny—specifically, a spiky-haired, blond man in splint-maille armor who enjoys eating cheese and, apparently, his feet. My 2 Dragon Age: Origins endings sucked, so now I'm back. LOL

Atmospheric Popcorn Inspiration: Ash's comments are heavily inspired by Alpha Cucumber's review… ;) (Speaking of: Her AU KotOR story, For the Right Reason, is awesome and highly recommended. I'm not the only one who believes this, but I thought I would give a shout out since I used her quote.)

Readers and Reviewers: You guys make my day! Thank you for reading/reviewing/adding this story to your alerts/etc.

Implied liberties with biotics.

Everyone's gonna hate me after this chapter…

When Williams' shriek cut across the comm., Kaidan's heart jumped to his throat, and it took him a moment before he thought to access Williams' suit to monitor her.

"Ash?" he asked just as Joker questioned, "What the hell happened?"

"The tether." Williams' voice was eerily calm. "It's not—I'm not on the beacon."

…The hell? "Where are you?" Kaidan wanted to know. The readout was wrong. Had to be. She was several meters off the mark—and moving away—and her pulse and blood pressure had spiked. Wrong.

"Uh, falling."

Holy Hell.

Joker sat up in his chair, his hands flying across the controls as he too called up her suit. "Falling?" Disbelief laced his tone.

"My tether snapped," she told them quietly. Then she wailed. "I'm gonna be atmospheric popcorn!"

Kaidan blinked disbelievingly. Joker stared at the panel before glancing back at the Lieutenant. Hendricks looked as bewildered as both men felt.

"Delta Sierra," Kaidan muttered. This was not happening, he thought. This was a dream, and he would wake up. Now. He stood from his post, his hand near his ear as he tapped into the ship's comm. "Hardy, how controlled are your biotics?" He rushed down the gangway. "Can you do a biotic pull or lift?"

The corporal's response was less than satisfactory. "Negative, Lieutenant. I can only push her further into the atmosphere, sir. I can freeze her, but that won't pull her out again. My suit doesn't have enough juice to get to her."

"My suit does," Guo's voice spoke up, "I could-"

"Belay that," Hardy cut him off, "you won't have enough fuel to get both of you back. She's falling faster than she looks. Check your HUD."

"Lieutenant, can you get her, sir?" Fredericks' voice sounded distant. "You're an L2, right? You can get her, right? Right, sir?"

"I'm gearing up now." Kaidan tossed a questioning glance at Pressly. The XO looked dumbfounded and only nodded. Kaidan crossed the CIC quickly. "Chief?" He tapped into Ash's personal comm. from his personal comm. She was praying. Out of reflex—and his mother dragging him to Mass every chance she got—he murmured amen when Ash did.

"Yeah?"

"I'm coming."

She was quiet a beat. "Marines stick together."

"To the end, Ash."

Rushing down the ladderwell, taking two stairs at a time, Kaidan swore under his breath. How the hell was he supposed to pull Ash out of the atmosphere? He hadn't practiced a pull mnemonic in years. Fifteen years actually. Heh. Maybe Vyrnuus had been right about the slacker thing.

Focus, Alenko.

Did he even remember? As the elevator took him to the engineering deck he wondered: Did he even want to remember?

Fifteen years.

Lift. Rahna's voice came unbidden to the forefront of his thoughts. Focus. Just like… like he showed us. Left arm down. Right hand out. Now cross over… and pull.

It was a long time. Time enough to forget. Time enough to move on. Time enough to learn from his mistakes and make some rules.

There were five basic rules Kaidan lived by.

Rule 1: Follow orders. Questions get people injured or worse.

Rule 2: Look before you leap. Not looking could get you or someone else killed.

Rule 3: Look before you let others leap. They might get you injured, maimed or killed.

Rule 4: Make sure there's a plan A, B, C, and a way out. Good planning keeps everyone safe.

