Rbz3: The Crab
General Summary
With the mold forms taken care of, Quinn realizes that his hazmat suit is compromised and makes a run toward the airlock for new suit. Bennesh hurries after him, but watches in horry as the Healer stumbles to fall off the catwalk, splashing directly into the suspicious aquarium below!
The crew act quickly to retrieve him. Reinhard dives in after him while Bennesh lowers a fire hose as a rope. The pair climb out just as something... strange begins to happen with the infected crab. As the orange slime mold begin to attach themselves to the crab's camouflaged form, the creature seems to solidify... and grow. Pincers and legs length, and the shell expands to the size of a truck.
While this excitement was unfolding, Echo quietly worked at the computer terminal. What he was uncovering was disturbing. It seemed that the scientists here were experimenting with a symbiotic relationship between the crab and the Cerberus Fungus -- creating a hybrid organism called a Parasect. It seemed they knew about the mind-controlling properties of the hybrid too, as they were experimenting with the orange slime mold to create some kind of antidote. But clearly, this stage of the experiment were not completed in time.
Excited to share his findings, Echo stands up from the terminal only to find Cassidy behind him, a shard of sharp class held to his throat. The Director had been behind this all along! She was already immune to the fungus after all!
As Reinhard and Quinn climb up from the aquarine, the others are engrossed with the strange mutation happening with the crab. It was Reinhard who notices something amiss, seeing the treachery afoot in the lab office. "What do you think you are doing? Let him go!" The others turn to see what was happening, shocked at the sudden turn of events. "Let's all stay calm and not do anything rash," Bennesh says, unsure of what to do. "I am calm. Now, slowly, start moving toward the equipment lockers," Cassidy gestures toward the far end of the aquarium, "Go on." The party hesitantly comply, but even as this was happen, Saskia had snuck away into the shadows. And as Cassidy walks past the doorway onto the catwalk, Saskia unleashes a spray from her pressurized water cleaner. The blast knocks Cassidy off her feet, letting Echo scamper away. But the force of the unleashed water tears the nozzle from Saskia's hands, and the improvized weapon starts whipping around the room. It cracks against the aquarium wall, and a fracture begins to form along its formidable height. In the chaos, Reinhard raises his sword and starts heading down toward Cassidy but Quinn rushes ahead to cut him off, wanting to prevent further violence. Saskia chases down the wildly winding pressure hose, only to catch up to it at the base of the aquarium as a shadow looms across its visage. Even as the fractures begin to creep across the surface, a gigantic claw slams down and shatters the entire aquarium. A torrent of water gushes out, slamming into the catwalk and other equipment to be churned up as a column of foam and mist. Reinhard is knocked over and nearly falls from the catwalk. Saskia is briefly carried away by the wall of water only to be seized by the Parasect.
Reacting quickly to the sudden change of events, Reinhard drops from the catwalk, sword gleaming as he hacks down at the monstrous grab. However, the sword glances off the thick shell. And as Reinhard staggers back, the Parasect slams him into a nearby bulkhead. Across room and still on the catwalk, Bennesh moves to several vats of chemicals and engineers a specific concoction to be sprayed from the fire suppression sprinklers. The chemical reacts with violent hissing as it descends on the Parasect's shell, and the creature rears, clearly hurt by the chemicals. However, the sprinklers then stop, the chemicals having been used up.
In the chaos, Cassidy makes her escape. Echo catches a glimpse of her as she ducks through a secondary airlock. But just before heading out, she flips a large lever. Red lights start flashing as the hum of machinery fills the room as the air begins to be sucked out from the lab.
Still held by the creature, Saskia tries to free herself with a snatched pole, but the Parasect's holds firm, shaking her in its grip. Reinhard collects himself again, launching himself at the creature's joints. This time, he lands a partial hit that causes the creature to drop Saskia. Toss her aside, it charges at a nearby bulkhead.
Thinking quickly, Quinn waves his shovel menacingly at the creature, driving it to tear into the bulkhead with its large claws. The claws tear through the metal walls like they were tinfoil to reveal rows upon rows of office cubicles, and a series of similar small crab-like creatures held in suspended animation.
As the crew collect themselves, they realize that one problem seemed to have solve the other. The breach into the office block slowing the ventilation of the room to a point where Bennesh is able to suspend the protocol. As the Parasect continues its rampage through the office, they decide that this was now a problem for someone else. Or at least a problem for some other time. And so the crew collects some of the slime samples they need to synthesize a cure and escape the crumble lab through a breach back to the street level.
Outside, they were not at all surprised that Cassidy had made off with their (technically, her) tractor. As Quinn helps patch up Reinhard and Saskia, Echo and Bennesh search the surrounding streets for a ride. They will have to bring the samples back to the improvized research lab. Hopefully they can recreate the antidote there. "Surely, not all of these peasants walk to work." They manage to find an unmarked truck of some sort parked in a back alley. Saskia manages to dissuade the too-friendly (but not hostile) locals, only to find that the truck was actually property of the laboratory. In fact, it was a repurposed ambulance that was used for sample transportation and experimentation.
