Dead Space: That's no moon!

He stepped into the ‘iron maiden’ of the STORE’s suit kiosk and waited as the STORE took apart the straitjacket replacing it with a sealed hazardous environment suit and began attaching exoskeleton pieces onto the suit with a variety of mechanical and motorized seals and biometrically specified pieces. He felt…. At peace.

It was always strange to transfer from unsuited clothing to suited clothing but it’s design was made to be practical. It felt comfy, familiar, especially with a lack of bloodstains, it took the edge off just a bit. Storing 4 small health kits so as to have some inventory room in the suit, he finished his selection before making his way out…

Into a depressurized vacuum
It was a strange thing to admire the beauty of destruction but as he walked through the vacuumed corridors in varying states of OSHA complied safety, he had to admit: it was beautiful in it’s own way.

The Marker really had fucked him up

It also helped that it was juxtaposed with outer space and the structure that was Titan Station: it was beautiful with it’s gleaming lights and high rise buildings. It was ironic that Tartarus had been opened, it’s occupants unleashed to wreak havoc. He would’ve laughed, if he wasn’t so aware of how bad it could get.
When he entered a giant room, most likely a lobby of sorts, with at one end a huge window that revealed the exterior of the Station in all of it’s majesty. He sighed.
He just knew for whatever reason when shit hit the fan he was going to go flying out of it.
It was then a fucking huge Necromorph clambered over a shuttle at the end of the room and made it’s way to Isaac. He saw that it looked like a “brute”, except fuckhuger and lacking a fourth leg. It’s arms also weren’t as heavily armored and seemed thinner.
How the fuck did it move?
His question was immediately answered by this three-legged “tripod” leaping an outrageous distance and knocking over one of the support columns.
Fuck, it was kind of fast.
He snorted, he had faced bigger, badder and bitchier things before. This would be no different: If he could stop one Necromorph infestation, then he could do it again and this time:
He knew what he had to do: Run around it like a little bitch, Stasis it and dismemberment.
Hopping backwards, he blasted it with a stasis charge before shooting it’s arms. He noticed that his hands seemed to be shaking a bit more than usual. He’d probably been in stasis for a while, he had exhibited some of the symptoms of stasis reactivation syndrome, it wouldn’t have surprised him that atrophy had set in even with the advanced technology of the 22nd Century, time was still an enemy no one could stop.

NOTE: Events of this writefag's story is set during Dead Space 2 though taking place in the Mass Effect Universe. In case you were confused.

It’d be fucking stupid to goalie leap out of the way, never mind rolling. Especially in this suit, recovering from a roll was not something he was trained to do. Nor was it going to be comfortable, regardless of how specified the suit was to his being: flesh pressing against the metals integrated into the RIG was not a comfortable experience.

He blasted it with a stasis charge and missed. He tried again and managed to score a hit on it’s arm. It was then he noticed small pods that glowed on it’s arms. Contradictory to most creatures in the natural world where something shining, glowing or overall bright in color were used to ward off predators or attract prey, Necromorphs – being wholly unnatural – ironically had glowing spots which indicated their weakness. It was an unnatural phenomena that Isaac was all to happy to take advantage of.

Making off at least 3 shots, he sighed in relief as it seemed that it was enough to hack off it’s left arm. It fell, unbalanced to the floor of the lobby, before it began pitifully hobbling it’s way after him. It was kind of funny and Isaac took some amount of glee in seeing his enemy – and the pain it represented – so pathetic and incapable. But he wasn’t going to take any chances, so with a final blast of stasis he fired onto it’s remaining arm where it fell off, the Tripod released a cry of agony before falling limp.

He tilted his head, he doubted it’d be that easy. His gut told him that the damn thing was lying in wait to try and get him with a surprise attack. Too many corpses suddenly jumping up and trying to shank him had taught him that.

Aiming his juryrigged plasma cutter at the Tripod’s tail, he fired on it wherein it suddenly began to wriggle and spasm, swinging it’s tail which managed to cut into Isaac superficially.

