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‘Tracy to Base camp. We have had a medical emergency at our excavation site!’

‘This is base camp, what is the nature of the emergency? We’ve lost contact with crew member Dillon. What is his status.’

‘Dillon is dead, he -‘

‘One casualty, confirmed, correct?’

‘Listen, we need help right now! Send everyone here.’

‘Describe the accident that led to crew member Dillon’s death.’

‘I don’t know! A fucking giant rock crab ripped him apart!’

There was silence from base camp.

‘Hello, this is crew leader Tracy, Management number 569. I need assistance at my excavation site immediately!’

She repeated herself, and again.

‘They’re not sending anyone, Tracy.’ George grumbled.

‘Base camp! Requesting immediate assistance! Hello?’

Soren could be heard breathing heavily, occasionally sobbing as he’d stumble to the ground. He frequently looked back, but it made no difference, without the lamp, nobody could see Dillon’s excavation site.

‘Just stay by Maddie, Soren!’

He moved just outside of Maddie’s light, he had about 120 feet to reach the rover. The crab slugged into the other side of Maddie’s light. Maddie began to cry over the headset. The enormous monster took up a majority of the space, taking all the light. The crab simply knocked the light over, slightly illuminating Maddie who inched back into the darkness, sobbing.

‘Soren, please. You have to get into the shadows.’ Tracy begged. Soren was in the next set of darkness and was making his way up the sand bank at the crest of the cave. His cries became laughs as he exited the cave and approached the Rover. He looked back, seeing only the gaping decent into the cave that almost took his life. He exhaled heavily. After toying with Maddie’s tools, the crab darted towards the cave entry.

‘I’ll head back to the base camp and get more people to rescue the rest of you.’ Soren cried.

The crab moved it’s huge legs at once easily scaling the steep incline out of the cave. It looked around, taking in the scenery outside of the cave. The crab spotted the rover immediately rushing towards it.

‘Holy fuckin’ shiiiiit!’ Soren said over the intercom.

‘Let’s move, now.’ Tracy commanded. They all began following the crab out.

‘I’m about 40 paces from the surface.’ George said, still in the darkness, he was staying close to the walls. Maddie stepped into the light, also taking to the rocks, keeping low to the surface even after leaving the cave.

Soren opened a storage section of the Rover and pulled out one of the laser rifles they had. He saw the crab still marching towards him and the rover, kicking small poofs of dust up as it marched on. Soren began blasting the creature, chunks would separate from the monster and gently tumble to the ground. This delayed the creature initially, but as it got closer to Soren, the more enraged it became, speeding up until it was on Soren. The rest of the team was already out of the cave, against the protruding rocks, they could see the crab, but not Soren.

‘Tracy to base camp!’ She tried again.

‘This is Maddie, miner 48721, please send someone!’ Maddie wasn’t typically allowed to speak to base camp during operations.

‘Stay safe, we will send a party out for you.’ Base camp replied in a calm tone.

‘Stay safe!? There’s a giant fuckin space crab ripping us to shreds!’ She screamed.

Again, base camp responded with silence.

Soren got under the rover and scooted from the back axle to the front wheels. He took several shots at the feet, the team behind the crab could see occasional lasers flying past the crab when Soren would miss. It began pacing the car in a semi-circle, trying to figure out where the attacks were coming from. Enraged from its failed search and continued harassment from the lasers, the crab began smashing the back end of the rover to bits. The rover would bounce slightly when smashed, storage bin lids would violently thrash open from the force, spewing all its contents on the dusty asteroid floor. Soren screamed and continued to blast, he scooted out to the front of the rover, his legs poking out. The crab was making its way to the front of the vehicle smashing all the way. Soren was out from under the Rover now, he stood up and was face to face with the asteroid crustacean. He could see its glowing eyes and its giant mouth, he didn’t hesitate to blast it a few more times. Soren began to run away slowly, he knew he was dead.

As the crab climbed over the smashed rover, it’s focus left Soren. There was another light being flashed at the two from a distance. Both Soren and the crustacean looked at saw George standing on a small mound of what Earthlings would equate to lava rock, very flaky, and cavernous rock. The crab turned its body to address George and began to journey over to George.

‘George! Drop that light and hide, dammit!’ Soren shouted, George ignored, just like he had done during music selection.

Soren didn’t dare fire again, he knew how close he had just come to his own death, he took this opportunity to grab another rifle that had be shot out of the smashed rover and begin heading to the hills where Tracy and Maddie were hidden. The crab began to approach George, who pointed his lights directly into the crabs eye. George hopped down into the rocks, wedging himself in a narrow crevice, hugged by the jagged walls. The crab began to smash the rocks, becoming like the miners themselves, chipping away hopelessly at the rocky walls. Large pieces of stone were being flung into the air, creating a small rain of rocks. George laid there, pressed as tightly as he could against the rocks, he was silently sobbing. His lights were all off to avoid detection, wedged in a pitch black nook, his only sense available to him was touch. He could feel his whole hiding spot rattle with every strike, he could feel his frail body shake when the smashing would happen. Left to only his imagination and endless waiting, George hopelessly imagined Dillon’s final moments of consciousness as his body was separated in two and flung to the cave ceiling. He wondered if Dillon actually experienced this horror, or if he had already passed by that point. The thuds were percussious and steady, there was no signs of it slowing or stopping soon.

Soren regrouped with the rest of the team, crouching in silence.

