Mass Effect Trilogy: 9 Crazy Facts You Never Knew
5. You Could Originally Save Kaiden AND Ashley
Virmire - a name that haunts many a Mass Effect veteran, as it's on this world that the full scope of Mass Effect's decision-making becomes apparent.
As the player's time on Virmire comes to a close, they are forced to make a choice between the lives of two of their party members - Kaidan Alenko and Ashley Williams. Whoever the player leaves behind dies in a heroic last stand, and while the survivor becomes a recurring character in the sequels the deceased character is lost forever.
It's a heavy moment, and one that shows Bioware's intent on making the player's choices matter. However, an unused audio file indicates that at one point they considered allowing player's to Captain Kirk their way out of this particular Kobayashi Maru.
(Or "emerge victorious in this unwinnable situation", if you're not a sci-fi geek).
The audio file (freely available on youtube) has Kaidan and Ashley discussing the "crazy stunt" Commander Shephard pulled to get them both out of Virmire alive. It's never explained what the stunt is, as presumably Bioware hadn't thought of it by the time of recording.
It's for the best this never came to pass. Without the sacrifice of Kaidan or Ashley, Virmire would have been just another mission.