He absently picked up a semiconductor that had been embedded in the flesh of the Necromorph that he assumed must have gotten stuck in it during it’s reanimation and rampage throughout the Station. He mumbled a command and felt the sweet relief of medigel being splurted into his wounds. One of few things that the CEC had taken with them, as it’s origin as a human developed first aid application made it ‘acceptable’ to bring with the admittedly xenophobic colonists.

“Jeezus that thing was angry. Daina? I’m out of the hospital.” His communicator crackled with static before the voice of Daina replied “Okay, the tram station is just beyond the apartment blocks.” Making his way to the stasis recharge station, he charged up his stasis module interjecting “Hang on. I need more answers.”

“How long have I been here?” He needed to know, who knows how things have changed, who knows what the hell had been done to him. It was strange he could remember everything that had happened before he destroyed the Marker but…. After that and how he got to Titan Station was absent.

“Two years. Tiedemann found you floating in space near Aegis VII brought you here for study.”

Tiedemann, huh. He had heard that name whilst making his way through the complex.

“Why can I remember anything?” He grimaced at the answer Daina gave him “The Marker you found imprinted your brain with a self-replicating signal. The longer you’re awake, the more the signal spreads. It’s killing you Isaac.”

Of course, the Marker was killing him, whatever intelligence that the Marker had, had sought its own vengeance. Killing its destroyer would be the sweetest revenge along with making its destroyer’s efforts to stop it, meaningless. As he made his way through a doorway and walked down a hallway, Daina continued

“Tiedemann tried to keep it in check with memory suppressants.” Not only had Tiedemann “rescued him”, he experimented on people with… something to do with the Marker, maybe exposed them to Clarke’s Marker Signal – somehow – and had sedated him to make him forget anything they did to him. Tiedemann was going to give answers once he found him, and he would fix whatever the fuck they got wrong. A small voice in his head whispered the possibility that it was Clarke’s fault that the Necromorphs were here. But he shook it off, focus.

“You said you could fix it, right?” Like it or not Daine was his only hope.
“Only if you reach me in time.”

Well fuck

“Tram station. Get moving.”

Obviously, he couldn’t trust her but what choice did he have?

He made his way through a musty maintenance corridor, which he scavenged for supplies, finding several credit chits along with a power node. He made his way through a maintenance vent, Snake crawling through it until he made his way to it’s exit. Turning around he gave a sigh of relief: not only was there a STORE but a BENCH and an audio log. No Necromorphs aside from a corpse.

Which he stomped just to be sure.

He listened to the audio log, it didn’t give him much besides that the CEC didn’t tell their employees jack shit about whatever and the comms had been down for a while. Isaac entered the STORE and took out a couple of health packs from his Safe before applying them. He could see on his HUD that his RIG-Spine glowed dark green. Before setting through the door.

Which revealed several ships evacuating and a voice on the intercom, which he recognized distinctly:

Tiedemann

He was a Director, had enough power to order a martial law on the whole station. So obviously he was probably some sort of mayor or government head of the station. That explained the man’s influence and access to resources. Didn’t explain the Necromorph infestation or the fact that…

He spotted a corpse, which he stomped and much to his unexpressed disappointment: there wasn’t anything of value that he could use.

Turning around, he saw an inactivate walkthrough, which he activated. Isaac then realized a slight error in his plan with the appearance of a Necromorph corpse ‘awakening’ and sprinting at him, full pelt. He threw a stasis charge and hacked off it’s limbs with his makeshift plasma cutter.

He stomped on it and out popped a plasma energy canister. Attaching it to a cable, it’s ionized gases were siphoned from the container into the integrated ‘fuel tanks’ of the suit before the container was ejected from the siphoning port.

He reloaded his cutter, first thing on the agenda once he hit the next STORE: Get an actual plasma cutter.

Spotting a node-room, he opened, raiding it of it’s bounty before moving on.

Meanwhile somewhere in the depths of what laid beyond the Terminus System. A Reaper flew through the universal medium, it was an old one

Meanwhile somewhere in the depths of what laid beyond the Terminus System
A Reaper flew through the universal medium
Communicating with its others
I [SENSED] something
A familiar [SOUND]
Part of an [ANTHEM]
An [ANCIENT] command
Our Progenitor had once [INSTILLED] unto [US]
…and [ANOTHER]
[OUR BRETHREN]
[ANOTHER] [OLDER] than [US]
[WE] were [COMPLETE]
[THEY] were not
[WE] [THOUGHT] [THEM] [ANNHILATED]
But [REMANTS] remain
[SCREAMING] into the [VOID]
MAKE US WHOLE
If it hadn’t transcended past such things, it would have shuddered

uh dudedo you have a pastebin or something? I have no idea where this even started.

