Ashley Shepard, Forgotten Hero

Chapter 12

When I wake up my door is locked, I wonder why. I shot the camera, grab my dagger, guns and armor. I hack open the door and after walking for a little bit I'm back in the Illusive Man's glass room. I hear someone behind me and I quickly cloak, I use stasis on him and I use acrobatics to climb up to the ceiling.

He brakes put from stasis and looks around for me, I bring out my sniper rifle and aim at his arm. I hit the elbow and he clutches it, the clang of his dropped sword rings through the room.

I reload quickly and aim for his leg, another hit and directly behind the knee. He falls to the ground and is struggling to get up, I take out my dagger and twirl it in my fingers. Sending out biotic power.

I hold him in place with stasis and I am about to stab him, when I am knocked off my feet. I jump up and spin towards the attacker, it is a girl with dark black hair.

"Ashley Dawn, at ease." I relax and put my dagger away in the scabbard. I turn to the Illusive Man, I glare at him.

"Why? Why should I not kill him?"

"Because, this was a test to see how skilled you are."

"Ok, now what?"

"Training, so you can become the best." I nod my head and follow him.

I find myself in a white room, a voice speaks.

"Level one." I am now in a destroyed city, I quickly find a high place but with cover also. I notice mechs walking around the ground, I set up walls made from biotics and shoot all of them.

I see eclipse mercs coming around a corner and I throw a grenade, and bodies fly into the already crumbling buildings. After three hours of different attacks my body feels like it is about to collapse.

"Level ten compete, training has been accomplished." I sigh but I don't move, not until the signal telling me to go will I give up my position.

"Commander Dawn the systems are malfunctioning and we can't retrieve you, also all of the opponents got loose. Good luck, and don't die."

I sigh, I reload and the cycle starts again. After three more hours I'm in the white room again, I collapse onto the table from pure exhaustion.

"Well done, and go get some rest." I stumble back to my room and just fall asleep.

(Memory)

"We can't keep at it Ash, we are going to pass out!" Kaiden yells as we try to hold the base from the Turians.

"We have to Kaiden, we can't let this base fall!" I shoot one of the stronger ones in the head, killing him instantly.

"Ash, we can't hold this room. To many entry points, to few people." I sigh, he's right.

"Everyone to the main room! Now!" I yell into the room, fifteen people run down the long hall and I follow them. As I go I set mines and trip wires.

"No one can leave, ok." I open the front doors and I close the main door and I count how many people there are.

"We will not let them in at all costs, this data is to important to the survival of our race!" I yell to my comrades.

"No one can save you, you will die for nothing," Vakarian says through the speakers.

I start to shoot the speakers but he gets some odd sentence through before I blow the last one.

"Activation code: eight-five-two

Code: Blue-fifteen."

Everyone except Kaiden, Julia and I don't collapse. We look at each other, "If they attack us we have to kill them, I rigged the hallway."

"Crab puffs, I don't want to have to kill them."

"We have to, only if they attack though."

My former comrades rise up like zombies and slowly walk towards us, some pulling out there guns. Instead of shooting them though I hit them in the head, hard. But they get back up again and keep walking towards us.

"Everyone ceiling!" I yell, they know the drill. We use flash grenades and doing the flash of light we disappear into the ceiling, as we cross the rigged hallway I drop a electro bomb so no one sets this off.

"Julia, corrupt the data. We have to leave, we can't kill the innocent even if they are controlled. We'll have to find where the controls are and shut them down, but protecting our race comes first."

They nod solemnly and cover Julia as she works her magic on the data, taking all of it for herself but corrupting the original data.

"Let's move!"

We move as a force, tearing through the squads of turians, Quarians and Salarians. We make it to the Starlight and Jeff gets us off of that planet, in the nick of time too.

"Julia what is the data?"

"Just battle plans, and where our army is hidden."

"Where are the hidden?"

"On Thessia, where else. Earth is gone, well from our species. All of our colonies are destroyed, Thessia is the only place we have left."

I sigh as I think of Earth, I saw my city of Vancouver burn. My father murdered in front of me as we tried to escape, my friends be taken for only God knows why.

"Ashley, we have a message from Admiral Hacket."

"Patch it through," I tell them as I walk to the briefing room.

"Commander Shepard, why did you leave some of your squadron behind?"

"Somehow Vakarian took control of them, only Julia, Kaiden and I weren't affected."

He sighs, "Report back to Thessia immediately."

"Yes sir," I salut and he signs off.

When I get to my room I collapse on my bed. Can this war get any harder