*( mood song: " Semisonic - Closing Time ")

As they stood there, several of the spider fish critters tapped them, only retreating once they detected the larvae smell.

Erik tapped his communicator: "everyone... don't make any sudden moves and move close to the walls, make sure you don't drop those grubs or-"

But he was interrupted by Amanda: "commander... there's a problem" and pointed in a direction.

Erik followed her finger and saw the mutants terrified while huddling on a corner, their smell about to be discovered by the nest.

Erik cursed between clenched teeth: "those fuckers!" then as quickly as he could he carefully advanced until he was beside them, he grabbed the face of the mutant leader and forced her to look at him, her face tense and in fear "shhh, shhh, everything is fine... it's fine..." he carefully lifted her and put her on his back.

Erik tapped his communicator: "everyone grabs one, they ain't too heavy anyway"

The command was quickly carried out as warriors carefully came and carried one mutant in their backs each, while the mutant kids quickly got on Erik's back, easily holding on the ridges of his power armor with their small hands.

Inky: "Erik, we have a problem..."

Erik turned around and saw two small critter workers tapping with their front feelers a scared scout, that held her assigned larva tightly.

The surrounding octopeople quickly took out their weapons, but Erik stopped them.

Timberly got angry: "are you gonna let her die?!"

Erik: "no, not at all, Shana... be ready to guide us really fast..." he then took out one of the sample containers on his belt and left it almost open, cranking his arm back and launching it at the other side of the room.

*FWOOSH! CLANK!* the container crossed the chamber quickly and hit the wall at the other side, spilling a green goo on the floor.

The entire nest stopped at that instant.

Erik yelled on coms: "NOW! GO! GO! GO!"

Shana took the lead to guide them down a set of stairs, Erik went down the last and observed as one worker grabbed the container that opened spilling green goo over it, then the entire colony retreated from it as the worker took the container away.

Erik then ran down as he murmured "self sacrifice huh..."

They reached the bottom, arriving at a chamber full of corpse pieces.

Rose: [that was the mushroom sample right? how did you know it would work?]

Erik: [they are mortal enemies, I just hoped it would work... we have other priorities now though...]

Erik looked at Shana: "where to now?"

Shans looked around unsure: "it's been so long... and the walls are covered in webs... hmmm there should be a door to the right... but-"

Timberly: "Everyone! clear the right wall of webs!"

The octopeople and bots quickly got to work, using their weapons to remove the webbing, and soon a golden wall reflected their helmet lights.

Shana pointed excitedly as a huge golden door with a carving of a solemn octopeople warrior was revealed: "there! the middle door!"

It took everyone pushing, but after some time, they finally opened the door.

What they found inside wasn't what they hoped though, inside laid the old carapaces of over three dozen large crab men, with the rest of the football field room full of empty shelves, some sparse books the only thing that remained.

Erik: "what the fuck..." sounds then came from the staircase "for now... close the door!"

---

Deep below, on a huge cavern, an equally huge glowing mushroom trembled, car sized lumps covered its trunk. Minutes passed and then... in a moment the lumps bursted on the hundreds.

Plumes of glowing liquid covered the waters as several figures landed on the cave floor, all of them crab men with different shapes, waiting on the side was the tank crab man.

These new crabs were different from him though, their heads carapace had transparent spots in the form of lens, allowing them to see.

Some minutes of silence followed, and then... the mushroom dimmed as it trembled again, as a result, thousands of crab men present instantly ran to the tunnels.

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

---

Back in the empty armoury, Erik paced around as critters pounced at the doors. They had sealed them using larvae silk, but that wouldn't last forever.

Erik grabbed a leather book and it fell apart between his fingers, making him feel even more frustrated, and look back at the echoing door.

Erik: "why doesn't the door have a lock at least?"

Shana: "it used to have... but it was probably destroyed after the invasion"

Erik: "hmm... what to do... we are trapped... so-"

"ah!" from a corner of the room, Jennifer exclaimed, she had been reading the steam engineer Antalya's book, and found a similar book "I found something!"

Everyone gathered around her as she read "it's her memories after she came back!, it's not much but the cover had the same symbol on it, she says she came to see the ruined city and placed the valuables in a secret room before going away to search for survivors, see... she said... *I came back to see a devastated city, my brethren nowhere to be seen, i... i might be the last of my race, if you are reading this you are either my brethen or a race that has learned our language, either case you deserve a reward from me, at the back it's a map with a guide to reach my old laboratory, inside-* bla bla knowledge, we already have and... *once you read it you will know how to open the secret door in this room, i used the technology i got from my last expedition to build what i call a metal steam suit and retrieved some of the relics of our people..., the hardest to retrieve was the empress harpoon from savage beasts, it was heavy and i was severely injured, but... it was worth it, you will find it in the secret room, it used to be noisy to open but I made it silent with some strange crystal energy source instead of steam... the city is still full of crab men and beasts... inheritor of my knowledge and my will* then she just explains how to locate the door and open it, her adventures, and how she got this weird green crystals from a installation three weeks to the south but she could apparently only explore a small part, she describes monsters and-"

Rose: "wait wait wait... three weeks... accounting for the speed she might have traveled at... there are twelve possible places she could have been at..."