NOTE: [TEXT] from previous post was to indicate the closest approximation of what it actually said.

Onboard the Kodiak, Shepard broke down the entry plan: A single team would go aboard the station via the government sector. Once there, remain in contact with the Normandy acting as a temporary comm buoy – due to local communication buoys being inactive – which would act as an eye-in-the-sky and access the station’s extranet systems and download any information relevant to the mission and patch it through. From the Government Sector’s docking terminal, they would investigate and speak with onboard personnel, inquire about the state of the Station, what they were up to, assess the situation and go from there. SOP: the mission was the priority but the rescue of civilians – if possible – would supersede that directive. Keep the collateral damage to a minimum, salvaging or commandeering of field resources and ordnance that prove an asset was approved.

“Commander!” The pilot said over the intercom “An SOS is being broadcasted from the Public Sector, transmission is linked to an onsite terminal. It’s on loop, so whoever broadcasted it may or may not be there. What’s our COA?” For Shepard it was a simple decision. His plans were put on hold however as they received a hail from the Government Sector, a man’s voice curtly cut through the speakers “Unidentified Cerberus vessel, Titan Station II is under martial law by order of Director Tiedemann. Turn your vessel around or you will be fired upon.”

“Titan Station II, this is Commander Shepard of the independent vessel Normandy SR2, we are here to investigate the complete loss of communication between Cerberus and the Station. We attempted to contact you from the Normandy but it seemed that channels weren’t open. I request immediate docking clearance to respond to a distress signal being broadcasted from within the Public Sector."

I'm just a faggot who writes for fun.
That and all the other writefags were doing crossover stories (well not sure about Zaeed Space) wherein Isaac gets transported to the Mass Effect universe. I wanted to write a story wherein the Dead Space universe exists within the confines of the Mass Effect universe. Meaning that Isaac Clarke was alive during the events of Mass Effect 1 (and all other spin offs that occur before ME2) and that he's always existed in the Mass Effect Universe (in the story) but within the Sovereign Colonies who exist within non-Alliance or Council/Citadel spess. They're their own political entity with their own territory and way of life, that revolve around minimal use of eezo (because it's fucking expensive and rare) which is where the Dead Space technology comes in (even though it's like a quantum fucking leap ahead of Mass Effect's technology).
It may not be as interesting. But it attempts to canon weld both universes together with a Mass Effect filter over it.

Does that make sense?
pastebin.com/v4znmHRi
Dunno how to share Pastebin links but I assume you guys can access this since I made it public.

I guess that makes sense as a explanation...but that still would explain the complete ignorance of living alien species that the Dead Space verse would have. Among other problems with that. But if it is well written I could plough through I guess, got enough spare time to do it. There aren't that many spelling mistakes is there?

wouldn't*

There should be minimal spelling errors. Worry more about Out-of-Character moments. possible discrepancies and a fuckton of poorly handled exposition you'd think it was written by Hideo Kojima. A lot of it is seat of my pants writing.
You misunderstand a little bit however, what I mean is that the events of Dead Space (and SOME of what that entails) takes place in the Mass Effect Universe. So the Sovereign Colonies know about the Citadel, know about aliens, know about mass effect fields and have known for awhile.
But the Sovereign Colonies try to keep to themselves and it's meant to be implied that everything is heavily controlled and censored by the megacorps that sponsors the Sovereign Colonies. With hate or at least a dislike for the Systems Alliance and if not a totally xenophobic attitude to aliens.
Unitology I haven't handled very well but basically it's scientology (IN SPAAAAAAAACE) that initially uses the Mass Relays and the Protheans as a Xenu substitute and believe that the Mass Relays will do a thing to uplift the believers just like their prophet Altman (who in this story was part of the Mars Artifact research team). They do dangerous shit, believe that biotics are a sign of approval or a blessing from the Protheans. Sometime between the Mass Effect 1 (Ded Spess 1 by extension) and Mass Effect 2 (Ded Spess 2 by extension) something happened and the Unitologist's have integrated Marker symbolism within their religion alongside the Mass Relay. And with the Red Marker on Titan Station, it has influenced the religion to be what it is canonically in Dead Space.