Rule 5: Never eat turnips. If ordered, implement Rule 4 by disregarding Rule 1.

He sighed and a wry grin formed on his lips even as the lift door opened, and he bolted across the cargo bay to his locker. Ash needed a lesson or two about rules.

There were four basic rules Shepard lived by.

First Rule: Follow the rules. Rules are there for a reason.

Second Rule: Don't give anyone a reason to break the rules. Give others orders they can follow.

Third Rule: Don't meddle in politics. Politicians are career killers.

Fourth Rule: When in doubt, improvise or blow it up. Apply the latter if it looks hungry or has a grenade launcher.

And here she was: in the Traverse, in a prefab full of mercs, breaking Third Rule, which meant she was breaking First Rule. Which meant she needed to revise her rules. She really needed to set her priorities. 'Don't meddle in politics' should be First Rule.

Focus, Calleigh.

Hostage.

She popped a new heat sink into her shotgun and motioned for Wrex to get into position. Garrus had already taken cover on top of a stack of crates, his long, lean form stretched out, his eye to the scope of his sniper rifle. At her signal, a single inferno round would hit the fuel tank on the second story of the prefab.

Wrex crouched low and eased forward as quietly as his bulky frame would allow. He nodded to her when he was in position.

Shepard's eyes gazed briefly at the quarian beside her. Both nodded at the same time.

Ready.

"Squawk Four," Shepard whispered.

All Hell broke loose at the crack of Garrus' rifle.

She glared angrily at the end of the tether that was trailing behind her. She secured it! How the hell-? Ash took a breath and released it.

Since Eden Prime, the Gunnery Chief's rules were mutable things that had constantly changed as the situation dictated. Currently, there were three.

Rule Number 1: Keep the Faith. God is out there.

Rule Number 2: Follow the rules. Promotions only come to those who follow them.

Rule Number 3: Die valiantly. It's the only way to clear Granddad.

Up until she had confronted Shepard on Wrex and Vakarian, there had been a fourth: Systems Alliance is Mother and Father. Protect it at all costs. No aliens allowed. But Shepard was right. Saren and the geth going after a weapon—or whatever—that had the potential to wipe out all organic life? Priority.

Ash took another breath, watching as the flat hunk of metal that was the strange beacon got smaller. It was only a matter of time before… before…

This wasn't how she pictured dying. Stuck in the gravity well of planet. Falling to her death. Being completely helpless. She'd burned most of her fuel in the rocket pack strapped to her back before she realized that the gravity was too great to establish an escape velocity with a itty-bitty jet pack. She was but a speck of sand in the atmosphere of this monster.

Porolan had a dense atmosphere. Even if she made it through the initial burning—which she doubted even with the ablative coating on her armor—there was a high risk of getting caught in the high winds and her body getting ripped apart. Idly, she wondered if it were physically possible. She was just scared enough to believe it.

"Ash?" Alenko's voice questioned at the same time as Joker's thickly worded: "What the hell happened?"

"The tether. It's not—" Ash felt like crying. How could she have been so stupid? "I'm not on the beacon."

"Where are you?" Kaidan's voice was hard. That was his here-let-me-kill-that-for-you-I-am-a-big-bad-biotic tone of voice. It was the tone of voice he used when he knew that Something Is Wrong and We Must Kill It. He used that tone out in the field and had for nearly two weeks after Eden Prime; up until Shepard was transferred as the CO of the Normandy. She knew that he had taken Jenkins death harder than he let on. Captain Anderson had even told her so when he had personally debriefed her—with strict orders not to let on that she knew.

She swallowed and twisted around to look at the planet below. "Uh." She felt sick as she watched the swirling clouds. At this range, the air currents swirled the dark atmosphere around, and they looked faster than anything she had ever seen. "Falling." Towards oblivion. Towards death.

"Falling?" Joker demanded, his voice incredulous and a little higher than normal. It was just enough to send her into a panic. I'm gonna die.

