Things can happen without Stacy knowing, that much is apparent now. The damage to her sensors is significant. But the fighting clued her in.

After it's all over, after those captured have been rescued, after the injured have been tended to, only the nest is left, and Stacy takes care of it.

||Infestation of Cluster 42, Level 4, Sector 7, Sublevel 12, Zone 37 has been detected. Triggering internal defenses. Decontamination commencing.||

There is a pause.

||Decontamination complete.||

Simple as that, once she knows the problem was there. Her internal sensors are damaged, especially in the city, and so are some of the systems monitoring them. You have to know what's broken to know to fix it.

Such a simple thing and it only took one man dying to make it happen. (His body is gone, by the way, ripped to shreds and eaten. There's not even a spot of blood on the floor. That's the bugs' doing. The bugs' bodies are gone too--that's Stacy's doing).

||Any injured personnel that still have not received medical attention, report to the nearest lift, and you will be transported to the MedBay. Any uninjured personnel, report to the Living Area, to the restroom facilities to undergo decontamination of xenobiological material. Then report to the Obs Deck to meet your new crew-mates.||

Said crew-mates--and the Doctor, who'd skipped out and miraculously ducked and weaved his way to the lift when he'd realized the Master was there--are there and waiting, and just a tad confused.

[ooc: read this first]

It was a classic sci-fi horror movie moment to those that had watched horror movies. Walking through the mass of insects, trying to keep their movements as slow and un-alarming as possible, not knowing if they could get through the nest intact or if they'd suddenly attack any moment.

While they were confused by the recorded chittering from Robin's belt, they were attracted by the heat and apparently by the blood being trailed along by Sam's foot, so there was no telling how long they had before the bugs figured out what they were.

But apparently, their luck held out. They were near the tunnel that led up to the surface, to the city inside Stacy, and only two adult bugs were guarding it.

Now they only had to sneak by them...

Inside the Vatican, the remaining free crew was putting the last finishing touches on their choke point/kill zone, or as someone had dubbed it, "the roach motel". They had cleaned out the first four rooms of both the Egyptian Museum and the Etruscan Museum on the floor above, so they could knock out the floor and shoot at the roaches below. That part had consumed more time than they wanted. At least knocking the floor in was simple enough. Those pieces were set up to provide cover, block doors, or reinforce the walls.

Hopefully the people of whatever universe this Vatican was from would understand.

Kurt would bait the roaches into entering the rooms, and the power-house team of Kon and Vincent would be waiting at the opposite end. Everyone else would be up in the Etruscan rooms where they would hopefully be safer.

Look alive and keep the friendly-fire to a minimum, people!

The rescue team stopped just inside the doors of the Vatican for a quick last-second pow-wow, and to make sure that everyone knew their jobs and places on this team. A note was also made that if anyone was going to be f*$%#ing stupid, they should let everyone else know so they could be tied up and left behind as bug-bait. This was not the time to be pulling shit, not with over a half-dozen people captured and (hopefully just) one dead.

The general plan was that they'd all follow Jaime, since his scarab could track down Paco and Robin, and hope like hell the others were with them and that they didn't run into too many bugs on the way. There was wiggle room in the plan for as much running and screaming and shooting as necessary, but the end result was dead bugs and rescued crew members so they could all go back to trying to figure out how to get home.

Last chance to stay behind and fight the good fight in an enclosed space.

They were thrown down a hole, that dropped down a slope so steep it was unclimbable. Into some sort of cavern, half-formed by the stone understructure of the city, and by chewed-out tunnels through Stacy's flesh, deep enough where the broken sensors had no hope at all of detecting it so the holes could be healed up.

The hole was covered again, as they pushed a massive stone over it, cutting off the light, leaving Tony, Terry, Paco, Sam, Conner, Xander, and Robin in the dark. Whether or not they had weapons or their belongings on them depended on if they were strapped on and if they'd managed to hold onto them or not.

The air was muggy, even worse than the rest of the ship. It was sweat-beads-down-the-middle-of-your-back-and-feels-all-gross muggy, and the air did not smell pleasant.

Oh yeah, and it was dark. Was it mentioned that it was dark? Because it was.

It took some running and some fighting, but they made it to the Vatican without losing anyone, or even any limbs. The Vatican itself seemed deserted, although it was unlikely that they'd take that at face value at this point. Roaches were good at getting in where they weren't wanted, why should seven-foot ones be any different?

At least it would stall them, let everyone catch their breath and recover. Regroup, take a headcount. Come up with a plan.

Because they really, really needed one.

It was time to get a little more organized, share some information with each other. She had a talk with that bigface kid, Jaime, to see if he could do anything to shield them from Stacy's prying eyes and he said he had a few ideas, so a meeting place was chosen, and it was time to gather.

Cybil had a good authoritative, shouting voice.

"Everyone, listen up! We're meeting down in the city near that big tree. Grab whoever you see and get down there."

Indeed they were. People were starting to gather there.

[ooc: Instead of little subthreads, everyone post in one thread as people arrive. Try to keep the convo general, like everyone talking to each other, instead of devolving into private conversations.]

Pat had found himself exploring the city, and discovered two things thus far: one, that seeing an entire city looking so empty unnerved him in a vague sort of way, and two, the sight of all those buildings made Toxin restless.

C'mon, pops. I've been good. No biting, no mauling, no even threatening to when people're acting stupid. And I was behaving myself even before we got here, remember?

Pat frowned and didn't answer, deciding to peer up at something that he supposed was the equivalent of a skyscraper. A few tendrils snuck out of his shirt collar and poked at him. Please? Anybody gets the wrong idea and I'll let you take care of it. No fights. Come on, I'm bored in here.

Pat sighed, glancing down at one of the tendrils and raising an eyebrow. "No deciding to change your mind about fighting at the last minute."

Would I do that? The tendrils just got a look in return. Trust me, I won't. So can I come out now?

"Only for a few hours," Pat warned as he nodded and more tendrils burst out and the rest of his clothing went decidedly goopier. Toxin grinned toothily as he was given control, and stretched for a moment before scrambling up the side of a building. He glanced around for a moment before web-slinging off, setting out in hopes of finding something more interesting than abandoned buildings.

Thanks to the organic uniform provided by Stacy, Sam was clean and free from the sticky goop that he and Murphy had fallen in while exploring the secret room in the clock house.  Now, clean and dry once again, he meandered down the streets of the city, studying all the massive structures that he'd only given a fleeting glance before.  He stopped in front of St. Peter's Basilica, the very same cathedral that Connor and Murphy had been coming out of when he ran into them.  Glancing downward, at the cargo pocket on his thigh, he pulled out his father's journal and took out the rosary that they used as bookmark--among other things--and a small silver flask.

Turning his eyes back to the building in front of him, he started up the steps and disappeared inside.  Several minutes passed, minutes spent over the basin of holy water, blessing it for a second time, and filling his flask with it.  Giving a satisfied nod, he tucked both items back into his pocket and stepped back out into the city.

Following the glowy zits had lead Mia to the item lockers, just as Voice In Head had told her. She was happy to find her bow, arrows, and short sword all just as she needed them. Her costume was elsewhere, but that could wait. If she was going to be stalking around an alien vessel, she was going to be armed, no matter how nice the Voice In Head had been so far.

Quiver on her back, bow at her side, and sheathed sword belted to her hip, she was off down another row of lights, deeming it now time for clothes.