The nest stirs...

“Where's Susan?!”

Looking over Mary's shoulder to the empty bed, the group of guards stared in cold silence, their worried breaths being drowned out by the steady beep of a flat-lined heart monitor, its connections scattered on the bed and floor where an **** woman formerly rested. “Where did she go?...” The red haired woman's face was pale with fear and worry, her hands at her mouth as Jake moved over to see for himself, still not believing what he was looking at. “Where the hell did she go Jake?!” Picking up his rifle and visor off the table Chief Clover nodded over to his men with a stern look. “We have to get off this planet, like right fucking now!” Hearing the click of rifles being reloaded both engineers turned to see the Chief and his men prepping their gear to leave. “Everyone take what you can carry, we're leaving this dusty shit hole.”

“What about Susan? She's out there somewhere in the station, we've got to find her.” Mary had become frantic, shaking with fear after seeing the **** of Dr. Jennings and the dead nightmare laying on the hover bed nearby, blue blood still dripping on the floor from its many bullet wounds. “Mary, Susan was bitten just like Eugene was, and LOOK at what he turned into! Maybe she's alive maybe not, but if she IS alive Mary she won't be human anymore!”

“YOU DON”T KNOW THAT!!!”

“Everyone shut up! Listen...” The crew went quite, a sound had echoed out, something louder than the heart monitor being turned off by Dr. Faust or the heavy breathing of the people inside the med bay. Outside the walls of the dome faint clicks and foot falls could be heard, tiny tapping sounds at first that grew into a chorus of clicks that scratched and ticked against the ceramic metals and plastics of the dome's surface, like the fall of raindrops from a heavy storm. Soon the noise was near deafening, thousands of clicking footsteps all at once scurrying all around them, shifting and moving as one as the swarm of creatures focused on a spot on the roof. “They're here, they know we're here...” Whispered a guard as she aimed her rifle up to the ceiling, the scurrying sounds moving to the far north of the medical dome as the activity became more focused. “How the fuck do they know we're here? There's no windows in this fucking place.” Whispered Jake as he and the others began to quietly move away from the activity up above. Hearing the motion stop Chief Clover set his visor helmet back on. “Everyone move slowly to the door, we're going to head to the landing pad outside and escape.”

Just as they reached the door a new sound filled the room, a louder source of foot steps outside that stamped against the roof as it made its way up, the smaller scuttling sounds parting way for this newcomer as the roof groaned from its weight. Just as quickly as it showed up... It stopped, the med lab went quite except for anxious breathing as they were struck with dead silence. Suddenly a heavy slam dented the dome’s surface, the lights flickering from the shock as the dent grew bigger from a second strike, the metal buckling from the **** as the third and final blow caused the panels to crack. Scissor sharp talons pried the crack wider, the steel squealing as the gap grew inches at a time. By the time the hole became half a foot wide all hell spilt loose. A flood of dozens of white shelled arachnids scurried over the ceiling and dropped to the floor, crawling straight for the group of humans crowding the door.

“OUT! EVERYBODY OUT!!!”

Punching his fist against the door controls they all ran out as Harold and two of his guards fired at the swarm heading their way, blue specs of blood stained their green jackets as the gauss rifles shredded the little creatures to paste, looking up Harold's eyes widened as the claws continued to pry the hole bigger, armoured segmented legs gripped the opening and the massive creature crawled its way in, its black glossy eyes staring straight at the man as it spread its jaws in a nerve cringing hiss. The double doors closed just as the Chief stepped out, aiming his rifle on the controls he shot the metal pad once, sparks and debris raining from the damaged control module just as the doors buckled from a powerful impact. Turning his back he ran to catch up with the others, heavy footfalls in front of him told the Chief he was close. “We've got to cut through the staff quarters and down the mess hall.” Called out Flaubert, the tall guard keeping his rifle up at shoulder level and darting between corridors as they all ran. The man having to speak over the sounds outside as the scuttling crawls of little feet rattled off the metal framework. Even unseen they were being followed.

