They then gathered up plenty of meat chunks from the blind crabman corpses lying around, and easily carried them back to base.

The little mutant kids swam around them as they came back with so much meat, but the mutant leader quickly shouted something that made them sit quietly to the side.

Rose: [gotta remember that]

Erik: [she just probably threatened them with eating?]

Erik then dropped a piece of meat in front of the kids, but they surprisingly didn't move to get it, instead remaining in place and looking at the mutant leader with pleading eyes.

It didn't make them wait long, as she bowed to Erik and then struck the floor with the bottom of her spear.

The moment her spear hit the floor. The kids bolted to the meat, tearing at it like a group of lion pups. Erik still found it cute though, as he observed their puffed up cheeks like those of chipmunks.

The meat was quickly devoured and the kids looked in Erik's direction again, he wasn't planning on giving them any more, but they had big sad eyes, and a sunken complexion.

So Erik decided to at least check their condition. Erik loudly sat in the lotus position in front of the chihuahua sized kids, with a loud metallic reverberation.

The kids stepped back, but they quickly started approaching back as they saw Erik offering them a crab claw he cracked with his bare hands.

Erik moved the claw from right to left slowly, as fluid escaped the cracks. The kid's eyes never left the meat as they slowly approached. Erik observed them and could now fully see how famished they were, their ribs were showing, and some of their scales had peeled off.

Erik quickly took more meat from his back, as the kids got closer and quickly started eating, their teeth surprisingly sharp as they tore through the meat with ease.

Erik: "kids eat first"

Erik patted their backs as they ate, now completely unafraid.

Before long, the dozens of kids had finished the meat Erik was carrying, and with bloated bellies, they stuck their tentacles to the back and shoulders of Erik's power armor.

Erik: "So... I guess who feeds them is their parent?"

Amanda: "...have you thought of names yet commander?"

Erik: "actually I was inspired and- I mean no..., of course not, just seeing poor kids in need doesn't mean I will adopt them for no reason..."

Rose: "right..."

Erik then stood up as the dozens of kids crawled around his back, observing what he did, but luckily avoiding his oxygenator turbines, thinking of them as his breathing tubes.

Then, under the puzzled look of the mutant leader, they brought at least a ton of meat into the chamber with the famished mutants, slowly feeding them the meat. The kids would also help Erik deliver meat and care for the sick, imitating whatever he did.

Some of the famished mutants were in fact the parents of the kids, as when they were woken up and offered meat most tried to offer it to their kids first, only convinced to eat when they noticed their bloated bellies. while a minority of them just ripped the meat out of their kid's hands, eating it furiously as they shouted something to their kids.

Erik frowned seeing that: "...I might adopt some orphans after all..."

Shana's upper fin stood up slightly in anger as she frowned: "that's not how you treat the young... "

Inky shrugged: "so... do we just kill them?"

Erik sighed: "that... sigh, no... they are still their parents after all, I'm nosey but not that much..."

Erik then stood up, and offered some to the mutant leader, who respectfully took it and started eating.

The octopeople also ate some, but he could see on their faces it wasn't tasty, as they were forcing themselves to eat it.

Erik put a piece inside his power armor and took a bite, almost puking inside his armor, the taste was rancid, like a rotten over boiled egg, a mix of sulfur and vinegar.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Erik: "...gah... that was disgusting..."

Rose: "well, you will have to eat something right?"

Erik: "...maybe claw meat tastes better..." he then put a new piece of crab meat inside his armor and took a bite, but spew it again "gah... it's just a bit better..."

Rose: "maybe it's the water?"

Erik: "could be... this place ain't too clean after all..."

The mutant leader was distressed seeing him spit out the meat though, quickly coming back with an inert blue blob on her hands, and offering it to Erik with a bow.

Rose: "oh, seems to be one of those food jellyfish"

Erik: "is it safe to eat?"

Rose: "give me a second" a blue laser light then emerged out of her palm and scanned the jellyfish "yeah, no heavy metals or poisons, it should be safe, go ahead"

Erik nodded and carefully put it inside his power armor through a hatch at the side of his chest armor, and carefully took a bite.

Rose: "how is it?"

Erik: "chewy. ., but otherwise tasteless... and that's great, compared to that disgusting meat..." he got shivers "this might as well be a five star dish compared to that meat..."

Rose: "that's great to hear" Rose easily crushed some blind crab man shells on her mouth "I luckily can just turn off my taste buds so... no issue on my part".

Amanda beside her doing the same as she nodded too.

