Scavengers

Clean up was slow in the weeks after the battle for Earth had concluded. The rubble that remained of the citadel was still being picked over by many. Not all of them were the good guys. Commander Shepard's people had already come through and collected the body, leaving everything else as it was. They wanted no part of it. Not even to make it a memorial. 
At that moment a group of Salarians were poking through the rubble, scowling deeply. "No." One them said to the other. "This is not the area. It wouldn't have been here." 
"Quiet, fool." The other hissed. He was looking in the other direction, frowning deeply. "The Quarians are here. We don't want to tip them off. We can't afford to lose this to them. It's too much. Do you hear me?!"

The Salarians needn't have worried, they had been watched the entire time. The Quarian team were simply one of many alien parties picking at the carcass that had once been the densely populated garden worked imaginatively named 'Earth' by its inhabitants. They were searching for useful tech that may have been left behind, but at the same time they had a scout out there keeping watch on what the other aliens were searching for. This scout was a chatter box and a hot head, rather irritating to the older members of the squad. She was watching the salarians from a distance, flexing her fingers when she saw they were looking for something very specific. It was a subconscious tick she had that happened when ever she got excited about something.

The Salarian being yelled at had had nervous tick of his own but it was one that more of cowering and shivering. He was having trouble digging through the wreckage for the amount of quaking that was going on in his fingers. "Would you stop that?!" That larger of the two hissed. "You're making us look suspicious! They're going to see what a lizard you are and they're going to come over here! Stop that!" He wasn't helping matters at all. He was yelling in fact. But the other alien was not about to tell him that. 
"There..." The smaller of the two shook his head at something as he lifted scrap metal up and then dropped it again. "By my sister's clutch the smell is awful!"

The young Quarian watching them was using a scope now, wanting a closer look. She smirked slightly as she watched the bigger once abuse his partner. "No different than a human..." She mused. "Always abusing those smaller..." She added, on her belly now in some shrubbery as she moved a little closer. The young woman didn't mind being out here alone as the scout, anything to get away from the stuffy admiral who seemed to enjoy telling her she was so worthless she couldn't even complete her pilgrimage. She failed to see how cutting her pilgrimage short due to galactic genocide was her fault.

"I am not going in there." The smaller of the two was not shaking his head furiously, holding long fingers over his flat nose. "I can't. I won't. The smell is terrible. There are many dead humans in there. It would not be there. Not there. Let's go look somewhere else. I am begging you." He was already backing away, stumbling over the overturned remains of a command center desk. "Please, Padik. We are not safe there." 
"Nonsense." Padik said, shaking his head. "Put on your mask, Jardok, and get going!" The taller of the Salarians roared.

The Quarian practically squealed with delight when she heard what they were saying. She had to get down there, there was no doubt about it. Curiosity was indeed the biggest downfall of her people.
"Ceres'Lenka nar Celestia!" A gruff voice barked into the young woman's ear. "Clearly it was someone she wasn't close to for them to full name her like that, it was usually her mother saying her name like that when she had done something wrong. The young woman didn't answer, instead she was sneaking after the other aliens.

Jarok whined as the two of them pulled the heavy debris, revealing a gaping hole that led down into a deeper portion of the rubble. "What if it collapses?!" He cried. He didn't have a chance to say more. The smell of hundreds of decaying bodies hit them both in the same moment like a wave and the two creatures stumbled, shaking their heads. The smaller Salarian gagged several times before he was able to get it under control. "You see! We can't go down there! It won't be there and if it is..." 
"Shut up!" Padik screamed. He closed his mouth quickly, looking around him to see if he had alerted anyone to them. "Just...shut up..." He added more softly as he shoved his partner down in the hole.

Ceres was peering into the hole the two salarians had disappeared down now. For obvious reasons the smell didn't bother her, not that it would have stopped her anyway. The young woman had always been fascinated by the humans, wondering how such a war mongering race could also be rather scientifically minded. She heard the voice shouting her name in her ear one last time before dropping into the darkness.

Jarok was all but sobbing as they delved deeper into the putrid remains of the citadel's once thriving Zakera ward. There were bodies piled everywhere. Many of them were reduced to little more than sludge and bones. "It is not here, Padik." He said again, gagging loudly when the taller Salarian bent and began to inspect the remains of a woman's hair. 
"No." The taller one said with a hiss. "It's the wrong color. You....shut up...you are making my head hurt...Look through the food bins...the tech....leave this to me since you can't handle it." 
"What if someone sees us?" Jarok whimpered. "They will take it...." 
"No one will dare come down here. We are safe." Padik promised, unaware that they were being watched.