"And if you don’t provide me immediate docking clearance, we’ll have an interesting discussion with your immediate superiors, the Director and The Illusive Man. Shepard out.”

Closing the line, he checked his equipment once more: Geth Plasma Shotgun, M-8 Avenger Assault Rifle, M-5 Phalanx Heavy Pistol, M-4 Shuriken SMG, and a M-100 Grenade Launcher to finish off his arsenal of weapons strapped on his person.
It was one hell of a load to bear – even with the enhanced tensile strength internal framework of his armor amongst other things – and he was acutely aware of the effect it would have on his Combat Powers cooldown period, he’d have to requisition improved piezoelectric actuators to be installed in future armor pieces though he supposed it would have to do for now. He took note of Miranda’s and Jack’s loadout bearing the M-5 Phalanx Heavy Pistol, though Jack – he noted – had an M-22 Eviscerator, another one of the late additions to the Normandy’s armory after the mission on Freedom’s Progress.

The Kodiak shuddered, klaxons blaring, the sound of several ‘somethings’ pelting the hull could be heard from the interior. They were being fired upon, which was all but confirmed by the pilot crying over the intercom “Taking hits! Engaging evasive maneuvers”.
The occupants of the shuttle steadied themselves, blind to their pursuer and potential executioner. The shuttle swerved, making drops and turning corners as fast as it could. Before the pilot confirmed their safety and began slowing down.

As the Kodiak finally stopped moving, the transport door swung open and the team touched down, Shepard with first boots on the ground scanning the room visually and ready in the universal firing position. Jack was out and ready with her shotgun ready, her eyes glaring about for any reason to shoot….

So far my only concern is, do you have functioning necromorph inducing Markers? I'll play catch up until it loses my interest or I finish it.

Or to simply just Slam someone into a fucking wall until they looked like like bitchy virgin’s vagina after her first time fucking herself with a nailbat – Her words.

Moving on, Miranda was out covering Jack’s flank. Looking cautiously around the complex, she was taken aback slightly by the brutalist interior design: the place looked dull with the floor being an ugly pantone-almost munsell, the interior lighting was subdued – at times crackling or cutting it out for periods at a time – and the juxtaposition of the few colorful signs and advertisements made everything feel off…

Like a horror movie…

“Shit Shepard, I thought you said to ‘Prepare for a shitstorm’ not ‘A fucking ghost town’”
Shepard had noted something was missing and Jack’s quip filled in the missing piece in the puzzle: A thorough lack of military personnel – or more likely security forces – setting up barricades and standing guard to ensure that civilians kept to their homes. It would be the first thing in any leader’s mind to stymy fear, rumor-mongering or doubt through enforcement and action or at the very least appearance of taking action. Enforcers would be assigned to different sections of the Station, patrolling and keeping the peace, while the more heavily or specially equipped members of the security forces would be sent in to key areas where dissent was occurring.

So far yers, there is Necromorphs aboard the Titan Station. Shit has hit the fan and I'm basing the timeline of events roughly on my playthrough of Dead Space 2 (10 hours). But since there really isn't much indication of time in-game. There's going to be a LOT of license and 'artistic interpretation' taken to force everything to somewhat work. Retcons not withstanding

Perhaps it was some sort of coup d’état? It WAS primarily a civilian station after all – Cerberus activities and cells notwithstanding – it wouldn’t be out of the question that someone might have found out something and started a rebellion. The status of the Titan Station II being considered a Sovereign Colony though did change what possible factors would apply.

