Rubato Tales 4: Tyson's Worm

Rubato Tales STELLARDATE 110408: Tyson's Worms

After leaving Grunweld we skipped to Mars and dropped off some cargo. Next we were on our way to make a deliver of information to Nippon and we skipped into the LAC9532 system. Maggie had acquired some information that an extralegal, or wildcat, mining operation existed on one of the slushballs that orbited the red dwarf star.
We found the facility easily enough and made our explorations. Maggie checked out the containers and Jacques went to investigate the processing plant while Doc and I hacked the living habitats airlock. Nothing particularly interesting was found outside so we all entered, except for Zechs who flew around outside in his mech. Inside my remote discovered a throughly empty base except for a locked room in the back. We made our way there and discovered a disturbing scene. Apparently 10 of the miners had somehow gotten involved with some sort of Heaven's Gate space alien/comet death cult writing and the Doc smiled as yet more autopsies were about to occur.
We left him to investigate the bodies and Zechs went to find out where the tractor the miners used had gotten to, which should also be were the other missing miners were. His trek took him to a crevasse and a cave where he found the other 15 locals all whom were simply standing at the end of the cavern itself. They were also, and sadly, quite dead.
Jacques, Maria and I busied ourselves with looting while Tyson went to track down some of the rarer electronics. The Doc revealed that the found holes in the bottom of the feet and suits of the dead and Zechs confirmed the same at his location among the 15 locals he discovered. This made us all examine our feet and it was then that Tyson yelped!
Gunfire erupted from the computer room and Tyson was screaming about being attacked by parts of the electronics!
It seems that somehow whatever it was that got out of the people had grown and developed a taste for metals! This quickly made me think that some sort of silicon lifeform might be involved and our later investigations would bear this out. In the immediate future however we had a gunfight with blue colored plasma spewing space eels! It seems the 10 people inside each had one of these little terrors burrowing around inside them, which, at least, explained the loonie death cult they had invented.
As we tried to make our way to the airlock plasma shots erupted from nearly every airvent, electrical conduit and doorway. Their was a LOT of weapons fire next, sadly my talents in such regards are poor and while able to shield myself and Jacques for a bit it was mostly due to the rest of the crews marksmanship talents that we survived. At the end the critters were all slain, one by being slapped around by Tyson no less!
The Doc took this one and ran off to his makeshift lab to attempt to revive it, apparently, while I collected sample of the odd lifeform. It must be worth something to someone I figured. Doc was also able to confirm that the lifeform was native to the deuterium rich slush and was indeed a silicon based lifeform. Would make a great genetic source for plasma weapons I guessed. The larvae were endemic in the slush and this explained the behavior of the last 15 colonists who were controlled by the space eels and taken to a migration route.
More gunfire erupted from the lab and the Doc reported he had succeeded in reviving it and then Javques blew it apart before it killed them both. One wonders about Doc sometimes. He did decided to name it “Tyson's Worm” after its discoverer, at least the first one to live.
Now knowing what to look out for we gathered what was valuable and making sure to not drink anything from the planet we took off and headed for Nippon where we were able to make a routine Information Mail delivery without further ado. Jacques wanted to help out with the transfer and we split the security code between the two of us I sure hope he entered his half properly but hey he's a fellow crewman, we have to trust each other!