Ceres felt like one of the heroes in the human stories she loved to read as she stalked the two aliens. Beneath her faceplate her silver eyes were wide and her lips were pulled into a grin. It was like a belie other world down here. The thought never occurred to her that she could be in danger, if not from the salarians, from a cave in. Like the other two, Ceres worked under the assumption there was no living thing down here, save for them.

"You have lost your mind, brother." Jarok hissed, shaking his head as he dug through a row of food dispensers. "We are looking through thousands of humans looking for one. And the tech...we will never find one chit down here...You are dreaming. It might not even..." 
"Shhh!" Padik held up a hand. His head turned to the side and he went stock still. The other Salarian did the same. It was there. A quiet sound of something skittering across the metal frame in the darkness near them. Jarok's breathing began to get louder and he began to whine. "We are going to die!" He cried.

Ceres pressed her back to the wall she had been peering around, her hand instinctively going to the pistol against her thigh. Curiosity was seeping away as fear danced at the edges of her thoughts. What was she doing? She was no soldier, sure, she could shoot, but if there was something else down here... Was she really prepared? Slowly she edged around the wall, looking for a place to hide in case this was not merely some animal scrounging for food. Deep down, however, something whispered to her that she was not that lucky. Despite her love of human stories, Ceres actually knew little of the native wildlife.

"It's just a Keeper, you fool!" Padik said after a moment. The noise hadn't returned and he went back to digging through the remains, oblivious to just how disgusting humans would have found this. He was beginning to pull out vials from his suit and collecting samples. "We'll find her and we'll find the chit. It doesn't matter how long we have to stay down here." 
Jadok shook his head. He didn't believe the Keepers were even alive anymore. He knew they too had died with the woman called Shepard. It was this belief that sent him running when the noise happened again, especially since it was louder and followed by a soft moan. He was out of the rubble, running past the Quarian without even seeing her before Padik could even open his mouth.

Ceres was picking her way through the rubble when Jadok ran past her. It was piquing her curiosity again to hear these men were looking for something very particular, and that that some 'thing' was in fact a some 'one'. It was at that moment that sort of the floor gave way and Ceres dropped through.

The last thing Ceres would hear before she passed into the darkness even further down was soft female laughter as the taller of the Salarians picked up his things and ran after his partner...

When the Quarian awoke she would find herself lying outside of the entire mess. The morning sun was beginning to rise and she was covered awkwardly with a ripped and rather dirty towel. Not far away a group of turian prisoners were being directed in clean up duty by a trio of human alliance soldiers. None of them seemed to notice her yet.

Ceres groaned softly as she came to, it was as she tried to sit up that she realised there was a breach in her suit; she had the start of a fever. The small woman was easily able to fin d the tear, and made a mental note not to mention this to any of the squad... If she found the, again.

Jared Raith held his blaster against the back of an enormous Turian. The size of the creature alone gave him something to worry about. Never mind the fact that he looked like he could take out Purgatory all by himself. His tribal tattoos and the rings on his fringe left the soldiers debating about their meaning but no one dared to ask him. "Get moving." Jared barked. It was easier to keep the smaller ones in line. Golias was unpredictable. He'd seen the Turian smash the head of another soldier with just one fist. "Start lifting the heavy stuff, Golias. And don't give me shit today, please." All of this was going on without a single one of them realizing they were being watched by a Quarian.

"Well, as you asked so nicely..." Golias sneered, glancing back to shoot the human a hate filled glare. He had been here since the war had started, and spent every moment pouring his enery into his hatred of the humans. They were inferior, in every way, so now did these insignificant insects manage to corner him like a Varren?
Ceres hadn't even dared breathe as she watched them. That Turian was larger than any she had ever seen, even the human seemed massive to her.

"I did say please, didn't I?" Jared asked, trying to keep his tone firm. "Brownie points for me."
One of the other Turians looked up from where he was gathering metal scraps. "You keep it up and Golias will have you saying please for other reasons, boy." His words made some of there prisoners chuckle. 
"Quiet!" One of the soldiers barked. "We're not here to chit chat and big bug over there doesn't scare us. No matter what you say."
Jared gave Golias' back a shove, though it wasn't as hard as another guard would have done. "Work, prisoner. You can let your fellow inmates stroke your ego back at camp later tonight. Lift the heavy stuff."

