Scavengers

First topic message reminder :

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?!"

"Not mate yet." Came the gentle response from Orinia. "There are four additional candidates. Once they realize I'm gone they will move on to the next. I am worth nothing."
"At least she knows her place." The seductive voice clucked. "You are going to have to learn yours as well it seems." 

"I thought we were talking about why you shot yourself in the head. What does that have anything to do with love?" Jared asked, beginning to clean up the other mans face.

"My place is far away from this barbaric custom of slave trade!" Ceres hissed, getting more angry at the thought that Orinia seemed to be treated as disposable by even her own people.

"Everything." Golias replied with a snort. "Didn't you notice anything... Odd, on that ship? Like maybe you were thinkin and seeing things you shouldn't?"

A sleek looking drell came out of the shadows and stood in front of Ceres' cell, looking her over. His bright green eyes glittered with mischief as he nodded. "How interesting. I rarely get those that want to fight back any more. I want to see how far you will take it. In the mean time, what do you suggest I do with your little friend there?" He asked, motioning to the turian. 

"A thing or two, yeah. I thought I saw a banshee once but I knew better. Those lovelies haven't been around for six months or so and thank your spirits for that! Not to mention there were a couple of people talking crazy shit. Why?"

"Set her free." Ceres replied without missing a beat. "Ransom her back to the man she's supposed to be with."

"It was Lolly, the girl I was supposed to be protecting. She had this... Gift, if you can call it that. Makes people... Well, you know, you saw it." Golias breathed, not yet telling Jared that he couldn't actually see anything.

"You heard her. They won't give me anything for her. She will make me more money being right here." Mimic said, squatting to look at Orinia. "She is a lovely one. My clients will pay high credits for a night with a turian. They are rare. The males keep them guarded rather well. The fact that I caught one is a shock even to me." 

"Did she make you do that to yourself?" Jared asked, his finger probing the wound. "And you're not singing that dude's praises for putting her lights out for you?"

"So your question to me was pointless?" Ceres asked, her accent rather thick the angrier she got. "You did not strike me as a waste of space. I guess I was wrong."

"She didn't single me out or anything." Golias replied defensively. "He had her chained like an animal, if she wasn't doing as he instructed, she got a jolt of electricity through the neck."

Long fingers shot through the bars and caught her chin, jerking her forward before she could even have a chance to react to him. Though his actions seemed angry, he was smiling. "How interesting." He purred. "I posed the question just to see how you would react to it. I am even more intrigued than before." They were so close now their lips were all but touching. "Tell me little quarian. Do you think the primarch will come for her? Do you believe in love?" 

"So she wasn't even trying to keep you out of it?" Jared asked, continuing to wipe the dried blood away from Golias' face. "That sounds awfully romantic to me. Why are you defending her?"

Ceres' lips parted, as though ready to say something, but for a second all she could do was stare back at the alien who had such a tight grip on her. "I believe she is valuable to him." She finally managed to confirm. Ceres didn't dare speak of love. She had found herself falling for Jared, only for it to cause her pain.

"She knew I didn't want special treatment." Golias breathed. "I told her her life was more valuable than anyone else's."

Mimic laughed darkly at this. "A turian female is worth as much to male as his boots. They are easy to replace. Especially for the primarch who has no interest in having a female at all right now. Or ever for that matter. If you are right and he comes for her, I will make you my personal pet." The drell shook his head and let go of Ceres' chin. "But when he does not...you will be my plaything and then the plaything of at least a dozen other immediately after. I have clients lined up for a mile who want their turn at a quarian." 

"That's a load of shit." Jared said, beginning to bandage the wound. "Fat lot of good you've done protecting her in here, by the way. Who knows what that guy is doing to her out there while we're in here." He got to his feet, nodding to Alice when she handed him a mop. "You should be cleaning up your own shit, big guy. You're lucky I'm so nice."

"Then your investment will be short lived." Ceres declared, her chin held high in defiance. "Infection will kill me before the first once is through!" She insisted, despite being in oddly good health without her helmet or a clean room.

Jared's words prompted Golias to get to hit feet, only to slip in a pool of his own vomit and blood.
Alice found this entirely too amusing and erupted into hysterical laughter.