***

Stepping through the oval dome structure of the living quarters for the outpost, the nine people filed through the entrance just as Ensign Corgens turned around and locked the door, shooting at the controls as the door slammed shut on the mass of white spider creatures giving chase feet away before turning his back to join the others. Like the cafeteria dome, the living quarters dome was massive, well over 100 meters long and 25 meters wide it stood three stories tall with apartment like living structures scattered around and stacked over each other like a village of cubic huts, artificial plants and trees decorated the large space with plastic flowers in permanent bloom, a decorative fountain at the far corner spouted a gout of water 3 feet up into the air as the sounds of birds chirping and calming music played in the background. Originally this esthetic was planned by the UCM as a means of maintaining sanity among staff workers living for long periods of time on these outposts, the closer it looked like home or at the very least a resort hotel the less likely said personnel would suffer anxiety or stress related problems. At the moment none of that mattered to the group of fleeing people as the music was drowned out by the tiny scratches of parasitic arachnids crawling on the roof of the dome, making the wide open space of the habitat seem very small and claustrophobic. The tall fake trees blocked out the sight of the dome's ceiling where the swarm scratched and picked at the metal skin of the living area.

Keeping close the team looked around the maze of structures and scenery as they darted past the artificial garden paths and walkways. Looking to some of the living quarters some of the doors were left wide open, others were closed yet all around their feet were personal items laid scattered and discarded on the floors. Jake and Mary shuddered as they finally knew the truth of what happened here, no one disappeared from this outpost, they were all consumed! The set of cloths at the wide open door of a worker's living quarters was were the poor man had been attacked and devoured, his cloths and boots the only proof left of his existence after he was dissolved and ingested on the spot by a former friend or co-worker turned parasite. The tattered and ruined dress surrounded by pairs of men's shoes and work jackets was where that woman transformed and killed three others around here. A ghost town was all that was left now, the remnants of those who lived and worked here showing the unmarked graves of their deaths.

“Almost... There, just a few more meters...” Panted a guard as he looked up at the sun roof above, the plexi-glass mesh should have shown the orange gas giant high above, its rings of ice and rock visible as a halo of dust over its equator. Instead the massive window was enveloped by a living carpet of white shells that clicked and scratched at the panels, just as it all collapsed in a shower of glass shards and spiders raining down over the roofs and trees of the dome environment. “LOOK OUT!” Landing on six legs and causing the tiled floor to crack under its impact the rest of its swarm rolled and landed at its feet, the hybrid reared up and stared into the guard's terrified face before it snapped its tongue straight through his visor, the thing split in half from the impact. Screams and gunfire filled the air all while magnetically propelled bullets cut through the ground in streaks of fiery blue and white, the man was yanked forward into the fanged maw of the hissing creature like a frog catching a fly. The guard's muffled screams going quiet as the stinger tongue dug deep through his skull and down his neck.

“BASTARD!!!” The thing never got a chance to start feeding as it was torn to shreds by heavy gun fire, its spawn dead and splattered around it as the eight remaining armed men and women reloaded and fled, running past the smoking corpses as more of the spider creatures fell from the skylight and began congregating around them. “Hurry! The exits right there!” Two more human-sized arachnid hybrids crawled their way from the roof as the team frantically ran to the exit on the other end of the dome. The clicking of mandibles behind them brought chills down Jake and Mary's back as they pulled out their pistols and fired running, too terrified to look behind them as they finally got to the locked doors to the mess hall. Corgen had shoved the two engineers behind him as he set his rifle to his hip and began firing at everything in front of him, sprays of blue splattered over the floors as a hail of electric arced bullets chewed threw dozens of the swarm at a time, the relentless tide of arachnids marching forward through the gunfire until they had started crawling up his legs. “Open it! FUCKING open it!!!”