Golias was oddly compliant. He did as he was told, though didn't utter a word. Despite this, one look in those fierce blue and black eyes and anyone would see the gears turning, plotting ways he would destroy not just this human, but every human he came across. Hell, whys too there? He should take down any of the council races.
Ceres was watching the human now, thinking he carried himself with such pride, like he came from better than being a prison guard.

Jared was next to Golias when he hefted a large piece of debris away from the hole the Salarians had discovered the night before. "Whoa!" He exclaimed, quick to throw his free arm up over his nose as the stench hit him. Behind him several of the turians began doing the same thing. It took him a moment to regain composure to where he was able to direct the biggest of the turians to kneel down and see what was down inside the hole. 
Golias would catch a glimpse of something not dead at all. Silver eyes filled with terror stared back at him for a short moment before a Jared clapped him on the shoulder. "Well? What is it?" If he were to look back, he would find that the eyes were gone.

Golias blinked, wondering if the air on this planet was finally driving him crazy. He shook his head and glared up at Jared. "A hole." He informed the human dryly.
Ceres wasn't laying as much attention as before, she only now began thinking about who had carried her from that hole last night.

"Then you should be the first to check it out!" The only reason one of the other solider was able to knock Golias down into the stinking darkness was because he'd caught him off guard. 
Jared was certain this cruelty would be enough to get all their heads bashed in. "Gary, you mother...." He didn't even finish that sentence as he jumped in after the enormous turian. If someone was going to die, he'd rather Golias blamed him. 

"Damn it." Not far from where Ceres was, the two Salarians were crouched and watching the exchange. The larger of the two was wringing his hands and shaking his head. "We'll have to kill them all. It's too much of a risk. They cannot find it. None of it."

Golias would already be gone by the time Jared jumped in after him. He had easily picked his way over the rubble and into a dark corner to plan his next move.

Ceres heard those words and her fingers again reached to her pistol. She needed to find it, whatever the salarians were willing to kill over. The bigger question was... Could she herself be a killer?

"Golias, you're not going to get far!" Jared shouted at the darkness. He was careful to keep his blaster close to him. "You know they'll send the trackers after you. This time they'll probably kill you. Use your head about this! I'm not the enemy here."

The Salarians were creeping around where the Turians were being rounded up and placed on transport ships. The taller of them was calling for backup though it was unclear who or how many he was calling for.

Golias wasn't answering right away, he seemed to be weighing his options. "And why should I aid you in searching this place, human?" He finally called back.

Ceres came barrelling along ploughed into the taller one, making it seem like a clumsy accident. "Keelah! I am so sorry!"

"We're not searching this place until we get it cleared with the alliance. For now we're going back to the transport ship and calling in the professionals. There's dead bodies in here. It's toxic for all life forms." Jared was trying to keep his tone calm and rational. He knew Golias would sense if he were anything but. 

"You stupid..." Paxil turned toward Ceres, raising a hand as if he were going to slap her. She had kept him from dialing the correct numbers and had set him back several minutes. "What is wrong with you?"

Golias still hadn't revealed himself. "I find everything about this disgusting planet toxic." He informed Jarded icily.

"What's wrong with you?" Ceres shot back. "I said I was sorry, you stupid Bosh'tet!"

"Don't take this the wrong way but this is coming from the one who was most often seen on Afterlife boozing it up with the likes of Aria the mercenary groups." Jared said with a soft chuckle. "Besides, our planet has an excuse. You know the war and all that..." He paused, taking care not to step on the body of a man. 
Not far from Golias something else was moving. The same skittering sound that the salarians had heard was happening all over again. 

"Why don't you watch where you're going?!" The taller Salarian screamed at her. "Why are you even here?! Don't you have your own planet to go back to now?!"

"Don't bullshit me, Jared." Golias sneered. "You fucked up your planet long before the reapers came along. He was moving deeper into the shadow now. "Aria had her uses, that was all."

Ceres smiled sweetly, though the other man wouldn't see it. "Don't you?" She asked. "Why are you even here? Your people called the humans liars the moment Shepard told you what was happening!"