Max entered the bay and panned to the left, searching for any signs of Klem. The area appeared to be clear, but it was so heavily damaged that it was nearly impossible to tell. The bay had once been half full of cargo, but now everything was torn open, and there were signs of dozens of small Klem having gone through here and shards of at least three larger eggs that should have been Warriors.

That didn't account for all of the ones that they had seen on the ship, but Max hadn't searched much of the room yet.

A few steps further in, a Swarm-type Klem, their basic worker and biomass collection bugs, jumped out at his head, only to be crushed by his fist.

"I have contact. Klem Swarm. Watch for small bugs, roughly knee high or smaller." Max warned.

The crate that it had jumped out of had a warning label on the side, so Max double-checked it to make sure it wasn't going to be a danger to his suit. High Fructose Syrup. No wonder the Klem had multiplied in here. The cargo bay was full of drums of syrup. It was the perfect site for them to mass-produce Warriors since nothing larger would be able to navigate the hallways of the ship.

The distinctive buzz of a Disruptor caught Max's attention as Nico found a target, followed by a panicked squeak from the station boss before his pistol flashed in the dim light, and a small Klem exploded in front of him.

"They're fast. That thing just came out of nowhere," the Valkia muttered, making Nico giggle.

"Faster than you expect. You should be glad that this galaxy doesn't know about the Scourge. They are much faster and optimized for killing inside of ships." She agreed.

"What sort of Galaxy needs better predators than this?" The Station Boss complained as he fired twice more, eliminating another pair of Klem Swarm bugs.

"Oh, the Scourge isn't natural. They're the result of artificial intelligence-based android species running amok after its guidelines were set to only one word. Survive." Nico explained.

The Valkia shuddered, but Max was more interested in what seemed to be hiding in the corner of the room than the interaction between the other two.

"I think that I have found the source of the infestation. There are two more pods in here, and they're space pods, not the ones that they produce on the surface. This ship was transporting their interstellar pods, and one hatched." Max called Archibald.

"How many pods are we talking about?" the Valkia asked.

"I only see three in total. Two intact and one hatched. The rest were created by the occupants of the pod that hatched. If we gave them more time, this whole ship would be full of them. It looks like they're just beginning to wake up. Those space pods usually need an atmospheric entry to wake them up." Max explained.

Max took out the scanner from his flat space and checked the pods for any foreign matter that wasn't Klem in origin, and then vaporized them both before they could hatch and release something deadly into the ship.

That enraged the remaining Klem Swarm, and they rushed toward him, not caring at all about the blasts from the Disruptors in their hurry to kill the one who had dared to damage the pods.

The Disruptors had been created specifically for dealing with the Klem, though, and the small bugs were eliminated with extreme prejudice before Nico and Max began the work of sanitizing the cargo bay to make sure that there were no more small bugs or hidden pods left behind.

"I would like to put in a vote for simply throwing the whole ship into a star when we finish here. No matter how well we clean it, I'm not sure we will ever get all the Klem biomass out. We have a good lead as to how the infestation started now. We just need to find out where and why they picked the pods up.

The Valkia snorted in amusement and nodded his head. "I agree. Once we find out where these pods came from and what made them think that picking them up was a good idea, I will extract my share of the cargo, and then the ship can be decommissioned with a fiery farewell."

If there was one universal truth, it was that a Klem infestation was best dealt with using fire. Every species agreed that it was the best method, even if they didn't all accept that it would still be the best method even if they were still on the planet with the Klem.

"The bay is clear. Where to next?" Nico asked.

Max took a moment to search for thoughts in the vicinity, including the vague ones of the Klem and realized that there was only one cluster of them left, up in the front of the ship, near where the bridge should be.

No, that wasn't quite right. There were some still in the back cargo bay or near it. historical

"Nico, go back and clear the rear of the ship. There are more Klem near the cargo bay. Once the area is confirmed clear, have the station crew get the boss's cargo off the ship and make sure that Annabelle doesn't wander away or get herself injured looking for adventure. I will take the boss and go search the front of the ship for the rest of the Klem and any documents that we can recover.

Sort through the ship's records and travel log if you have time. It might tell us something.

"Not a problem. I have downloaded everything already, and I'm working on the linked handheld devices now. The ship's computer is incredibly slow. Be sure to check for the cause. I think it might have a memory-intense program running somewhere that I don't have access to." She replied.

The Station Boss took out a second pistol to go with the one in his hand, then realized that he was wearing a human-made exoskeleton and started to scroll through the menus in his helmet display until he found the weapon systems.

By Mecha standards, it wasn't much, but there were two high output Ion Blasters on the wings, as well as two light lasers. With those added to his pistols, he felt much more secure, and Max could see all of the ways that he was working to justify buying a number of these for the Valkia in his crew. They certainly wouldn't be cheap, with the firepower and shielding that they had, but they would totally be worth it to him.