The crew pile in and as Echo drives the ambulance across the habitat, Quinn and Bennesh begin synthesizing a cure. Reinhard volunteers to be the first test subject, as his gray patch of infection has grown to a troubling size. But just as Quinn jabs Reinhard in the butt (the latter insisted), the ambulance suddenly lurched into a spin as an armored security truck comes out of nowhere and crashes into it from the side! The ambualnce spins out of control and careens into a street-side algae stall.
The ambulance is totalled, though the crew are mostly alright. Reinhard emerges first, kicking out the ambulance's backdoor as he pulls up his pants. He's butthurt and ready to kick ass. He sees that it is Cassidy in the driver's seat and charges the armored truck, sword swinging. He manages to cleave through the front of the car as she tries to wheel the vehicle around. The car screeches to an angry halt, now missing a door and a wheel.
Saskia follows shortly behind, a fire extinguisher in hand. She blasts the extinguisher in through the missing doorway, catching Cassidy full in the face.
Meanwhile, Bennesh realizes he is trapped inside the ambulance, wedged underneath some fallen debris. Quinn tries to free him, but the debris shifts and tears open a battery pack. Sparks fly and suddenly there is an electrical fire within the cabin, with no fire extinguisher in sight! Echo manages to get out from the driver's seat and goes to the back to help. The two, with some help from physics, manage to free Bennesh, who stumble out of the smoke filled cabin, his pants smoldering.
With the armored truck immobilized, Reinhard leaps in after his quarry. His sword slashes into Cassidy's cyberarm as she climbs back away from the driver's seat. Saskia is waiting hurls the empty fire extinguisher into her face.
As smoke and fire begins to consume the ambulance, Echo dives back in to grab the vials of synthesized antidote, bundling them up in a heavy safety jacket before climbing out, covered in soot. Bennesh, having smothered the fire from his pants, takes stock of the situation and realizes his friends were fighting the madwoman inside the armored truck. He draws an oranate rifle from his pack and take a shot through the armored glass which hits Cassidy in the chest. This sets up Saskia for a finishing blow as she grab the extinguisher and slams it into her face a second time, knocking her out cold.
As all this was unfolding, however, a menacing rumbling grows. Quinn points down the street as, one by one, housing units began to collapse, sending clouds of dust and debris into the street. As the rumbling destruction approaches the pair of incapacitated vehicles, Saskia glimpses the cargo in the back of the armored truck -- a dozen jars of small captive crabs.
As Reinhard and Quinn climb up from the aquarine, the others are engrossed with the strange mutation happening with the crab. It was Reinhard who notices something amiss, seeing the treachery afoot in the lab office. "What do you think you are doing? Let him go!" The others turn to see what was happening, shocked at the sudden turn of events. "Let's all stay calm and not do anything rash," Bennesh says, unsure of what to do. "I am calm. Now, slowly, start moving toward the equipment lockers," Cassidy gestures toward the far end of the aquarium, "Go on." The party hesitantly comply, but even as this was happen, Saskia had snuck away into the shadows. And as Cassidy walks past the doorway onto the catwalk, Saskia unleashes a spray from her pressurized water cleaner. The blast knocks Cassidy off her feet, letting Echo scamper away. But the force of the unleashed water tears the nozzle from Saskia's hands, and the improvized weapon starts whipping around the room. It cracks against the aquarium wall, and a fracture begins to form along its formidable height. In the chaos, Reinhard raises his sword and starts heading down toward Cassidy but Quinn rushes ahead to cut him off, wanting to prevent further violence. Saskia chases down the wildly winding pressure hose, only to catch up to it at the base of the aquarium as a shadow looms across its visage. Even as the fractures begin to creep across the surface, a gigantic claw slams down and shatters the entire aquarium. A torrent of water gushes out, slamming into the catwalk and other equipment to be churned up as a column of foam and mist. Reinhard is knocked over and nearly falls from the catwalk. Saskia is briefly carried away by the wall of water only to be seized by the Parasect.
Outside, they were not at all surprised that Cassidy had made off with their (technically, her) tractor. As Quinn helps patch up Reinhard and Saskia, Echo and Bennesh search the surrounding streets for a ride. They will have to bring the samples back to the improvized research lab. Hopefully they can recreate the antidote there. "Surely, not all of these peasants walk to work." They manage to find an unmarked truck of some sort parked in a back alley. Saskia manages to dissuade the too-friendly (but not hostile) locals, only to find that the truck was actually property of the laboratory. In fact, it was a repurposed ambulance that was used for sample transportation and experimentation.
Report Date
12 Jun 2021
Primary Location
Related Plots
Related Characters
Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
Comments