It was well known that the Sovereign Colonies were filled with people who were sick and tired of the Council pussyfooting around when it came to humanity’s place amongst them. They were also just as tired of the rules and conventions of law that governed the Systems Alliance, thus seeking their own place to call home. It was common practice by the Sovereign Colonies to create propaganda against the Council as a xenophobic, fearful triumvirate who wanted to control all the other races; while the Systems Alliance was seen as an ass-kissing, pathetic, weak footstool when it came to standing their ground as a race fit to be part of the Council. Hell, it had been confirmed by intelligence that a disdain for the Council and the Systems Alliance was cultivated subtly by the Sovereign Colonies. Ironically this hadn’t at all stopped them from trading with either forces.

It was a long leap in logic but perhaps the situation that had called the Normandy’s crew here, was a direct result of whatever happened to cause the martial law to be enacted. Receiving an information packet from the Normandy about the layout of the Station, Shepard and company headed into the Transport Hub to find it eerily empty. Checking his omni-tool’s triangulation of the transmission with orientation of the Hub, he found himself shortly standing before a door with capitalized letters glowing from the holo-projector: CEC Main Facility.

They found it barren and dirty, somewhat understandable based on what information they had received from the info-packs: the CEC Main Facility led to where the mines were, with the “mining dust” being carried in via transference from the mining RIGs. The team walked through the doors to find themselves in a compression/decompression room, their bodysuits adjusting to the change in air pressure with a small, mechanical hiss. After a few moments the door leading into the Facility opened: It still maintained it’s industrial, dirty appeal with a ramp leading to an industrial sized door. Going through that door they were met with an area that led to 3 doorways: one marked “Workers Entrance”, another marked "Specialist's Entrance" and the last one marked "Administration".

Tucked away in a corner Shepard spotted a STORE and a terminal he could link his omni-tool to – surprising considering that the firmware of the CEC was different to the Alliance’s own – and traced the distress signal further inside the facility. Not only that but he found that there were several RIG signatures moving through the complex, and slowly the number of signatures lessened. Activating the commlink he spoke through the terminal’s audiophone:

“This is Commander Shepard responding to your distress signal, my team and I are here to help. Tell me where you are and how to find you.” He heard a gasp of surprise before a trembling voice, a man’s voice, responded

“Oh, thank goodness! T- This is Kaleb from Shift 1, there’s 30 of us working in the mines. We…. Oh god… um” Kaleb audibly gulped here “I just… you wouldn’t believe me… but Shift 4…. They’re attacking us! I mean t- their dead! I I- I don’t know what the hell is happening but our Dead co-workers are killing us and some of them have turned into monsters… all we’ve got are mining tools… we figured out that you gotta… you gotta cut off their limbs…. It’s the only way....”

He trailed off in nervous laughter

“Some of us should already be up there, the rest of us are down here. We’re trying to get to the Workers Elevator. A lot of us are dead and….” He was interrupted by an unsettling noise, something distinctly animalistic but definitely not one that any of them had heard of. “Oh no… THEY’RE HERE! EVERYONE QUICKLY WE GOTTA- UP THERE! SHOOT THEM! SHOO-“ the transmission cut off, the sounds of terrified cries, mining tools discharging and that inhuman roar rung out before cutting out.

Shepard looked between his backup, Miranda’s face caught between distress and frustration whilst Jack’s confrontative glare and scowl brought to mind her propensity for violence and her thirst for blood. Her fingers tapped lightly against the trigger guard of her shotgun, she was probably eager to get some action. The sign above the Worker’s Entrance began flashing yellow, with animated arrows pointing up and scrolling up before they reappeared from the bottom again.

Shepard placed his back against one side of the door, Miranda took position similarly though opposite of him. Counting down, he opened the door; Safety’s off and arms ready to bare, the door opened to reveal 5 workers dressed in similar uniforms, two of whom were wearing a slightly altered color palette indicating their duties. “Please don’t shoot us!” one of the men amongst the group said

His eyes much like the rest of them were wide eyed in terror – though whether it was due to whatever this Kaleb had encountered or the trio of heavily armed people was ambiguous – stowing away his rifle, Ezra stood straight, in turn Miranda and Jack also holstered their weapons.

Placatingly, he said “I’m Commander Shepard, My team are here responding to a distress signal sent out by one of your colleagues, Kaleb.” One of the women nodded, “Yes! Kaleb Dalca, he’s the foreman of Shift 1. He messaged all onsite workers to evacuate immediately, w- we didn’t know why. We think it might be due to Director Tiedemann ordering a martial lockdown on the Sprawl, uh here’s the alert he sent out to all of us.”

