*( mood song: "Panic! At the Disco - Ready to Go")

As they came back to the entrance they saw the bots piling up cold storage boxes.

Erik: "Oh? did they find something valuable after all?"

Rose: "Yeah..., kind of... there was a pretty gory... well dusty lab in there, most logs and equipment were damaged but some of the logs were legible, and among them, I read the logs on that" quotations with her fingers, "*Great Mother*'s creation..., it's so messed up..., the base DNA comes from a parasitic fungus from a deep oceanic crack found by the researchers and smuggled some samples from the proper lab on the Forge, and then a mind reading parasitic larvae from their planet, their giant bug parents shoot stingers full of larvae eggs, that inject the eggs into the prey...." she saw Erik frowning and continued "and it gets even worst, they then started giving it more and more mind related creatures to infect and devour... they also apparently made lots of other enhanced creatures, some of them they even tried to smuggle them to their planet" she chuckled "haha~ I actually remember that you know, I detected a ship trying to leave with specimens containing DNA from ARK creatures without permission, and they even ignored the communicator warnings so... I blew them out of existence with the orbital cannons... sigh, good times...."

Erik got closer to one of the boxes and opened it, but the interior was only mildly cold, inside he found lots of vials, but once he examined one, he found that the once liquid sample was now a clay-like dense paste "haven't these samples went bad already?"

Rose: "well, it's pretty damaged but luckily the cooling chambers held out for long enough stored in vacuum chambers with maximum insulation, so they should be still barely useable" she shrugged "after all, they are DNA samples used to create war beasts with special properties, so it's a highly valuable material if restored and selected properly, so it should be worth the effort"

Erik: "hmmm... luckily for us, we have someone for this now, if he could make those potions in their crude lab, now that he's been studying properly that old weird crab, he might be able to do much more with a proper lab, or at least something... we could always try growing living tissue out of it, but we would probably need a similar animal for that to complete the missing DNA..."

Rose: "well, there should be but... are you sure you can do it even if we get the tissue samples? cutting genomes is really complicated..."

Erik: "well... maybe? I've never tried after all so maybe I... sigh... I wish I listened to Sara more... I'm just an engineer... "

Inky who had been listening bored from the side suddenly butted in "...who is Sara...?" her eyes squinted.

Erik was startled for a second as he hurriedly explained "oh, she's a friend from Earth, she was supposed to come on another ship after me but... she will probably arrive at a barren planet now and... just die alone..." his face turning sad.

Inky calmed down as she got sad too: "Oh... that's actually sad..."

Amanda: "don't worry commander, she will be fine, there was a preparation plan in case you were killed and the base destroyed, she will have just barely enough supplies to last until the other's arrive... probably"

Erik: "...not sure if that makes me feel any better... sigh... I hope the planet is safe, she will have trouble with only the backup oxygen generator and might have power shortages without my solar panels and windmills... ugh... and what if she ever gets sick... hah... hah... shit..." he gritted his teeth.

Rose looked from the side and seemed to hesitate but then said "maybe you could warn her"

All turned to look at her as Erik grabbed her hands "how? please tell me..."

Rose: "well, now I have restored power to this general area so... if you install an antenna over the surface, I could orient it to her general area and try to send her an alert with instructions to guide her on installing the equipment to survive..."

Erik hugged and released her quickly "thanks Rose, no matter what, doing something will be always better than nothing... let's get this over with!" grabbing his new railgun tightly.

Rose nodded: "Alright, let's pick up everything, this room will get sealed and turned into an oven"

They scanned all samples to make sure there was no living contamination and took everything back into the Forge, then they sealed the doors as the heat pumps immediately kicked to life, pumping the heat in the Forge into the secret lab, since no one needed to go there anyway so there was no need to regulate it over a large area.

The fresh cool air hit them, making Erik and Inky sigh in relief as they opened their power helmets visors.

Erik: "so... the great mother... is dead?"

