Ashbio

 

Ashley Williams

 

Role:

Ashley Williams acts as an Alliance representative, consultant, and second “leash” (after Vega) for Shepard. She is a wealth of detail on Alliance intelligence. She also has clearance to Lunar Base's security, which allows Shepard to unlock the mission “Close to Home”, in which Shepard and Ashley infiltrate a heavily damaged base on the moon to repair some of Earth's planetary communication capabilities.

 

Recruitment:

Williams' recruitment takes place in two different parts of the game, depending on Shepard's allegiance.

 

If Shepard is aligned with the Alliance, Ashley is recruited at the end of ME3's  tutorial mission, when she comes out of the SR2 docking bay to give Shepard and Vega covering fire as they board the Normandy. She is later briefed by the Council to monitor and assist Shepard's progress, as he tries to unite the races.

If Shepard is aligned with Cerberus, Ashley is recruited on Shepard's second return trip to the Citadel – after completion of the mission Klencory, visit to the Shadow Base, and first war summit. Ashley (along with a handful of Alliance crew members including James Vega, Samantha Traynor, Steven Cortez, etc Councilor Anderson/Udina was requested, by Alliance Parliament, to assign a team of their best and brightest to monitor and assist Shepard during his missions to find Prothean artifacts and help solidify diplomatic solutions to some of the galaxy's inter-species conflicts.

The Council believes that Shepard's previous relationship with Cerberus should be watched continuously, and that, if the Alliance wants support for Earth, they should be willing to intervene if Shepard acts in a way that supports the terrorist organization. With the destruction of the Bahak system still fresh in everyones' mind the Alliance and Council hope to avoid further hostilities – and Shepard's agreement to investigate the possibility of a cure for the genophage (at the end of the first war summit) only deepens their concern.

 

Characteristics:

After being absent in ME2, Ashley's return to the Normandy comes with determination and conflict on her part. She is embarrassed and quickly becomes defensive when confronted (either by Shepard, Shepard's ME2 LI, or Joker) on her unwillingness to have joined Shepard on Horizon after the Collectors attacked. Apparently Ashley would've gladly been part of the Suicide Mission, had she not been convinced that Cerberus was evil. Yet despite her defensive stance on not joining Shepard earlier, Ashley is also determined to protect Alliance interests, and get the SR2 crew to cooperate with her, just like old times.

If Shepard is aligned with Cerberus, then a portion of the SR2's crew will be ex Cerberus employees who worked with him since the Collector threat (provided they survived the Collector Base). Ashley will not trust any of them, though throughout the story, her personal investigation into all of the crews' backgrounds will turn up mostly information on ex Alliance employees with good service records.

Notable character interactions:

Ashley does not get along with Miranda Lawson, for the two women see each other as opposites. Ashley doesn't trust Miranda at all, and is confrontational with Miranda about Cerberus's past. This issue is only made worse if Miranda is romancing Shepard, and Ashley is extremely angry with Shepard if he romanced her [Ash] in ME1, and romanced Miranda in ME2. Shepard has the option of choosing to continue a relationship between Ashley or Miranda should this have happened.

Ashley's relationship with Jack is dependent on whether Shepard slept/romanced with Jack in ME2. If Shepard slept with Jack (non-romantically), during an interaction with between the two women, Jack will accidently mention that she slept with Shepard. Ashley will be unimpressed with Shepard's actions (but can still romance him). She will not have any respect for Jack however, who could care less what Ashley thinks.

If Jack romanced Shepard in ME2 and is continuing her romance with Shepard, Ash will be happy for them, though she will be jealous as well if she was romanced in ME1.

If neither Jack (paragon) nor Ashley romanced Shepard, they will become good friends. Their hard-ass attitudes, distain for Cerberus, dislike for Miranda, and love for combat will allow them to relate. They develop a sisterly relationship.

If Jack (renegade) nor Ashley romanced Shepard, they will not get along. Ashley will see Jack as a dangerous criminal that can't be trusted. Jack will refer to Ashley as an “Alliance cheerleader”, and hold her with only slightly better regard than she does Ashley.

 

[Note: While romanced Ashley is hostile to all female characters who romanced Shepard in ME2, Miranda and Jack are the only ones she does not reconcile with. She has a strong professional relationship with Liara, and a solid friendship with Tali.]

Ashley hates Legion. She still remembers the death of her squad at the hands of the geth on Eden Prime, and is not convinced that any geth can be trusted. Ashley believes that the geth should be destroyed, and Rannoch should be returned to the quarian fleet.

Ashley will get along well with Kasumi until she learns about Kasumi's greybox, and the potential information it hold that could damage the Alliance's reputation. Once the greybox information is brought between the Hegemony and Alliance Parliament, Ashley will realize that the military that she serves isn't as pure as she once thought, and will make up with Kasumi.

