The goo is attracted by heat, so if we wanted to lead it into the engine room, we needed a heat source. Because of the wall behind the pulp, the heat produced by the engines barely effected it.
- I think I can use my spacesuit. It's heated, so it should work - I suggested.
- You want to feed your spacesuit to the goop? - Dawn was a bit confused.
- No, I only want to drag it to lure the goo to the engine room - I denied.
- That sounds much better. I'll distract Leonid, you go get the spacesuit - we made our way out of the room and Dawn went to the cockpit.
I gazed upon her, but something else caught my eye. Through the front window, a space shuttle was visible. It was large enough to fit Icebreaker-5 inside.
- They want to steal the whole spaceship! - I thought.
- The blob is calm now - Dawn informed Leonid.
- Excellent. We're almost there - Leonid responded.
- Vlad, can you hear me? - Alia was communicating with someone through the radio in her spacesuit, as she still had it on.
The Vlad in question was most likely Vladislav Kilov, a member of the Perseids who we met aboard the Hyperspace. He posed as a detective to lure us into a trap. Vlad didn't come to the biodome with Leonid, Rill, Alia and Dawn, thus leaving his fate ambigous. Every now and then, between missions, I speculated about where he and Bruise, his collaborator, went after we thwarted the Sunset Protocol.
- Yes, I can. We're ready - Vlad replied. It was definitely Kilov, as I recognized the voice.
I heard some Russian chatter coming through the radio. Vladislav spoke afterwards:
- Open the back, Leonid's coming - he said.
- Хорошо - Bruise left, saying "Okay" in Russian. As I suspected, he was there too.
It seems like the escape was planned for a while and Leonid reached out to Vlad and Bruise, who prepared the space shuttle as an escape vehicle. I guess they connected while we were in the submarine. I saw the back of the space shuttle opening and a robotic arm emerging out of it, ready to capture Icebreaker-5.
I couldn't let the Perseids get away with this. I found my spacesuit, picked it up and flew to the goo room. I had to be careful not to hit anything along the way, as any noise would tip Leonid off about my presence.
Luckily for me, the Perseids were distracted by the space shuttle, as they had to position Icebreaker-5 for the claw to grab it. I reached the goo and it reacted instantly. First, it bubbled and squelched. Then, it started growing towards me. Even though I could fly away at any moment, it still scared me. The being was truly alien, after all, and thus, unpredictable. I hoped that the heat won't agitate it, only prompt it to follow me.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3vj9FVHwrV
As it got close to my spacesuit, I drifted out of the room and the goop followed me. It made a lot of noise as it flowed and this unfortunately caught Leonid's attention.
- What's going on back there? - he hissed.
- I'll go check - Dawn flew over to me.
The goo had almost reached the engine room when she showed up.
- Is everything okay? - Dawn whispered.
- Yes, I'm almost done - while saying this, I hovered in place above the goo. It tried growing upwards to reach my spacesuit and gravity didn't restrict it, because it simply wasn't there.
The sludge grew into an elongated column of tan bubbles and I jumped away as it got close to me. Along the way, my spacesuit smacked into the door frame leading into the engine room, the sound loud enough to alert Rill Gomana, who came over at Leonid's behest.
- What is going on...? - Rill made it to the engine room and suddenly noticed me - You...!
- Who's there? - Leonid was getting frustrated.
- The glasses guy! Chris, if I remember correctly! - Rill exclaimed.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtljXNPUNr5
- Oh no... - I muttered.
We've been discovered and I had to act quickly. I tossed my spacesuit into the back of the engine room, prompting the goo to grow there. Because it was growing vertically and horizontally, it quickly started filling the room.
Meanwhile, Rill Gomana dashed forward, pushing Dawn out of the way. He wanted to get to me, but encountered the goo instead.
He grabbed the door frame, which prevented him from slamming into the pulp pile headfirst. Rill glared at me with rage and I glanced at him with fear. Leonid and Alia were focused on bringing Icebreaker-5 to the shuttle, so we only had to deal with Rill.
He punched me in the chest, which hurt a lot. Then, he slammed me against the wall, behind which was the left engine. The goo was growing out of control and almost reached me. Before Rill could deal the killing blow, I flew out of his way, narrowly avoiding the expanding sludge. Rill lunged forward and smashed into the wall, leaving two visible dents created by his fists. The goo stopped growing for a bit, but continued shortly after, determining that it was safe to go on.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡurgH9aFyTG
Dawn attempted catching Rill off guard by attacking him from behind. She tried to clobber his back, but he retaliated by grabbing her and throwing her away with full force. As she flew out of the room, she accidentally touched the pulp with the left sleeve of her jumpsuit. She frowned in disgust, but that emotion turned into horror when the sludge started growing on her.
