Creepy Crawly

JP with Omni, Jaxx, redsword_7, Kudzu, and CS

Things are moving now.

"Fire at will! Everyone in the antechamber now! Let's go!", ordered Roberts as he watched the window to the outer corridor.

"Oh shit oh shit! What are these?" Jensen shouted as he pulled out his pistol.
Asahi looked at the vents and frowned. ‘Fuck’, he really did not wish to die this early. He was meant to die a nice life next to his family and surrounded by piles of money. Holding the young girl on his back, Asahi looked at the rest of the crew and then concentrated back on the vents.

Even as Vera blasted the vent with fire, the floor was thick with the crawling things, each one of them at least as big as a quarter (roughly 25mm).

-----

Capt. Kenny tried barking a few orders till he realized the crew couldn’t hear him. He looked at Paddy with concern then addressed the AI, "MUTHUR? We lost coms. Please find out why. I need to know if it was caused by the parasites or some glitch."

“...communications damaged... reason unknown... possible astral interference... attempting to reconnect with the crew...” MUTHUR announced.

Paddy Lohan pressed some buttons at his console and focused on the external scanners. “Captain, I’ve got multiple pings around the exterior of the Montero as well as one on the hull of the Cronus. I’m gonna say that’s not astral interference.”, called Paddy.

Capt. Kenny replied, "Give me some options Paddy or we are gonna become dinner for an alien parasite."

“I can throw on an EVA suit and go check it out. Or we could uncouple the umbilical and do some fancy maneuvering. Your call, Captain.”, Lohan replied.

“Neither of those are great options but I can’t do anything else.” Capt. Kenny nodded and replied, "Then shake them off Paddy or this will be our last conversation."

The Captain strapped in as Paddy uncoupled the docking clamps and rolled the Montero performing a few fancy maneuvers for good measure and the Captain asked MUTHUR to make another scan of the ship for movement.

"...Movement detected... B Deck > P1 Airlock...", said the calm voice of MUTHUR.

-----

"OK Move! Get in here and seal the hatch. Kirby! Flame as you back up.", Roberts yelled as he stepped up to the viewport and looked around to see if it was clear.

Vera fired a gout of flame at the oncoming spider horde, reducing many of them to char and cinders but the sheer amount of them was overwhelming. Soon they were upon the crew. The spiders were hungry and started to feed on whatever was available.

Jensen and Johns started slowly losing air as small holes were eaten away from the fabric and synthetic materials of their suits. Vera's clothes were being shredded, revealing her skin and muscular frame underneath.

Roku pulled Jensen and Vera, ushering them into the corridor then slapped the button, closing the hatch. Spiders squished and popped under the door as it slid shut. The window on the hatch was soon blocked by the underbellies of the little pale translucent things. The crew still had a swarm problem focused on Vera, Jensen and Johns.

Vera rolled herself against the walls and beat at the swarm skittering all over her, squashing many of them under hand, foot, and wall.

"Someone roll Bruce! Kill what's on him. People help. We need to do this now!", said Roberts. He let out some profanity as he moved to Bruce using the butt of his shotgun to squish the spiders.

He managed to clear Jensen of the swarm, swatting and crushing them in numbers while pushing Jensen against Vera.

Jensen cleared Vera of the swarm and Johns flailed at the pests, finally clearing them off of himself. The area surrounding Cryo 3 door was now covered in fleshy legs and sticky, yellowish green spider juice. The way forward was clear but Jensen and Johns were now losing oxygen.

“Well that was new,” said Clayton in surprise.

Roberts went back to the broken window and looked out, "OK everyone on your feet. We can't wait here anymore. Line up. Kirby, you are with me upfront, everyone ready weapons. We are going to move fast as the group can move to Junction A1. We clear the door like we have done before, same drill, guys. Bruce! Can you do this? Are you good? We need you now.", said Roberts.

“Ugh yeah...", Bruce Jensen said in disgust, wiping away spider goo. "Gotta do something. I can’t stay here.”

He felt around for his keycard and picked it up off the floor, shaking off the sticky stuff. Jensen then unlocked the door for Roberts as everyone readied their weapons.
They exited the antechamber and followed Roberts out the door then through the corridors toward A1 junction. The way was clear.

They reached the ladder leading up to the dorsal airlock above A1 junction. Roberts and Vera noticed that the light next to the hatch was flashing red indicating the airlock was depressurized or open to the vacuum of space.