A mashed fist slammed against the door controls, the double panelled doors sliding open with the group rushing through the opening in the nick of time. The swarm closing in just as the doors closed, crushing a few of the white shelled crab things in the process. “Get them off me! GET THEM OFF ME!” Screamed Corgen, dropping his spent gun on the floor and scratching over his back and shoulders as five of the parasites had managed to crawl over him and started stinging into his padded vest with their tongues. Prying his visor off, the man starting striking the creatures in vain, their stingers digging strait through the material of his cloths and piercing his skin painfully

Looking to the others as he slumped against the corner wall between it and the door, the colour was already leaching out of his skin, his eyes dilated to a pitch black as the parasites dug onto him like ticks. Pulling a small round object from his belt he looked to the others backing away as the spiders turned their attention on them. “RUN! Get out of here!” Screamed the man just as his chin began to split open, pulling the pin he shoved the grenade down his vest as the others fled for their lives. Looking up at the doors Corgen could see a clawed fist pound its way through the doorway, a growing dent forming just as long serrated claws started pulling the doors apart. At that moment the grenade went off, a flash of yellow light and molten hot beads of metal sprayed out at the speed of sound in every direction, the blast shredding everything for three meters as the door gave way and reduced the swarm and hybrids to a murky blue and white paste of twitching limbs and smoking gore.

***

She was confused, disoriented, when she woke up it was in a strange room, unfamiliar and painfully bright, her eyes had difficulty focusing under such light that she had to bring her pale arm over her face just to block it out. Lifting herself off the bed she moaned as her whole body ached, sore from something she couldn't remember. Setting her wobbling feet to the cold tiled floor she stopped as something tugged at her, looking down at her arms and chest she spotted strange rubbery pads clinging to her white skin, all of them linked to the wall along with a sharp thing sticking in her arm, its tube linking to a yellow dripping bag overhead. Prying the stinging thing out of her arm she started plucking the pads off of her body and began moving shakily out of the bright room. Looking at the two panels of metal pinched together she recognized a small pad nearby, little coloured buttons labelled in a language she had trouble reading. “Ohhh-pen...” Pressing her finger on the red circle the double doors slid open with a rush and hiss of air, startling her. Taking a few careful steps out she staggered out into a dark grey corridor, the lighting was better here, more comfortable.

Making her way blindly down the hallway she winced as her body ached, small cracking sounds wracked her body as she buckled down, clutching her sides. Looking at her hands she gasped as her fingers fused together, lengthening into sickle sharp talons that snipped in the air like triple bladed scissors. Her skin was hardening, segmenting at the wrists and elbows as she regained her strength to stand. Looking around she kept moving, forcing herself into a hunch as her back heaved. Tearing sounds filled her ears as the changes continued, but she had to keep going, she just felt so hungry all of a sudden.

Hearing panicked sounds in front of her she hid behind a cross section of the hallway, crouching low to the ground as a group of creatures moved and turned the opposite way. It was strange, she could make out an odd reddish glow in them, even after they turned a corner back from where she wandered she could still make out their presence. Tilting her head in confusion she lifted herself up and moved down the hallway they came. Reaching another double door she looked over to the panel next to it, reading the 'open' sign under a red button she pressed it with her sharp claw with a click as the doors rushed apart for her. Something about this place seemed familiar to her, cold and large it was filled with boxes and containers, tracing her claw against the labels she could just make out what they read. “Payyyypurrr....Spay-yer Partzzz.” Moving from box to box she soon caught scent of something sweet far away, off to the end of the large dome she wandered in. Scratching at the ill fitting cloths as they tore open at the back she moved through the maze of containers until she came upon something that confused her more.

A six foot wide puddle of blue ichor stained the tiled floor, the shattered bodies of seven dead creatures with white shells twitched in **** throes at her feet while a container with sweet smelling things drew her over. Moving to the crate she started shuffling through boxes and jars. Tearing the cardboard boxes were easy for her as she pulled out round little things from the one in her grip, she sniffed them before looking back at the box with pictures on it. “ Hamb Burr-gurrs...” Dropping the box at her feet she started biting into the frozen meats, chewing with some effort before swallowing it down, her eyes went wide at the interesting taste, she dug in again, her body changing as she added mass to fuel her metamorphosis.