"My tether snapped." Tears prickled her eyes, and she maneuvered herself where she could see the Normandy and the others safely tethered to the beacon again. Her voice cracked. "I'm gonna be atmospheric popcorn!"

"Sonovabitch," Pressly's voice quietly murmured in her ear. Not helping.

Her comm. lit up as the others discussed how to get her out of the gravity well. Meanwhile, Ash did the only thing she could think of: She prayed.

"God," she whispered, "I haven't prayed in a while. Not since Eden Prime anyway." She collected her thoughts, thinking of the husk of Bhatia. Given the choice, what was the better way to die? Burning up and/or getting ripped apart in the atmosphere of a large gas giant, or skewered on a metal spike and drained of everything she ever was and turned into an unthinking killing machine? "If this is how I'm supposed to go… " She stopped, rolled her eyes at herself. Could she get any more pathetic? Her thoughts went to her mother, her sisters. "Take care of them. Especially Mom and Sar. Joker needs a little help too. Not too much though. He's an ass."

"Chief?" Alenko's voice cut across the comm, startling her, but she didn't stop. This was her only chance to pray before she died. She wasn't going to squander it.

"God, give me the strength to see this to the end, and not fear death." She sighed. "Thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve with a great crew. Watch over them. Help them stop Saren and his geth troops. Give Shepard the strength to see this mission to the end. Amen." She grinned a little when Alenko echoed her. As respectful as he was about others beliefs and cultures, she'd bet her new sniper rifle it was out of reflex. He didn't seem the type to pray. "Yeah?" she answered him.

"I'm coming," he told her, his tone resolute. I-am-a-big-bad-biotic. Retriever of marines who can't get to escape velocity. Fetcher of coffee. Ass-kicker of Thresher Maws.

I know, she wanted to say. "Marines stick together," she said instead.

"To the end, Ash," he swore.

He-Man without the fuzzy underwear, page-boy haircut, and big damn sword.

Yep. She was going to kiss him if he got her out of this one. She should have kissed James when she had the chance. Maybe she would the next time she saw him.

And Ash made new rules for her life.

Rule Number 1: Keep the Faith. God's all around.

Rule Number 2: Fuck the rules. You only live once.

Rule Number 3: Look before leaping. You wouldn't have gotten yourself in this mess if you had, dumb ass.

If she got out of this, she was going to do her damnedest to live as long as she could. She'd survived against the odds on Eden Prime. She could have faith in Alenko to get her out of this.

Shepard glared at the dead asari at her feet and shot the body again. Fucking politics.

"Shepard to Normandy," she called over the comm. The damn diplomat lied. Lied. This changed all the rules. "Joker. Lock onto my signal, and get us out of here."

No more politics. None.

"Aye, aye, ma'am. ETA twelve minutes. We've got a present for you."

Shepard perked up. "You found Dr. T'soni?"

"Uh," Joker hesitated, and Shepard frowned. "No, ma'am. But it's asari-made." As an afterthought he added, "Asari are hot."

Shepard snorted. "Just get your ass over here."

"Yes, ma'am."

Look more notes: I hope that Ash was in character this chapter. I don't see her as a fanatical, devout character. It makes sense to me that she waited until "Hi, I'm Death. Let's have dinner and make babies together" to pray.

For Reviewer Maria: Thank you! Glad you like this thing. There are others that are much, much better. PM me, I'll send you a list. Poor Kaidan. I've picked on him the entire story. As Eilam Wordsmith once pointed out to me, this story is like a wet t-shirt contest gone bad. As for Joker: Hopefully, by "new light" you mean: He's teh Awesome Dick Weasel that lights matches between everyone's toes then sits back and watches with wicked glee. LOL He's been a lot of fun to write! (And I would have sent you a personal TY note, but, alas, posted anonymously…) Thanks again!

Delta Sierra: Refers to a stupid mistake; originally DS (as in Dumb Shit)