Erik: "...well I can't..., not yet at least... sigh..."

The mutant leader seemed relieved seeing him eat, and went to give meat to the other mutants that hadn't eaten yet.

Erik: "well, guess we should discuss our next course of action now"

They all nodded, as Rose's hand projected a map containing the areas they knew combined with the virtual map previously made by Amanda, onto the floor. A clear difference between the still unexplored and intact looking area, and the areas already scanned by Rose that only contained detailed ruins.

Rose: "This is what we know for now, if we traveled above ground" she pointed at a still intact street "it would take us at least eight hours to reach the royal palace, twelve if we get lost" pointing at a big stand alone building "but as we all know now... the surface is full of really resilient bugs, so..." she pointed down at tunnels that appeared under the map, but only their small area was complete "we will need to use these tunnels if we wanna reach the royal palace, but... as it's obviously shown... we don't know most of the tunnels to get there" she looked around "any ideas?... yes, good one Erik"

Inky then whispered to Erik: "don't you find it annoying when she reads your mind?"

Erik: "well... I prefer to think about it like a friend that knows me really well, even better than I know myself, if you think about it like that... then she's pretty great right?"

Inky: "yeah, she's... great... glad she can't read my mind though"

Rose then turned around and looked at her with a sweet smile: "Oh honey..., I can hear you~" she then looked at Erik "That's really sweet best friend" winking at him "but now as I was saying, and as Erik suggested..." she looked at the mutant leader that was curiously observing the map, pointing at a place in the map underground where all of them appeared and then slowly moving her finger underground to the royal palace.

The mutant leader seemed to understand, and after contemplating for a while she dragged her finger carefully through the 3D hologram, surprised at first when a glowing red line appeared after she dragged her finger through it, and after a few minutes she had drawn a complicated red path, while also circling some areas as she seemed to warn them.

Erik: "see, she even knows the dangerous areas... I think, but at least now we know the path to take, it's a long path and I don't know what we will find but... I know we can do it!"

Everyone: "yeah!"

Meanwhile, in an unknown area of the universe, an alien spaceship was patrolling a solar system, with two bored aliens observing their scanning screens, their skin a green and blue color respectively while both had lots of cybernetic parts sticking out of their bodies.

The green one had scales on his skin and a triangular head, while the blue one wore a helmet and suit full of water, it had four eyes laid in a head like that bore a resemblance to a humanoid octopus.

Alien1, the reptilian one pressed a button, and a hologram of another alien in fancy clothing appeared, his superior: "reporting, sector clear, no anomalies detected"

And the alien on the screen, also a reptilian said: "understood, have you found any valuable resources?"

Alien2: "yes, we found a big chunk of ice and an icy planet, if we extract all that water it would be worth quite a bit"

The alien in the screen nodded but then sighed: "If only our ancestors didn't fuck it up, all other races with their own arks while we rot like this..."

Alien1: "don't worry boss, with all teams together we will one day be able to earn enough money to build our own ARK world, so-"

Suddenly, the alarms flared as their spaceship's AI said **fluctuations in the gravitational dimension detected, it seems like... coordinates commander**

Alien1: "hoho~ this could be our opportunity boss!"

Alien2: "yeah Boss! let's follow that signal! we might find an abandoned site from the ancestors and make some money!"

Boss: "you idiots, remember team 1114567 last week! they entered an ancient fortress and the turrets annihilated them when they reactivated the power!... ice is a good business, we don't make a fortune, but it's a safe work!"

Alien1: "But boss we-"

Then as they were talking the monitors started blaring, purple lights illuminating the control panels in blips.

Alien1: "wha-"

Before they could react though, the entire spaceship trembled as they saw a crack in the space before them, and after a multitude of iridescent rays appeared, a long spaceship appeared and in the blink of an eye disappeared into another colorful crack that appeared in front of it.

Alien2: "boss... ....boss!"

Boss: "y-yeah, did you record its trajectory?!"

Alien1 checked some screens: "got them....but..."

Boss: "what is it?"

Alien1: "they are going... in the same direction as that signal..."

Alien2: "boss... shall we go after that?"

Boss: "...no, stay there and wait for reinforcements"

Alien1: "another team?"

Boss: "no... all of them"

Alien2: "what?! we won't get any shares of loot then!"

Boss: "life is always the priority, we will take at least six teams with us to check that signal"

Alien1: "but the benefit-!"

Boss: "life and safety"

Alien1: "understood boss..., we await your orders"