Losing interest in the now empty crate after eating out its contents she turned her attention to the seven dead arachnids sitting in the now dried blue puddle. Snatching one up with her claws she brought it over to her clicking mandibles, her stinger tongue licking the cracked shell and recoiling as she dropped it back on the ground, her eyes shutting closed from the disgusting flavour. Looking out from the walls she could make out the red glows she noticed earlier, there weren't as many as before but she could still make them out. Clicking her fangs in curiosity she walked over to the door and clicked it open, intent on seeing these red glows for herself, they might even be tasty.

***

When the blast hit, a rush of pressurized air knocked down the team of humans just as an emergency bulkhead slammed down between the junction of the living quarters and the hallway they were running in, intense sprays of flame retardant chemicals shot from the roof of the corridor as red emergency light glowed overhead, the fire alarm blared its clarion call throughout the outpost from speakers built into the hallway.

~Warning, fire in hab-dome 4, request emergency response, Warning, fire in hab-dome 4, request emergency response.~

“With the emergency fire procedures going off it might seal those bastards off from us until we reach the ship.” Yelled Chief Clover over the alarms as they all picked themselves up, Dr. Faust checking everyone over for injuries before helping a sobbing Mary back up to her feet with Jake's help. “Come on, all we have to do is cut through the mess hall and out the main gates, we're just a few meters from the dome.” Checking their weapons the Chief and three guards readied themselves to move forward, the two engineers and doctor following suite as they went on through the darkened corridors, flares of red LED lights banked in circles on the ceiling as they ran.

Despite the damage done to the hallways and the swarms blocked off at that end the team could still hear the clicking taps of chitin claws against the metal walls of the corridor outside. “This is a nightmare, how can we escape when those things keep chasing us?” Worried Jake as Mary held onto his shoulder for support, looking out a port-hole window the two regretted it as they saw a mass of arachnids moving off the crew quarters hob-dome and enveloping the walkway they were now in, several of the creatures picking at the transparent window trying to get in. Panting hard as they ran the group finally made it to the mess hall, the doors closing behind them as the sounds of crawling spiders followed behind over the walls and ceiling. “Once we get to that atmosphere hatch door its ten meters to the ship, we're going to have to fight them off till the last second if we want to get off this shit hole!”

Heading over to the opposite side of the cafeteria, officer Flaubert holstered her rifle over her arm and typed the command over the pad next to the doors. Seeing the panels slide open she looked up with widening eyes, screaming as she grabbed for her gun too little too late. The pair of claws that grabbed her arms pinned her straight up as the arachnid snapped down and bit at her shoulder, a searing pain speared into her flesh and dug its way down her chest and organs as a rushing fluid poured into her. Coughing up blood her eyes rolled back into their sockets as she felt her intestines and kidneys dissolve before being slurped up by the hybrid monster. “GET OFF OF HER YOU FUCKING MONSTER!” Yelled Chief Clover as he raised his rifle and pulled the trigger, him and the two remaining guards firing through their former teammate to end her suffering as the thing consumed her from the inside out. Screeching in pain it grabbed onto a table and tossed the solid metal thing at the three armed guards with the ease of a child, the solid object slamming into them and knocking them on their backs, the brunt of the impact crushing through a guard's chest and spine as he fell crumpled and dead, the other two dazed as they rolled from the impact.

“Get up!” Screamed Dr. Faust as one of the guards turned to see the monster loom over him, his last waking sight was a slash of its claws through his neck making, an arc of red spraying over the walls in an arc as his head bobbed over his back just as the abomination clamped its jaws onto this new meal and started feeding again. “MOTHERFUCKER!!!” Harold had gotten up and raised his rifle to fire, cursing out loud as the thing clicked empty, **** to stop the hybrid he flipped his gun around by its barrel and used it to club the thing over the head. The butt of the rifle slammed into the skull of the creature as it fed, blue blood trickling from its skull plating just as it flicked one of its legs to horse kick the Chief away, knocking the man against a wall and leaving him ****. Mary, Jake and Melisa moved back against the wall as the thing consumed the dead guard down to his skin and looked in their direction, its mandibles clicking while it looked between the three as if trying to choose which one next to feast off of.

