Scavengers

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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?!"

"Thomas is coming. He thinks you've wasted too much time." Lolly answered, her voice filled with sadness. "He's gotten another ship and he's on the way. He's upped the dosage on my collar. I can't...do anymore. I...killed the man that was coming for you. The one you were talking to. The one you called handler. I'm sorry, Golias. There's nothing else I can do for you."

"Shit..." Golias was pacing like a caged tiger now, trying to arrange his thoughts and figure out his next move. He hadn't wanted Jared dead, he rather enjoyed their game of cat and mouse, with Jared always assuming he was the cat.
Ceres wouldn't be in the room if Golias chose to return. There was a trail of blood where she had pulled her slender frame into the air duct and was biting through the pain to try and reach Jared. The young woman blamed herself, she should have just listened to Jared.

"I will stall him long enough for you to get the elcor and go." Lolly said gently, thinkin this was the reason for his angry sounding words. "At least you will be safe from the scientists. Thomas tells me that not nearly as many of the are as dead as I had hoped..."

"No, Lolly, you listen to me. You get over here right now. We are still taking this ship, and I don't give a varrens ass about some scientists!"
Ceres fell out of the duct and simply lay on her back for a moment. Her leg felt like it was Ono fire, and the crack in her face plate had just gotten a little longer.

"There is no time." Lolly answered back. "Turn to your left and the next door there should be the elcor. The biggest one of them has the gun. She is hovering near the back ready to shoot should it open. I can try to make her think of something else while you get in but I'm getting tired..." She sighed, feeling like a failure. Again the atmosphere on the ship became heavy and depressing. "You were going to help the baby, remember? Maybe...you can think of me sometime. When you find that cotton candy I talked about..." Again she cut the transmission but this time it was her plan not to turn it back on. She was out of her chair and heading toward the pilot's room, intending to lead Thomas right to her and far away from him. 

Jared's eyes snapped open and he took in a gasping breath. "Damn that armor." He hissed when he felt his chest begin to burn. It hadn't been nearly as strong as he'd hoped. He should have replaced it a while back. "I'm such a cheap ass..."

Golias hadn't even been given the chance to say anything at all before the transmission was cut. He was hesitating now, caught between saving that child, and going to the rescue of his human princess. All that seemed to wipe away the moment the atmosphere changed. He could hear the banshee again.

"You are cheap, but I see nothing wrong with your ass..." Ceres' velvet soft voice commented from the door way. She was leaning heavily against it, proving that Golias had made the wound in her leg so much worse when he had forced his finger into it.

Thomas smiled when he stepped onto the ship. He could feel the heavy depression in the air and was glad he'd guarded himself against it. His smile widened when he saw Lolly calmly sitting in the pilot's seat waiting for him. He stepped aside to let several mercs move in behind him. "Kill everything else on the ship and gather the remaining supplies. I'm taking this thing back to the transport ship." 
Lolly's head snapped up. "What?! No! You promised you'd let him go!" She cried. The young looking man simply smiled and tapped a button on his omni tool. She crumpled to the floor like a sack of potatoes. 

"We need to get out of here." Jared said, feeling rather depressed. He pushed to his feet and finally managed to stand, stumbling a bit as he reached her. "This was a stupid idea." He added, not sure why he was so ready to blame her for everything that had happened in the past few hours.

Golias was struggling with the crushing feeling of terror that the banshee brought him. It made him feel like a small child again, hiding from his father when he had had too much Turian brandy. It was a feeling a strong man such as himself didn't enjoy. It was made so much worse when he thought about his need to save Lolly.

Ceres heard the blame in Jared's voice and took a cautious step away from him. "We still need to parts!" She snapped.

Lolly would have been horrified to learn that the elcor women had been gunned down without a chance of escape. The child had been bagged and taken to Thomas, no care taken to how it arrived there. 

"In case you haven't noticed there's a big nasty Turian on this ship and you're in no condition to get within ten feet of him." Jared growled. "You are a walking disaster, Ceres. You being here is trouble all by itself."

Golias was being hunted by the men Thomas had brought with him, but he didn't see them. He saw the Banshee again, and Jared along side him. It had been this way during the war, they were on different teams, yet fought for the same side. The Elcor were forgotten to him, he heard only the deafening screams, and thought of Lolly.