"So you are admitting that I will win." Mimic said, his snake like eyes moving across her body and them over Orinia. "Giving up. You might as well." He turned away from her, heading toward the human woman's cell. "Come along, dear. I'm in the mood for some rough and tumble." 

"Big guy..." Jared frowned at the enormous Turian, wondering how he'd managed to step right into that mess. One would have to be blind to have gone right to it. "What the hell?"

"I admit you will not get away with this." Ceres breathed darkly, her fingers curling tightly around the bars as she watched the tall beauty leave with Mimic. The small woman couldn't understand why that human seemed so happy to go along with this.

"Shut up!" Golias snarled, pointing an a using finger at where he assumed Jared to be standing, though he was off by a few feet.

Mimic returned to his chambers, opening communication to the Turian primarch's offices. He had no expectations of talking to the man himself. Which was how he was going to be able to tell the quarian he had done what he could and had gotten no response. 

Jared couldn't help but smirk. "Wow, you've got me running scared." He snorted. "You just sit down and let me handle this. All right?"

The spanner in Mimic's plan was when the Primarch answered the call personally. "Yes?" He asked thinly, clearly a man of few words. It was seeming more likely that the Drell would have a new personal pet all to himself.

Golias was cursing at Jared, though he did drop himself back to the floor, managing to miss the body fluids this time.
"A blind Turian... That could be fun." Alice purred, though she was watching Jared as he mopped the floor.

Mimic watched the other creature for a long moment, choosing his words carefully. "I hear you are missing something, primarch. Would that be a correct assumption?" He asked, his long fingers stroking the silken red hair of the human on the floor in front of him. He totally expected him to now deny it. In fact he was waiting for the sign off. 

"He was fun not blind so why not, you slut." Jared muttered. "Can we get some clean clothes in here? We're making the whole place stink. Hanging out with a Turian is bad enough."

"Cut to the chase. How much to get her back?" He asked coolly. "I see no reason to pretend with niceties."

"Slut? That's really how you want to play this, while asking me for something?" Alice asked coolly. "As I recall, you were the one tearing at my clothes, little man."

"I doubt you could afford it, given the state your planet is still in. Why not just leave her to me and settle for one of the other choices they have set aside for you." Mimic purred, his fingers digging deeper into the red head's hair.

"That was unfair. You're right..." Jared sighed, making a face as he looked down at his boots. "I'm sorry, Alice. Just get us something clean to wear. Please?"

"That isn't what I asked you." The Primarch replied thinly, seeing the red head moving into the frame slightly. "I want that one back. She will give me the strongest offspring."

"You could always... Come have a shower, if you wanted?" Alice suggested with a slight smile. "And I could get your... Mark, there, some more medi gel."

"I haven't noticed any strength coming from her." Mimic said, shaking his head in a pitiful gesture. "She does cry so sweetly though. And her lovely lips....worth at least twenty million credits." He purred, sure the primarch would turn him down flat. "I have clients already lining up for her so don't waste my time thinking about this too long."

"Golias needs more than medigel." Jared said, shaking his head. "I'm not going to just leave him here while I serve the greater good of myself. That wouldn't be fair. He needs someone."

"Twenty one million and you have her ready for collection within the day." The Primarch replied, barely giving mimic a chance to finish.

"You plan to service him, instead?" Alice asked with a snort. "I'll ask again, do you want to shower, or not?"

Mimic was rarely at a loss for words but right then he was working his mouth and no words were coming out. "I'm not in your system. You won't make it in a day and my clients will arrive sooner than that. Besides, I do not believe you have that amount." He said finally.

"Shower and bed for the Turian first and then we'll talk." Jared said firmly. "Not before, babe."

The Primarch glanced away for no more than a few seconds, during which time Mimic would receive a credit transfer. "I know exactly who you are, and where you are. If I can transfer funds without your approval, you honestly think I can't send a ship to find you? You have half the funds. You will have the other half when the female is returned to me and my doctor has proven she has not been touched."

Alice wrinkled her pert nose, then grabbed Jared by the front of his shirt. "It's a good thing you're cute." She breathed before kissing him. "Grab the big guy, I'll have a room made available."