Rose shook her head though "not sure..., there could be secret doors or hideouts, and she seems to be able to avoid my long range scanning, but... she will at least be very weakened after being boiled and poisoned"

Erik: "well, I can't take another day of eating slugs" he looked at the bug power armor's ammo belt as some of the empty slots now contained small electric slugs inside "at least I caught lots of small specimens in case we wanna raise some, well, let's go!"

Rose stopped him though "Not so fast, I just opened the vents, it will take at least 5 hours until the outside is cool enough for your power armor to survive it, and on that note..." she exited the big power armor "let's change, let Amanda into yours and you get in this one, it will be way cooler inside"

Erik nodded and did as told, Amanda shrugging and getting into his power armor.

Erik: "what about you Rose?"

Rose shrugged: "well, it was the logical thing to do, you are organic, Inky has her own tight fit power armor and Amanda only has one core, while to me it would just take time to remake this body, no fretting though" she set the printer on the floor and cables emerged from the ceiling that she connected to the machine, and started printing "I will just make a dive suit in a moment".

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Erik nodded: "alright, we will go pick the last big slug remains" going with Inky.

Just a couple of minutes later, a dive suit emerged from the printer, and Rose grabbed and put it on as Erik and Inky came back munching on some dried slug strips.

Erik: "sigh, at least it easier to gulp down-" he then noticed Rose already dressed in her skin tight dive suit "oh that was fast, much better now"

Rose: "oh~? you didn't like my naked body~?"

Erik: "it's not that, but it was affecting my concentration on a dangerous situation"

Rose: "heh~ is that so~? anyways, the crab people keep asking if the expedition was successful so... what should I tell them?"

Erik: "hmm, tell them the expedition was a success, that they will soon be able to travel to this place too, that should make them expectant"

Rose: "huh? but how will we keep the tunnels safe to-"

Erik: "biorock, there are lots of minerals floating in the waters of these volcanic tunnels, so they are perfect for biorock, if we extend some steel mesh over the tunnel walls and pass a small current through it then the minerals will aggregate and create a resistant composite material over it that keeps growing, and it's three times stronger than concrete, probably even stronger in these mineral rich waters... " putting his hand on his chin as he thought.

Rose: "well that plan is feasible but what about if they wanna go down one of the sealed tunnels? it also takes quite some time for it to grow thick enough to stop anything meaningful right?"

Erik: "well, back on Earth it might take six months, in here though.... hmmm... I would say about two to three months should be enough, and it will forever keep expanding if supplied with electricity, so it's the perfect material to keep the tunnels safe, it's also bio-friendly so.... well, not that it matters with how much we poisoned these tunnels, but..." and kept mumbling to himself.

Rose: "well yeah..., hmm... if I took a couple hundred repair bots here and make them build the structure and then electrify it... in about a week it should be ready..."

Amanda: "well... plan set, let's go? or you both wanna keep mumbling a bit more?"

Inky: "yeah, they just stop and keep mumbling nonsense I don't know..."

Amanda snickered: "well that's cause you don't-" she was about to say something mean, but Erik stopped her.

Erik patted Amanda's back with the big power armor, and sent her tumbling forward "cause you don't need to worry about things like that sweety, you are a fighter! and a survivor!, your job is to keep us all safe alright?"

Inky nodded motivated again as Erik gave a side look to Amanda.

--- hours later ---

Erik: "alright, it should be colder now, let's go!"

The other's nodded as the door to the Forge opened, the green water shield still there as some of the bots exited first and started running in the scalding waters followed by Erik and the other's and the rest of the bots with the loot, they had to be quick as this was still a volcanic cave and the heat could ruin the already old DNA samples and machinery.

As they ran they could see tons of those weird boulder crabs all around the Forge with their bodies stuck to it.

Erik: "what are they doing?"

Rose: "well, if I had to guess I would say they are coming closer to the Forge as its colder than the surrounding waters, even then most of them should have received some internal burns no matter how hard their shell is.... another reason the great mother could have survived..."