Ceres felt her lower lip quiver inside her helmet, and despite her having already caused it to bleed once, she bit it again. "It is none of your business, human!" She hissed, again backing away. "I am not yours to concern yourself with!"

Thomas was working to sedate Lolly, knowing it was the only way to lower the massive levels of hatred in the ship. He was at the point where he was tempted to take a handful of her hair and smash her head into the table he had her laying on. He was regretting having ever working on her at all. Her innocence made her a liability. 

"I made a promise and until we get to Iilos I'm afraid that's not the case." Jared muttered, shaking his head. "Now come on. You're going back to the ship and you're staying out of trouble!"

Go liars was staring down at his blaster where he was crouched in the hallway not too far from the cockpit now. I suddenly seemed like the best idea in the world to end everything. A quick shot into his brain and the terror would end.

"As your people say, you can kiss my ass!" Ceres growled before turning to limp away. She was leaving a trail of blood as she went, and the crack in her faceplate made it pointless to continue wearing it much longer.

Thomas was a cruel man. He always had been. It was why he had no problem with doing exactly what he imagined. He grabbed Lolly by the forehead and slammed the back of her head into the table until she no longer even registered brain activity. He couldn't help but laugh openly as he watched her blood spilling off the side of the table. "Lovely Lolly." He breathed, feeling the weight of the darkness she'd brought down on the ship begin to leave. 

"Ceres..." The darkness seeped away from everywhere at the same moment. Even Jared could feel it. "Oh hell...Cer....wait..." He was doing his best to catch up with her, his body aching from the dents left in his armor. "Damn it. I don't know what came over me. I'm sorry..."

The darkness had lifted a moment too late other Golias. The large Turian was slumped on the ground in his own blood, his blaster still in his hand and a hole a little higher than his temple.

"No you're not!" Ceres shouted, though continued to limp away. It had always been this way with any alien; assuming her weak because she was Quarian. With a lack of anything else to toss, the young woman turned and threw her faceplate at Jared.

Ceres would find herself bumping into a krogan merc as she turned back to keep walking. "Well." He purred, grabbing the tiny quarian and tossing her over his shoulder. "The boss didn't say there was anything interesting on this ship." He chuckled. "Wonder how much I'll get for this..." 
He turned to leave, giving Ceres a view of Jared being surrounded by a group of gun wielding Vorcha. "Worst day ever." The human muttered.

Ceres tried to put up a fight, but pain shot through her leg, almost to the point where she wanted to throw up. "Unhand me!" She declared regally.

Jared found himself on the floor of a cage, his head rest in the lap of somewhere strange. He groaned when he remembered how he'd gotten to this point, mainly the butt end of a vorcha's gun. "I should have just called for backup and waited." He muttered, turning his head until he realized it was buried in the crotch of a turian. "Oh hell..." He sat straight up, nearly bumping heads with the creature he'd have to explain this whole awkward thing to. He was more than a little surprised to find that it was Golias and relieved at the same time that he was unconscious. It was then that he saw the bullet hole in the side of the other man's head....

Ceres was in surroundings a little more comfortable than those of her companion. Barely. She was with a bunch of other alien females, and from the way most of them were dressed, this was a slave ship that had clients on a brothel planet.

Golias was still breathing, and though his wound no longer bled, it was obvious he would be in sever pain if and when he woke up.

"I've never seen them bring a Quarian into this mess." An asari whispered, staring at Ceres from her own cramped cell across the way. "How did you get yourself into this mess, sweetie?" 

"You moron." Jared growled, punching Golias in the stomach. He didn't know why he'd done it but it certainly made him feel better.

Ceres silver eyes looked up when she realised someone had spoken to her. She should have felt extremely feverish without her mask, but for some reason she was just fine. "I helped a human." She breathed before lowering her gaze again to inspect the wound in her leg.

Golias woke up this time, and head butted whoever had just lunched him. It was a gut reaction and he instantly regretted it when the pain from the wound in his head suddenly made him retch.

"That was stupid." An extremely thin salarian woman looked up from a quilt she was working on and clucked her tongue. "Why in the wide galaxy would you do something like that?" 
"Humans are the cruelest species out there." A turian woman whispered from the cell beside her. "They kill everything and tear apart everything they don't. I'm surprised you're still alive." 