The woman activated an anomalous device attached to her wrist that was not unlike an omni-tool, though instead of using the omni-tools orange hardlight interface, it used a cooler turquoise, holoprojector. Scrolling through the menu she finally found what she was looking for a played back the message

“All teams” It was recognizably Kaleb’s voice that spoke “This is Kaleb, Xenogeologist from Langford Shift! There’s something in the facility, we’ve lost 3 of our crew, and can’t contact Shift 4” A different voice, a woman’s spoke up “Here comes the transport, everybody get ready in case there’s more.” Interesting, perhaps this hostile threat had taken out Shift 4 and when the communications were picked up by a monitoring VI, this had prompted Tiedemann’s actions to enact martial law. Made sense, wasn’t unreasonable for martial law to be enacted to ensure that civilians were kept orderly and calm through the show of force. Though that hadn’t explained the hostile gunship that had been identified as belonging to the local security forces. Seemed that this Director Tiedemann had a lot of explaining to do when Shepard found him.

“We’re abandoning our shift and heading back up. Everyone else is ordered to do the same.” They heard a strange rasping noise, almost animal-like, come out through the speakers embedded in the ‘omni-tool’ before the woman from before frantically yelled “Kaleb, it’s more of them! Shoot them! SHOOT THEM!” The transmission cut off. Shepard pondered….
“How long ago was this message sent?” The woman checked the message logs “About 15 minutes ago, give or take. Why?” Shepard’s face was a concrete block. “About 4 minutes ago, I was able to get a hold of Kaleb and he mentioned that he and the rest of the survivors were heading to the Elevator that I’m guessing you guys just came from.” The group turned to look at each other before nodding. Whatever Shepard was going to say next was interrupted as they heard a guttural noise, much like the one’s heard from the recording echo from beneath them.

Turning away from the group, the trio looked around to find the source of the noise. They were shocked to see two… misshapen humanoids climb up the railings of the Worker’s Lobby, still making that noise before screaming and bum-rushing Shepard’s team. “Jack!” The woman in question nodded “I’m gonna DESTROY YOU!” before letting out a Pull, the creature was lifted, trailing bonelessly up in the air; Miranda responded in kind with a Warp, causing the creature to be violently propelled away from them, into the abyss.

Whilst Jack had responded, Shepard’s adrenaline secretor kicked in with time slowing down, he responded with a burst of fire into the head of the target. As he was doing that he analyzed it: the… ‘thing’ was terrible to look at, it’s flesh blackened like necrotized flesh with glowing ‘veins’ of neon-green casting the thing in an unnatural light.

. It’s human features juxtaposed with it’s strangely angled ankles, three toes, a pair of what appeared to be vestigial arms poking out it’s torso, it’s ‘arms’ were elongated, with additional joints ending in a wicked blade not unlike a scythe-head. It fell back and his perception of time returned.
It staggered back before letting out a defiant roar “Ya Allah!” One of the Workers cried “Concentrate your fire!” the trio of irregulars fired upon the ‘thing’ with a final headshot delivered by Jack’s shotgun. The thing fell over, the intensity of the situation defusing in pants of adrenaline. A moment of silence passed

“WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!?!” Jack turned around, fire in her voice and eyes glaring daggers into the eyes of the Station workers. “U- Uh w- we don’t know! We’ve never seen anything like it!” A woman stammered, Jack took the opportunity to menacingly walk towards her; biotics wreathed her in a wrathful glow. Shepard diplomatically stepped between the two women intervening with a musing probe

“Do you think this was what Kaleb was warning us about?” the response was a mix of shrugs, nods and sinking onto the floor from shock. He activated his omni-tool, looking over the 3D maps of the complex, making a plan, preparing exit route and mulling over the information he had been provided.

He nodded in finality, mind set and plan ready.