Ashley initially distrusts Jacob as much as she distrusts Miranda. However, after reviewing Jacob's records as an Alliance Corsair, and records of saving of the Citadel Council from batarian terrorists, she is angry at him for leaving (“betraying” is the actual word she confronts him with) the Alliance. Ashley believes that the Alliance needed and still needs good military soldiers like Jacob. Shepard has the option of encouraging Ashley to pursue a romantic relationship with Jacob, but only if not aligned with Cerberus.

Ashley's best friend is James Vega. The two worked together on past missions, and her public recognition of James's skills are what got Alliance Parliament to assign him to being Shepard's guard.

If Shepard is a male (not romantically interested in James), James will confess that he has an attraction to Ash, and will ask Shepard for advice. Shepard has the option of convincing James to seek a relationship with Ashley.

 

Missions:

Ashley is available for all missions after her recruitment, and is a permanent squad member.

 One mission that Ash has is called “Close to Home”. After the geth-quarian situation is resolved,  Alliance Parliament asks Ashley to try and convince Shepard to go to the Sol system in an attempt to repair Alliance communications on the Moon's (Luna's) Lunar Base. Ashley has security clearance to Lunar Base in the form of a “hard-key” (keycard).

After a rogue A.I damaged Lunar Base (in ME1), security overrides were made in the form of older key-card technology in the event of another A.I malfunction.

Since the Reaper assault on the galaxy, refugees of Luna's initial invasion were able to confirm that part of the base is still intact – though it is likely a trap for many of the moon's remaining population. Luckily, the Normandy's stealth drive proves for a relatively safe way to the base – which is on the dark side of the moon, now rotated away from Earth and the Sun.

If Shepard agrees to do this mission, the Normandy flies to Sol. There are only a few Reapers on Luna, as most of their fighting is on Earth. As the ship approaches the moon, Shepard and the SR2 crew look out the windows to catch a glimpse of Earth. The planet is still blue, but large parts the continents are orange will massive fires, and massive brown dust storms make up most of Earth's cloud cover.

Shepard, and company land near Lunar Base in the shuttle, and approach. The Base is located in a huge natural crater that has been domed over with diamond hard class, several meters thick.

The mission is fairly straight foreward. The base appears to be empty, except for human corpses lying in the vacuum-exposed parts of the base. The electricity is out, and Shepard must use his flashlight to move throughout the base. Ashley uses her security key card to take the company through several locked rooms. EDI detects a single other form of movement aboard the base, and Shepard and company can either investigate the movement (which will escape from them), or proceed with the mission. Just as they make their way to Lunar Base's transmission center, they are assaulted by the derelict base's lone inhabitant, a specialized human husk with the body of a spider, and head comprised of dozens of human heads. After defeating the husk, Shepard and Ashley reestablish communications to Earth's military – granting the planet more coordination against the Reaper attack. On top of that, a Shepard can activate a distress message from Lunar Base to all remaining settlements on the moon, telling them to evacuate to the Citadel.

After the signal is sent out Shepard and company step out onto the moon's barren surface, and look up at Earth, now the heart of Reaper conflict. Then they turn to the shuttle, board the Normandy, and leave Sol's system.

Ashley is available for a side quest mission on the Citadel, in which Shepard helps her family relocate to refugee apartments. The goal of the mission is to impress Ash's mother and sisters.

 

Potential death:

 

If Ashley's loyalty was not secured in ME1, after the assault on Cronos Station, and death of Kai Leng, she will order Shepard to hand the base over to the Alliance at gun point.

Shepard can follow Ashley's order (neutral response).

Shepard can try to convince Ash to stand down, and decide the fate of Cerberus once she's done so (investigate response). She will not stand down.

If Shepard ignores Ashley and chooses to destroy all Cerberus's data, Ash will be angry, but will not retaliate (paragon response).

If Shepard chooses to ignore Ashley and decides to melt Cerberus data into the Shadow Broker network, Ashley will be angry (paragon-blue response).

If Shepard chooses to either hand over the base to Miranda, or personally lead Cerberus (only available if aligned with them), Ashley will become hostile, and will try to shoot Shepard (renegade red option). Miranda (loyal, not loyal, and LI) will jump in the way of the shot – which will ricochet off of her biotic barrier -- and throw Ashley across the room with a biotic attack. Ash recovers and tries to draw her sidearm, but Miranda will punch Ashley with a biotic gauntlet and kill her. If Shepard is romancing Jack, and brought her along with him to Cronos Station, the same events take place, with Jack replacing Shepard as a shield and killing Ash.

Notably –

 If Ashley was loyal in ME1, and Shepard decides to reform, destroy, transfer (information), or give away (to Miranda) Cerberus, Ashley will be displeased, but will trust in Shepard's judgement.

 

Ironing out variables:

 

If Ashley died in ME1, she does not appear in ME3. She can be mourned. Shepard can meet with her family on the Citadel, and join them in a small  ceremony for the deceased Ash.