***

She had fallen to her hands and knees half way down the corridor from the storage dome, her tongue lolling out her mouth as her hip bones cracked and shifted. Looking down she could see her legs changing, her pants tearing down the seams as new limbs pushed out of her waist. Long segmented legs tore through her cloths to gain their footing, their feet ending in two sharp claws that clicked as they lifted her up. Twisting and stretching she arched forward as her back flattened out into a dome like a turtle shell, small dimples the size of tea cups forming on its surface as her insides twisted and morphed. Her strength returned she looked around and noticed the red glows from before, along with hundreds of little blue glows she didn't recognize.

Clicking her mandibles she scurried off, faster now as her new legs moved with greater speed, her clawed feet even finding purchase on the walls and ceiling as she scuttled over to a crumpled door down the hall. Leading into the room she first woke up in, the entrance had been pried open, the insides dark with flickering lights as the conditioned air flowed out a gaping hole in the ceiling. Tilting her head in curiosity she scurried up the walls and out the hole to the outside. Breathing in the night air she felt the dust filled winds blow against her armoured shell, a giant orange thing floated over the horizon of the black desert sands in the distance. She felt... Comfortable in all this, like she was home. Turning her gaze over to the red glows across the metal structures she found even less now, crawling over the domes were hundreds of little blue glowing things, all of them moving in on the seven red lives in the large dome further away.

Moving as fast as she could she didn't want to miss seeing what these things were, she was determined now. Moving past the blue glows at her feet she found something familiar in the tiny white shelled creatures as they scurried on six legs and a pair of claws, they were the same spiders she tasted back at the dome with boxes, the ones with the blue blood. Sneering at them she knew they tasted revolting and ran faster, trying to beat them to the five... No! Four now, a big blue glow had beat her to them, clicking in irritation she ran over the tubing of another corridor and found a torn hole at its side. Leaping into it she ran through the hallway to the open door, seeing the thing loom over the three red glowing things she hissed as she body tackled the rival for her prey. One of the red glowing creatures screamed as she fought with the large clicking thing, the two rolling through the dome knocking over tables and chairs as she finally pinned it over its back and slashed at its neck and mandibles. Blue gore sprayed over the walls as she practically tore the thing apart, limbs torn off sockets and thrown over her shoulder as she reduced the offending thing to a greasy blue pulp and cracked shell pieces.

Turning her black glossy eyes to the three she noticed a forth red glow in the corner, laying on its back she ignored it as she focused on the three shuffling to the far edge of the dome structure. Clicking her mandibles in hunger she slowly walked towards her prizes, her feet clicking the tiled floor as she moved up close enough to make them out. Tilting her head she squinted her eyes at the things, almost drooling as she opened her fanged mouth and allowed her tongue to hiss out. Before she struck something caught her attention, something she found familiar but couldn't fathom what. Moving closer they cringed and whimpered as she sniffed their hair and faces, her long tongue licking under one of their chins as she made eye contact with one of them. The one with blue and green eyes.

Rearing back she clutched her head with her long spindly claws, ruffling her black hair as memories started flooding her mind. Voices, places, names, whole worlds of memories filling her head to the brink of cracking open her skull before she screamed in pain, the sound making the red glowing humans duck and cover their ears from it all. Calming down she looked at them again, clicking her mandibles before stopping in irritation at the crude noises she made. With some effort she retracted her fangs and tongue, repositioning her mandibles back under her jaw as she looked back at the three humans she now remembered. “Jayyy-ke... Mae Ree...”

“Susan?...”