Among Us: Hosts

Ch. 3

"Guys! What's going on?" He ran up towards Gan and Chantelle, and was swept off his feet as he was pushed back to the ground by Kandor. Assisi screamed in horror, and Gan ran to Kandor to get between them.

"That's not Pink! That's not our Prem!" Kandor yelled, pinning him to the ground.
Matias hesitantly grabbed a knife from a supply compartment by the entrance and walked to them with a shaking hand. "He's right. That's not him. We saw him... a copy of him... die."

"Good heavens, you two! What are you talking about?!" Simi screamed at Matias when he saw the knife. Matias handed the knife to Kandor, which made Gan jump at him and punch it out of his hand. Assisi quickly ran over and kicked the knife away. Chiedza and Raha arrived together from a thicket of trees and yelled when they saw the fighting.

"White! Blue! What's the meaning of this!" Chiedza yelled.
"Captain, that's not Pink. That's a shapeshifter."
Raha looked at Prem in horror. "You... how are you still... Prem?!"

Prem looked miserable, as he was trying to pry Gan off of Kandor, Simi helping.
"I don't know what Blue's talking about!"
"Black, these plants can shapeshift! We saw one turn into Pink!" Raha corroborated.

Chiedza looked taken aback. All eyes turned to Prem, who sputtered in confusion, clinging to Gan's arm.
"I'm not... what?! A shapeshifter?! We're wasting time! We need to leave!"

Raha hesitated, and Chiedza looked at him with hardness in her eyes. Kandor, for one, looked unconvinced. Raha and Chiedza ran up the ramp when the behavior of the plants suddenly picked up. Assisi and Gan sat by Prem, and Chiedza kneaded her head with apparent confusion.
She quickly punched in the code to close the ramp, and pulled everyone inside. Once she got to Prem, she felt a strong arm stop her.

"Kandor. Let go of my f***ing arm."
Kandor and Chiedza stared at each other in defiance.
The rest of the room waited with baited breath.

Raha and Matias exchanged a glance, unsure of whether to step in, each one foot in the direction of Prem, ready to fight in case Prem decided to fight. Gan saw the tension and glared at them. "Kandor! We won't abandon someone on your whim. This is Prem."

"Gan. The plants had the mimicry down perfectly. We saw it."
"Well then any of us could be a mimicry! Are you really willing to take the chance to abandon someone because of such a thing?"
Kandor glanced at Raha and Matias, who nodded slightly. "I am willing, White."

Chiedza slammed him in the ribs with her elbow and let the ramp close entirely, locking in all ten members of the crew together. "Well, I'm not."

Prem heaved a sigh of relief and hugged Chiedza.

Kandor glared at him, but took a step back. Matias went up to him to help him, while Assisi reached to help Prem. The ten of them waited for the O2 levels to get stable, and the red hue of the waiting room became green. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and took off their helmets and stowed them. Ganbaatar immediately ran back to Navigation, and Chiedza took Prem, Simi, and Chantelle with her to follow.

Assisi looked at Kandor and sighed. "Jessica, Raha, come with me to Shields. Matias, get him to med bay."

"I'm fine," Kandor growled. "We need all hands on deck right now."
Assisi rolled her eyes, "Then go check the engines right now."

The ten crew members dispersed around the ship, and almost immediately, Ganbaatar noticed the ship was having difficulty taking off.
He announced over the intercom, "Shields, we need you to dispatch A6 and J1. Engines, please stand by for ejection process."
Chantelle and Simi left Prem with Gan and Chiedza and made her way to Weapons. She say at the controls and got the weapons ready to slice the vegetation below.

"All vents are closed, right White?" She asked.
"Yea, I walked around to make sure that was the case. It seems something has wrapped itself around our third backup generator. We need to eject it to move."

Elsewhere, Assisi asked cautiously, "The third backup generator...? We can surely be fine without that, right?"
Jessica shook her head. "It will cut down some power directed to the AI. It may become imprecise; we'll have to do certain tasks around the ship ourselves."

Kandor, who was at the lower engine with Matias, stood by to make sure nothing overheated while Nav could eject the generator. The whole ship shook, and everyone in Nav could see the struggle the ship was having against the vines growing larger and trying to suck in the spacecraft.

Chiedza's hawk eyes caught almost every movement displayed, and with her finger poised on the intercom button, she waited for the right moment. As soon as the generator ejection was complete, she yelled into the intercom, "Green, fire now!"

A flurry of flames came out from underneath and plane and started burning the vegetation below. Gan saw the hold of the plants decrease and immediately turned on full thrusters to take off. The STS-AU-17 gave a strong rattle before launching to the sky. Every crew mate got pressed to the ground at the sudden movement, and stayed down for the full 10 minutes it took to leave the atmosphere. As the gravitational force from the planet decreased, Gan depressurized the cabin properly, so everyone could move around safely.

"That was weird. Almost too easy," Assisi remarked to Jessica, who responded, "That was an easy exit?"
"Sure. All we lost was a generator, not an engine."

Chantelle echoed the same sentiment to Simi in Weapons, who just nodded. Everybody heaved a sigh of relief and slowly made their way to the Med Bay and Admin room to take care of business.

A few hours later, Chiedza, who was sitting in the Navigation room with Ganbaatar and Chantelle, stared at the monitor in front of them as it suddenly blared a large red warning message.

Reading it quickly, she immediately grabbed the intercom and turned it on, "This is your captain speaking. Everybody gather in the Cafeteria. Now."

The message?

**WARNING**

It has been calculated in the organic matter analysis that this space craft is carrying foreign organic matter that is not allowed on the descent to earth. This requires ejection due to potential threat to the safety of the crew members and the purity of the earth's ecosystem. Please address this immediately.