When the Virmire mission is about to be wrapped up in Mass Effect Legendary Edition, you’ll have to make a critical decision between returning to protect the nuke or going after the other party member who went with the Salarian team. While these are the background choices, the bigger focus is that you have to choose to save Kaidan or Ashley. Because you’re the commander, you have to make a clear decision about this moment, and unfortunately, there’s no way you can pick to save them both.
You have to choose one or the other. If you choose to go with Ashley, regardless of her location, you will lose Kaidan. If you pick to go with Kaidan, Ashley will perish. The Salarian Team, and Captain Kirrahe, can be saved and found in the hanger of the Normandy, regardless of your choice, so long as you completed the many side missions that you can optionally complete when assaulting Saren’s base. These options include disrupting communications, the satellite uplink, destroying the Geth flyers, and having the alarm bring Geth towards your location and not the Salarian team. While this is a way to protect the Salarians and Captain Kirrahe, you cannot prevent the death of Ashley or Kaidan. You must choose.
This is important to keep in mind before choosing to launch the assault on Saren’s base. Unfortunately, as we noted previously, there is no way to save both characters. You have to make a decision. Whoever you save will be seen throughout the rest of the Mass Effect trilogy.