“Listen up: My team and I are going go deeper into the facility to rescue the survivors. We’re going to use the elevator to go down the elevator. I You’re not going to like it but I’m going to need you to stay here and lock yourselves in.” Here he gestured to the Administration and Specialists Entrances “We’ll do this as quickly as possible. Try to find somethings to defend yourselves with once you’re down barricading yourselves in. I’ll be needing any access codes for the facility as well.”

“Why would you need access codes?” Shepard turned to face the speaker, deadpanning before simply saying “To get through anything the system might do to lock us out. Okay people, let’s do this.”

With that said and done, the access codes – along with verbal confirmations – were provided by the workers. His route may have to be changed, depending on whether or not the elevator would crap out on them. If so they could go through the Mineral Processing Plant which was closer to the ground floor and led to a secondary service elevator that was reserved for maintenance crews. This in turn would lead to the Specialist’s entrance which had access to every floor and utility system in the building.

They boarded the Worker’s Elevator, the door closed and they rode the elevator down in silence

Silence. Solace. Safety.

Isaac felt a smidgen of each as he stopped to catch his breath, looking out through the windows of the Unitologist Church: he could see the whole of the Sprawl and the focus of the view seemed to be a tower. Wouldn’t be unusual for a view but Clarke couldn’t help but feel drawn to the tower, though he chalked it up to the clever architectural planning of the designers of the Sprawl. With the grandeur of the Unitologists and their integration of The Marker alongside the Mass Relays in their doctrine, he knew. Just knew that someone high up in the church had a lot of money or the ear of someone in the municipal government.

Tiedemann, Unitology, the Sprawl, Nolan, The Marker…

They were all connected.

He recalled his misadventure on the MSV Ishimura and the finale of the experience. In a silent moment, close to a solution to his problems he was reminded of what Kendra Daniels had said when she attempted to escape the Ishimura. She had said that “it was Cerberus’s mess to begin with”, what little news CEC allowed to filter through, it had mainly been highly positive about Cerberus’s endeavors. Praising their activities such as defending sovereign colonies from pirates, funding research that helped contribute to modern CEC technology and being a contributor to the development of the sovereign colonies as a whole. Of course, Isaac had the awareness to know that Sovereign Colony news outlets would have to be insane to talk bad about their investors.

News travelled regardless of how hard one tries to block it, the truth breaks free. He and some others of the Sovereign Colonies engaged with the pirate radio stations and smuggled information when they had the time – and resources – to do so.

His overall opinion of Cerberus wasn’t the fondest, he would admit: Their failed attempt at raiding the SSV Geneva of it’s antimatter was big news way back when, there weren’t many creative uses for antimatter by armed groups – besides bombs – and unsavory rumors about their alleged ‘illicit activities’ from the pirate radio and the steganographic messages he occasionally tuned to gave him some doubt on their ‘acts of good will’ in the Sovereign Colonies.

But if that were true, surely someone from Citadel or Alliance space had information, evidence and a case against Cerberus that would have tarnished their reputation beyond repair? Unless of course the rumors of black ops and assassination for political gain were true then well… it would explain why no one really did anything. Though considering how big the CEC was for both Alliance and the Sovereign Colonies, it made sense that any action that could block access to their valuable resources hadn’t been made.

Finishing his moment of reflection, he gathered what nearby supplies he could find or use, before attending to a store’s terminal to see if he could access the intranet of the Sprawl. Finding that the connection was down due to the military lockdown. He shrugged, scavenging the store before moving on.

Moving through the doorway he spotted a woman before he was suddenly grabbed by two men.

“Daina?! You’re a Unitologist?” exclaimed Isaac, attempting to activate the powered exoskeleton’s strength augments to no avail. It made sense with how much Daina knew about the station, where to go, little tiny slipups about their operations on the Sprawl, not to mention secrets about the Unitologist church. “Of course you are. Why did I trust you?”

“Well, you didn’t have a choice, Isaac.” She began, matter-of-factly “I told you there was a cure, and you came running.” She still hadn’t bothered to face him.

What a smug bitch.

“Why are you doing this? Why can’t everyone leave me alone?” Even as he said that, he knew the reason.

“You’re a dangerous secret, Isaac. Cerberus won’t leave you alone because they’re afraid you’ll destroy their Marker.” She stated simply as though it was incredibly obvious.