‘George. Are you there?’ Tracy asked, no reply. the crab was still over where George had been seen.

‘His vitals are fine, increased heart rate, so he’s alive.’ Maddie mentioned.

Suddenly, two more Rovers bounced from the hill in the distance to where the smashed rover was. It was base camp, they had responded by sending two rovers out. From the rover, exited 4 figures, they were roughly eight feet tall and moved much faster than the crew did. Their heads glowed, and they had no space suits. These were decommissioned military security forces droids. They were all armed severely with more than just laser rifles. Three of them formed up, trained their weapons on the crab and began approaching, the fourth, lowered its weapon and began scanning the terrain. The droid faced directly at Tracy, its head stopped moving focusing at a distance on the group, it connected to Tracy’s headset.

‘TRACY MINING LEAD 569. COME IN.’

‘This is Tracy!’

‘ARE YOU SERIOUSLY INJURED?’

‘We have suffered a casualty and there is some-‘

‘ARE YOU SERIOUSLY INJURED?’

‘No.’

The droid began to approach the group, saying nothing more. The rest of the droids began opening fire of the crab, the droid were almost three feet away from the creature itself and surrounded it on all sides so that it can face only one unit at a time. The crab smashed one droid, pinning it to the ground, knocking the weapon from its hand. With its free hands it smashed its metal appendages into the crab’s shell and began pulling the upper half of its body up the crab. Another droid tossed it a smaller side arm, and the half droid began shooting the crab point blank making new and widening old holes in the crabs shell. This sent the crab into a flurry of stomping, thrashing, and bucking. It smashed another droid completely to bits, and the third began to back away to regroup with the rescuing droid. Eventually the crab collapsed, the half droid still stuck in the crab continued to fire into it. Eventually, the light in it’s head would fade and its movements would slow.

The droid joined back up together and addressed the miners.

‘PLEASE. GET INTO THE OTHER ROVER AND RETURN TO BASE CAMP.’

They hastily made their way to the spare rover, the droids forced themselves into the driver’s seat of both vehicles.

‘Wait, we have to see if miner George is out there.’

The droid turned their face to the crab.

‘SCAN CONDUCTED. NO HUMAN LIFE DETECTED.’

‘Nah man, his vitals are showing he’s alive, he’s just beneath that thing.’ Soren said.

‘YOU MUST RETURN TO BASE CAMP IMMEDIATELY.’

‘We can’t just leave him out here he will die!’

‘MINER GEORGE IS ALREADY DEAD. WE MUST RETURN TO BASE CAMP.’

‘I’m going to get him.’ Soren said, unbuckling and opening the rover door.

‘Soren, get back in the Rover!’ Tracy demanded, Soren ignored, he made his way to the hulking deceased crab. The areas where George had been hiding was slightly exposed from the smashing. Soren turned his light on and could see what looked to be a white spacesuit, he scrambled moving ruble away, a hand jutted out at him.

‘I found him! He’s here!’ Soren cried unearthing rubble and pulling George out. Finally, George came to the surface, his hood was cracked and his mic was broken. he shouted but nobody could hear. His space suit also had a rip and his leg had ballooned from being exposed to space. Luckily the suits were made in sections so if there was a leak it could be contained to a local area (in this case the leg). He tried to walk but tumbled to the ground, Soren helped him move towards the rover.

‘IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT WE LEAVE TO BASE CAMP IMMEDIATELY.’

‘CAPTAIN. GESTATION IS BEING DETECTED. SUGGEST IMMEDIATE EVACUATION.’ The other droid said over the radio. The droid looked over at the two hobbling towards them.

‘MINING LEADER. IT IS IMPERATIVE FOR SAFETY THAT WE LEAVE AT ONCE.’

‘We cannot leave my team!’ Tracy shouted.

The crab, in the distance slightly ruptured open, and thousands of miniature crabs, about the size of basketballs began pouring out the holes made by the droids. The crabs rushed to Soren and George. They both looked at the small ocean of miniature crabs rushing towards them.

‘Don’t leave me!’ George screamed and tried to increase his speed. Nobody could hear him but, but Soren knew what he was saying. It was a moot point, the crabs had already reached them and began crawling up George’s legs and ripping further into his suit, they began crawling up his torso and made their way over to Soren. Soren dropped George, slapping off a crab. George fell to the ground and was overrun and completely covered by the small crabs. He thrashed on the ground as they ripped him to pieces, finally staying still. Soren continued to run for the vehicles, aimlessly blasting behind him.

Soren tripped as he was running, a fatal error, before he could recover, the crabs were already on him. The droids began driving away returning to base camp. The two survivors were silent.

‘Base Camp to Tracy, Mining Leader 569.’

She hesitated in responding. ‘Go ahead.’

‘Do not use this communications channel for reporting. Reporting must be done in person. Please confirm understanding.’

‘I understand.’

The ride back to base camp was long, cold, and isolating.

‘I CAN SENSE THAT YOU ARE TROUBLED. WHEN WE ARRIVE TO BASE CAMP. I AM PROGRAMMED TO OFFER A HUG AND PAT ON THE BACK.’

‘That’s alright. Thank you though.’ The crew and droid sat silently for a moment,

‘TRACY, MINING LEADER 569, THERE IS NO SHAME IN YOUR LEADERSHIP. YOU DID EVERYTHING YOU COULD.’ She sobbed silently, the remainder of the trip was silent and filled with tears.

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