Dawn squeaked in shock before taking action. She rubbed her sleeve against the wall, smearing the goo all over the place. Eventually, she found a loose screw and got the sleeve stuck on it, ripping it off as she flew away. The torn sleeve stuck to the wall, eventually getting completely engulfed in the goop.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbhbYYdO4WN
I realized that if I allowed the spacesuit to be covered by the goo, I wouldn't have a chance at survival. Avoiding a fleeing Rill, I grabbed the spacesuit and pulled it out of the goo. Luckily, only a bit of goo got stuck onto the spacesuit. My hands were latched onto the helmet, so I used my foot to rub it off. I didn't think this through properly, as the goo started growing on my foot. To ensure survival, I had to ditch my sock and throw it away. Because of the microgravity, it flew for quite a bit before sticking onto the control panel. Alia reacted by jumping away and flying towards me, trying to attack.
I ended up using the spacesuit as a weapon, smashing it into Alia and knocking her away. She frantically escaped with Rill, not wanting to face the goo, which started growing into the engines again and sirens went off, with the lights flashing red.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZbXDzbdAw3
- What have you done?! - Leonid yelled at me as I made it to the cockpit. He was brave enough to push the goo away and used water from a small bottle which he had to wash the pulp away. This freed my sock, which swiftly I put back on.
Meanwhile, Bruise and Vlad watched my plan devolve into pure chaos from a distance, staring at us through the window of their space shuttle.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEKJZ1tbZ9a
The engines gave in shortly after and we started slowly drifting away from the shuttle. Vlad reacted by coming back to his shuttle's cockpit and flying over to us. Bruise steered the claw and tried to grab Icebreaker-5.
Leonid fought with me over the control panel and managed to push me away. I had to avoid the goo while he tried to meet the claw in a last-ditch effort. However, the engines were dead and he couldn't control the spacecraft anymore.
- This was such a great plan, but you HAD to ruin it! Why can't you leave us alone?! We had a DEAL!!! - Leonid yelled at me.
- You double-crossed us, so the deal's invalid! - I yelled back.
Leonid said some pretty nasty things about me afterwards, but I didn't focus on him. The goo has grown to the point where it could leak out of Icebreaker-5 any second. So, I quickly put on my spacesuit, though it wasn't really quick because of the suit's clunky nature. Dawn noticed this and, having defeated Alia, put on hers as well.
Leonid tried to break my spacesuit and it was really hard to keep it on with him struggling with me. He managed to tear off the air pipe right as the goo bursted out of the spaceship.
- Help!!! - I screamed as loudly as I could. After that, I tried my best to hold my breath.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuObr3JaNsz
Dawn, having dealt with her spacesuit, flew over to me and attatched the pipe back in its place. Because of this, Leonid redirected his anger towards her, trying to push her into the goo. I did my best to distract him and we ended up both taking on Leonid.
Rill and Alia weren't even fighting anymore; they were purely terrified by the destruction caused by the goo. It even compromised Icebreaker-5's already damaged electronics, shutting down the lights and silencing the alarm. Despite Bruise's efforts, the claw only nibbled at out spacecraft. Instead, a small pile of sludge latched onto the claw and was therefore brought into the shuttle.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXbCf7G1Flk
We were speeding up and eventually were too far for Bruise to reach us. Vlad tried to chase Icebreaker-5 but gave up once our vessel started chaotically spinning around, throwing the goo all over the place.
It was like an intense game of paintball and all of us, including the Perseids, had to dodge clumps of goo which were thrown our way. The clumps splattered around the whole spaceship.
More concerningly, we were approaching the surface dangerously fast. I had to call the rest of the team right now if we wanted to have a slim chance of survival. I selected the right channel on the radio and started yelling into it.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeG7dJ3hqdJ
- Please help us immediately!!! We're descending onto the surface alarmingly fast and we're going to jump out of the spaceship!!! Send someone now!!! SOS!!!! - I screamed.
- Chris, you're... Oh my god... Where are you?! - Justine responded through the radio.
- ABOVE THE HOLE WE DRILLED WITH THE BATYSCAPHE!!! WE NEED HELP FAST, WE'RE GOING TO JUMP!!! - I continued screaming frantically.
- We'll go, we can save you!!! We're...! - Justine's voice eventually distorted into static and she was disconnected.
As we got closer and closer to the surface, Dawn made her way to the escape pod hatch, which was blown open by the goo.
- WE NEED TO JUMP! - she exclaimed and I agreed, albeit without saying anything, because I was too terrified to reply.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6B59EV6svp
Dawn dodged the goop and jumped out of the spaceship, falling onto the ice below. I made it to the hatch and looked down, which was a mistake, because the way down was horribly long. I saw Dawn, having already landed on the ice, struggling to get up.
I was extremely horrified but I had no choice. In all this stress, I sighed deeply and jumped.83Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPMIHCIgpGI
The fall seemed to last much longer than it actually did and I briefly saw the falling Icebreaker-5 below me, as it fell faster than I did. I braced for impact and landed next to Dawn. The low gravity allowed me to live, but it still hurt enough to bring me down to lying on my belly.
With my head unwillingly pressed against the cold ice, I saw Icebreaker-5 crashing into the ground shortly after I landed. My vision got blurry and I passed out shortly after...
ns216.73.217.39da2
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