Team Vespidae: A Shortcut to Mushrooms

<Snip>
Amber held out a portable scanner and tracked a fast moving crop of
Mush-a-roo's. Keto, tied with his hands behind his back was being
pushed out in front as bait.
<End Snip>
Who: Team Vespidae
Where: New Australia
When: An hour after tying Keto up
In the middle of the harsh, red desert of New Australia, night was
falling. Somewhere on the planet's surface, in the hot desert that
covered most of the planet, Xavier Keto was hanging upside down from
one of the many dead trees that had managed to survive for a while in
the scorching heat of the planet. He had, against his will but much
to the delight of his companions, been made the bait of the trap they
had set for the deadly Mush-a-roo's which they were hunting.
Creatively, Marwood had placed a sign bearing the legend "Eat Me!"
round his neck. He had gone on to suggest dipping him in meat sauce,
but that would have been taking it too far. He'd been swinging from
the tree for the best of an hour, and was thoroughly annoyed.
"Get Me down right now Marwood! Get me down right now or, so god help
me, I'll remove both your testicles with a pair of bolt cutters!"
the cynical medic was shouting. It was falling upon deaf ears,
Marwood had long since put on the headphones to his Ipod - Atom and
was nodding his head along to an ancient Bruce Springsteen song. He
was scanning the horizon with the sub-machine gun he had been armed
with, looking over from the boulder. There was nothing for miles
around except for scrubs, the odd Kangasaurus Rex (created in the mid
21st Century by an Australian Genetic Engineer who got the idea from
watching Jurassic Park on a LSD Trip.) and lots and lots of sand.
Sitting on the ground behind the boulder, Amber, CK & Mel were
playing Black Jack. CK was losing. Badly.
"Hit Me" CK said, he had ten and nine, and was risking it all for a
two.
Mel drew a card and passed it to him, he flipped it over and groaned.
It was another ten.
"Dammit, fold" he said, laying his cards down.
"Just us then eh?" smiled Mel, confident in her eight, two & nine.
"Looks like it. I'll stick" said Amber, not giving anything away.
"Me two - read `em and weep, 19!" laughed Mel, confident in her
victory.
"Sorry sister, every dog has it's day " said Amber, laying down a ten
& ace of hearts!
"But..but…" blurted Mel
"And im the Dog!" laughed Amber, drawing in the pile of, mainly CK's,
cash towards them.
"Ok, want another game? Winner takes all?" suggested Mel.
"No thanks, we should really be getting on with work" said
Amber "Peter, status report" she said, feeling weird for sounding
like a Star Trek cliché.
"Nothing yet Amber, oh wait…there's something coming!" said Peter,
noticing the approaching Mush-a-roo, hopping like nothing he had seen
before.
"Quickly, shoot it! Shoot it! FOR CHRIST'S SAKE SHOOT IT!!!!"
screamed the hysterical Keto.
Marwood didn't need telling twice, he pressed the trigger on the gun
and unleashed a frenzy of death into the creature, but it still kept
coming.
"Oh damn it" said Marwood, the creature nearly on top of Keto.
<Tag - somebody save Keto!>