Erik: "well, that is... that you are aware of..."

Rose: "...indeed..." she looked at Jennifer seriously "is there a map?"

Jennifer was stunned from being interrupted but she quickly reacted "ah yes... here" offering the open book on the first page, a simple map of the city and tunnels along with the surroundings and terrain to the south with a red circled area.

Rose: "so little detail... this circle is the size of the city? hmmm... I think I know where it might be but..."

Erik: "but?"

Rose: "there should only be mountains there... how did they pull this off..."

Erik shrugged: "well, no one is perfect so don't think it too much... Rose? Rose?" he tapped her shoulder but she didn't move "guess she's giving it some thought... well, meanwhile..." he looked at Jennifer "where's the door? how do I open it?"

Jennifer turned the pages: "well, she says there should have been a green cube near the book, but there was none... then we would need to..." she looked at the walls "there! on that carving of mother, you need to put the green crystal in a depression on her belly"

Erik looked at that wall and walked to it, while he tapped his chest armor, causing a layer of the power armor to peel off and turn into a green cube "hope this works..."

He put it in and the wall sunk in, quickly revealing a gigantic tunnel down.

Erik nodded to the elders around "everyone get ready... Rose?... ROSE! WAKE UP!"

Rose: "huh? ah! coming~"

---

Back on Earth, Antonio and the others had just reached orbit on a rocket that docket on a construction space station.

Antonio, Elena, and Mónico got on their spaceship.

While the others checked the systems Antonio looked back at Earth from a window.

Elena put a hand on his shoulder: "having second thoughts now?"

Antonio shook his head: "Nah, I've lived plenty on this mudball already... it's just... you know, this is our last moment of peace and quiet before we head onto the unknown... "

Mónico: "pfft come on, you can just come back once the contract is over, and even better as you won't grow older while on cryosleep, once you are back you would have tons of new shows and movies to watch"

Antonio rolled his eyes: "I prefer the emotions earned by my own two hands and feet..."

Mónico put his hands up while shrugging: "Oh excuse me then, I just find virtual worlds way more amazing than the boring reality, why travel around when I can crush planets between my fingers in virtual reality?"

Antonio sighed: "did you marry?"

Mónico: "well...-"

Antonio: "in real life"

Mónico: "nope, none then"

Antonio: "girlfriend? boyfriend?"

Mónico: "Nah, it uses too much time... I had a cat though, but it ran away..."

Antonio facepalmed: "sigh, young people nowadays... conquering the heart of a woman and becoming a couple that lasts centuries, traveling all over the world and experiencing all that Earth has to offer, THAT is what you should have done before leaving Earth..."

Mónico shrugged: "I have a simulated version of Earth too, see?" he waved a cristal block "this baby has more than four Pebibytes of data on it, just plug onto an optic port and you can visit Earth if you feel the need"

Antonio sighed again and looked at Elena: "you understand what I meant right?"

Elena shrugged: "well..., I never married either, leaving them behind would have been annoying, and although I agree that Earth is amazing and full of plants to study, the prospect of finding new plants and foods on other planets... makes my brain tingle with emotion!... what about your wife though?"

Antonio sighed: "she wasn't ready to leave Earth, I'm sure we will see each other again though"

At that moment, a hologram of Paco Blezo, their commander appeared on deck.

Paco: "well, as you all know the mission was rushed so please make sure to check all systems, in two hours you will have to get on the hibernation pods too"

Mónico: "two hours?! are you kidding me?! this is a freaking huge spaceship, I would need days! do you know how many bugs could there be on the AI code just to begin with?!"

Paco remained calm: "That's why we will have you our most talented employee take a look, the higher ups wanted to just give you one, but I convinced them to give two, no need to thank me"

Mónico: "...fuck you all then! gotta get to it!" he then put on a helmet and laid down on a seat "try to get me more time! at least four hours!" and connected to the spaceship.

Antonio: "what is wrong with people... couldn't they wait some days?"

Paco: "this is a business too, investors want results after all" and shrugged "well, that's all, have a safe trip and all that, I will invite you to dinner if you ever come back so... good luck!" and his hologram disappeared.

Elena: "how did such a jerk get that position?..."

Antonio: "Humans don't always value those capable, but those that obey and praise them, anything can be done with enough bootlicking and misinformation..."

Elena: "what about the deadline?"

Antonio shrugged: "we will never see them again so... who cares..."

Eight hours later, and after repeated angry hologram calls, Antonio, Elena, and Mónico got in their cryohibernation capsules, giving one last look at the planet they were born in.

"goodbye Earth..."