"Oh hell....you stupid son of a..." Jared grabbed his nose for more than one reason. It was bleeding and now offended by the terrible smell of a turian with little food on his stomach. "What the hell was that for?!"

Ceres felt her heart twist when she heard these women saying these things. "Oh no, not Jared... He was just..." She stopped and sighed heavily. Just what? She didn't know anything about her former companion, and as far as she could tell he was simply relaying a debt by helping her get to Ilos.

"You lunched me, you soft skinned bastard!" Golias growled before heaving again. "Mighta known you wouldn't just let me die!"

The Asari laughed. "Wow. Did we all sound like that when we got here?" 
The salarian laughed as well and nodded her head. "I'm afraid so, Amari. You more than any of us. That woman you were with really did a number on you." 
"I won't touch them." The turian snarled, shaking the bars of her cage with bleeding talons. "Those monsters cannot make me! Humans are the reason I am here!" 

"So you could end up like that crazy bitch you were hanging out with?" Jared snorted. "I saw some guy removing her head when they brought me here. Which by the way means you lied to me about killing her." He pointed out.

Ceres shook her head, refusing to believe Jared was a bad person. "Forgive me, but none of your species have exactly been the perfect example of loving toward my own." She huffed.

"I lie ' out  a lotta stuff, you really still shocked by it?" Golias sneered. "But you're wrong, Thomas needed Lolly, he wouldn't kill her."

"And you have been deserving of it?" The asari asked, shaking her head as she went back to smoothing her bed sheets. "Your kind treats the rest of us like we are not good enough to be near. You don't even try to mate with asari. That doesn't say much for you." 
The turian woman had sunk to the floor of her cage and was sobbing quietly. 

"Your Lolly was causing alot of problems, Golias. I heard him talking while they were beating me half to death. She was causing the ship to crash and his own men to kill each other. Even you. He said there wasn't a choice." Jared said softly.

"Mating with our own species is dangerous enough!" Ceres insisted, again reminded that she didn't even have a sniffle or a sore throat. "Is... Is she okay?" She asked when the other woman's sobs grew louder.

Golias actually smiled. "Proof that you have no idea who or what she was. That girl was beyond valuable. Thomas simply couldn't afford to kill her. He would have sacrificed that entire ship to keep her alive."

"No. Not really." The salarian said, her tone almost sad. "As soon as you figure out what life you're headed to you probably won't be either. We all cried in the beginning." 
"You get used to it." The asari added, her own voice sad. "It was worse during the war. All those soldiers...so sure they were going to die. They cared less about hurting someone else. It was a terrible time. Things aren't as bad now. Men aren't so desperate." 
This didn't help the turian one bit. She was sobbing even harder at the other woman's words. 

"All right. So it was her whole body they were moving." Jared said, holding up his hands. "But it's proof that you lied to me none the less." Without warning he reared back and punched Golias all over again, spraying them both with the turian's blue blood. "That was for hurting the Quarian you son of a bitch." He snarled.

Ceres obviously didn't understand what kind of ship this was. "What life could be so bad?" She asked, probing just how young and niave she truly was.

"That's how you prove you don't care?" Golias sneered, purposefully spitting blood in Jared's face. "She didn't give a shit about you! She told me she hoped one of Ohio died just so she didn't have to look at your face any more!"

"That's the other reason I can't stand Quarians." The asari said with a snort. "They just don't get it. Look around you, honey. This isn't a five star cruise." 
"Do you know what a brothel is?" The salarian asked, setting down her quilting to give Ceres her full attention. 
"She's going to be the star attraction, you realize that?" The asari asked. "They've never had a turian or a Quarian. That's going to be fun to see how Mimic deals with them." 
"He'll make a killing." A woman sitting in the dark several cells away spoke up, fixing them with hateful green eyes. "The clients are going to eat them alive." 

"She and I were audio connected, shit head." Jared hissed, hitting Golias again. "I heard everything and she didn't say a damn thing. She didn't even give you the satisfaction of screaming. You can't even do that right anymore can you?" He growled, throwing an elbow in the other man's face.

Ceres didn't like the picture that was being painted for her. It filled with ice cold fear to think of anyone touching her, for any reason Nevermind sex. "No, you have it wrong! No one would ever lay to do that with a suit rat!" She insisted.

Golias tackled the other man to the ground and punched him in the nose. "If that was true, you would have heard the banshee! You would have fucking shot it!"