Erik: "....sigh, well, keep running for now!"

As they had expected the tunnels were clean now, only scarce blanched remains as the only indicators left of the past horrors, as they traversed the now highly poisonous tunnels.

After some time, they finally reached the sealed entrance, and some of Rose's bots that were on standby opened the lock for them, letting them through.

Only when the lock closed again behind them could they finally sigh in relief.

Erik: "sigh... freaking finally... being in tension all the time was annoy-"(rumble) his stomach suddenly rumbled "tell those crabs to prepare meat, or even better, do you detect any wall huggers?"

Rose: "...none, this is sadly too deep into the volcanic area, they should be around colder areas"

Inky: "ugh... I'm really hungry too now that the tension is gone..."

Erik: "alright, let's be quick"

They passed the previous fire tribe location as they walked back, the place now occupied by shadow claw tribe collectors that went around the area collecting the local herbs from the area and also fire mushrooms and other materials like the iron mussels and clams.

Queen Erika controlled by Rose waited in front of the city along with thousands of her vassals as the big mech was seen coming out of a rock tunnel at the edge of the big cavern, murmuring instantly taking place between the crab people.

"they really came back", "are we safe now from the monsters of the deep?", "for the heroes to fail and him managing it at the first try... better warn the elders..." various conversations happening at the same time between the people present.

They all quieted down as queen Erika kneeled to Erik and followed suit "welcome back master, I hope the expedition was a success..."

Erik put on a deep solemn voice and said: "it was, we will keep going, did you prepare the supplies?"

Erika(Rose): "of course, 19 wall huggers freshly hunted"

Erik: "that pleases me, now let me announce..." he upped up the speakers on his back "A NEW ERA!, FROM NOW ON YOU ALL ARE MY VASSALS! AND AS SUCH YOU WILL BE GIVEN THE CHANCE TO TRADE FOR REWARDS! REWARDS LIKE THE WEAPONS YOUR QUEEN HAS, WEAPONS, EQUIPMENT, FOOD, AND MATERIALS! SOON WE WILL CREATE A TRADE POST, SO... wait patiently" his voice had been so loud that it was heard all over the tribe, even some alchemists that were making potions faltered and dropped their potions.

--- upper base ---

Meanwhile, back at the upper base, Anhuka was exercising with all her being, lifting weights until she could barely move every day.

As Anhuka was lifting weights on the bench press, Crabina came and looked curiously at Anhuka "mommy, why are you lifting those things? is it fun?"

Anhuka: "to get stronger and be able to go together with daddy sweety, hnnnng its... the... only... thing... I... can... do... nowww!....."

Crabina's eyes shined: "so if I lift these things I can get stronger and go with daddy next time?"

Anhuka paused for a moment and looked at Crabina "...hmm... I don't see why not, that's why mommy needs to become stronger too as I don't possess pincers like you or am I fast like those octopeople, so I need to be strong to at least be able to make a fine meat shield to protect him... I will protect him!" energy returned to her tired muscles along with adrenaline as she added more weights and started to do the exercises faster and with deadly determination.

While Crabina also grabbed four small dumbbells and started lifting them with some difficulty, one for each arm and pincer.

Crabina: "hnnng... I will be strong too!"

--- Octopeople city ---

Meanwhile, Timberly was in her room and had finished mutating.

Timberly slowly stood up from the pond in her room on her now powerful legs, careful not to fall, and got the hang of it after walking slowly for a bit, she then went to the small bathroom in her room and looked at herself in the mirror, a narcissistic smile soon covering her face from side to side, her tentacled hair was now thin, and a metallic dark blue color, her features had also become more human-like, with a bigger nose and a fair skin covering her toned body, her ears had also become pointed, even the shape of her humongous dick having changed to a more human-like shape with a rounded head, and a more defined pussy.

Timberly: "hah~ I love this body, I look so freaking hot~" quickly popping a boner that reached her now rounder chest as she looked as herself, her pussy soon dripping wet "I better take this body for a ride~"