"You come and retrieve her yourself." Mimic said, his tone lazy and almost bored. "We'll call it a security measure. You can stay for the evening and enjoy yourself. He'll, I'll even throw a party in your honor. What do you say?" He was stroking the red head now, giving her the to ahead to begin what he had brought her there for. 

Jared let out a deep sigh once she'd left and rested a hand on Golias' arm. "I can't believe she left me for you. I really did love her back then, you know. But...everybody wants the Turians. I guess that's just the way it goes." He muttered.

The Primarch sighed wearily when he saw the female head bobbing about. "Very well." That said, he cut the transmission. He needed to be there yesterday, if he wished to keep his future mate from becoming that creature's whore.

"Even your suit rat?" Golias snorted, still refusing to accept that he couldn't see. "Seems like that kid was hot just for you, human."

Orinia found herself unable to sleep. Every single noise had her worried that something terrible was coming. Not that a thing could be worse than the drell had been. "I wasn't drinking." She said after she heard the quarian shifting around. "I was just trying to make myself sound impressive. I was trying to run away. I think maybe it did a better job than I intended..."

"Ceres or Alice?" Jared asked, stumbling a little as Golias refused to take a step away from the wall. "You're going to have to trust me here. I'm either out to get you or I'm not."

"What were you running from? Isn't it a great honour to have been chosen for the Primarch?" Ceres asked, though she didn't sit up, only turned toward the direction of the other woman's voice.

"If you still consider Alice a kid, you're really not that smart, not smart enough for a suit rats anyway." Golias snorted.

"I guess. But...I've never even seen the man in person. Only on vids and such. And...why must I be forced to marry someone I don't even know? Why can't I find someone To fall in love with? Because my father is a councilman and I have good breeding hips they have determined my worth. I sat with my father when the primarch chose me. All he said was, 'she'll do'. What if that's not enough for me?" Orinia asked softly.

Jared chuckled. "That's a given." He patted Golias' stomach. "I think maybe they both feel sorry for me. What about you? Hell, I'm willing to bet your dating pool triples now starting with Alice."

"Maybe the Primarch is feeling the same way you do?" Ceres suggested softly. "It sounds like he is being forced to marry by those around him, and is having trouble with the whole thing. 'She'll do' could just be him not wishing to drag the ordeal out longer than need be. He will come for you. I know he will." She added confidently, after all, her own future had been traded for this woman's freedom.

Golias snorted and shook his head. "Asari aren't my thing... Too blue." He remarked. "And you can never know just how many bodies she's been with, given she will have lived many normal lifetimes."

Orinia sighed softly, wishing she could feel so confident. "You should have seen the other candidate. The woman he didn't choose was truly lovely. She even had this high ranking position in the military and family history of producing males who went on to be amazing generals and warriors. She had a fringe that went on for a mile. I could never hope to compare. Her name was Arilena." For a long moment she remained silent before she sighed again. "The Primarch made a big speech about how it wasn't the time for him to be worrying about a mate. I heard my father telling my mother. But they convinced him that it was needed to replace the son he lost and to show all of Palaven that we could replace our numbers. That's all it's about is numbers. So you see...he won't worry himself with me. He'll go for Arilena. She's a much better choice all around." She didn't why she was making such an arguement but it made sense. She was a number to a man she'd never met. A number to her father. It was the very reason she'd run away. She'd never fall in love. "You're so lucky." She added in a soft whisper.

"I never thought of it that way." Jared said with a nod, his thoughts a million miles away. "You think I'm right about Ceres?" He asked as he again cleaned the vomit off his so called enemy. "You think she'll be able to hold her own? I mean...she was able to stand up against you but Mimic...you remember that time we met him? That boy is pure evil. He's a whole other entity all on his own. Will she be able to withstand whatever he tries to do to her?"

Ceres did genuinely pity Orinia, she couldn't even begin to understand what it must be like to be treated like a piece of meat to be bartered with. "Don't envy me, I couldn't even catch the eye of one human. I think there is more to the Primarch choosing you than increasing numbers and standing. If this other woman is so amazing, wouldn't he have made her his first choice?"

Golias was shaking his head sadly. "Holding her own against me, that's something different." He breathed. "Mimic will play with her emotions and her mind. Sorry, Jared, but I just don't think that kid has seen enough to defend herself against a man who trades women like cattle. Of course, there's always the chance he would keep her for himself."