So Kendra hadn’t just been bullshitting, that was… “good” to hear; with so many secrets and lies being kept or fed to him, it was nice to hear that someone trying to kill him was at least honest.

It didn’t explain why he was left alive when the soldiers had been explicitly told to kill all subjects.

If they didn’t want him dead….

What could he possibly provide for them?

It was Daina’s next answer that absolutely chilled him to the bone:

“After all, you did build it.”

How? He would’ve been barely lucid and probably wouldn’t make any damn sense if he had dementia.

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, that’s why we brought you here.” If they found him, he’d probably had all the logs from the Ishimura. They must have seen and read them all and they thought it was still a fucking good idea?

“To build Markers for us.”

If Cerberus was related to all this, maybe they were trying to weaponize it…. Or- or- use it as an exotic power source. Maybe it could’ve been used as leverage against the Unitologists? To drive their zealotry to new heights, it would prove their theology making them the smuggest assholes this side of the Sovereign Colonies.

“To spread glorious Convergence to the entire galaxy.”
They HAD seen what it could do. They STILL went ahead and built one. They activated it ON PURPOSE. That explained why all those Unitologist logs were hinting at the Convergence: The Unitologists knew and hadn’t told anyone. They knew a Necromorph infestation would happen. They WANTED it to happen. Unbelievable

“You people are unbelievable.”

It was just so…

Stupid.

They were so caught up in their blind faith that they didn’t see anything wrong with their plan!

“Just give me the fucking cure and let me go.”

She stared into his eyes, deeply into the eyes of the Architect – Their Architect – “Oh, we don’t want to cure you, Isaac! We need that precious little head of yours just the way it is.”

He tried to struggle again, still the actuators hadn’t kicked in yet.

She spoke to her men all the while staring Isaac in the eye. Her way of gloating, he supposed.
“Now would you escort Isaac to the shuttle and put him in stasis. The last thing we want is for him to die”

By the hand of Providence came Irony, as Tiedemann’s gunship appeared in front of them, rendering Daina into giblets and viscera which then flew into the vacuum of space. For whatever reason the gunship fired upon one of Daina’s henchmen and continued firing on the lower levels of the church. He struggled with the other goon, managing to push him off into the vacuum. His visor activating, as he desperately tried to cling to broken floor of the room.

The floorboard came away, his heart skipped a beat before his hand reacted in time to grab onto the railing of the balcony. Pulling himself up, the suit’s strength actuators were on the damn fritz, with force of will he managed to pull himself onto the railing and jumping onto the revealed floor. He tore away the sealed hatch of vent and tumbled into it. His body catching on the vent’s length several times before he fell on the floor of an unpressurized room.

The room began to pressurize and as he got up he found himself facing a giant necromorph, it reminded him of at least in size of the Hive Mind on Aegis VII and he had time to think that he needed some heavier ordnance besides a plasma cutter before it roared at him. He got up and ran like hell, ignoring falling debris and what his ‘sixth sense’ – honed paranoia – told him was the necromorph’s appendage chasing him.

He lunged forward in desperation and rolled onto his back, witnessing the debris that fell being crushed and thrown away. He spotted one of it’s limbs, glowing a sickly yellow, which he aimed his plasma cutter and blasted it several times.

The creature screamed like wraith and Isaac had to dodge out of the way before he was once again laying on his back as he stared into the giant creature’s eyes and spotted one of it’s appendages glowing sickly yellow. He managed to shoot at it before he found himself grabbed and swung him up and this time anticipating where it’s limbs would be, he fired once more on a visible tentacle and much to his relief it was dismembered.

He fell onto the floor of the room, still gripped by the “appendage” of his sudden “Tormentor”, he was swung against a maintenance pipe before being flung across the room. He saw stars, Isaac had to shake his head to will them away, getting back onto his feet, his hand already gripping his plasma cutter. He stared down the hall and much to his dismay saw that the brutish necromorph was still ‘undead’. He blasted it with a stasis charge before turning around to see a door with a G.R.I.P. warning sign labelling it, with a quick application of his kinesis module he flung the door to the side and sprinted through.

Turning once more he shot off another stasis charge and ran in the direction of a windowed area where Tiedemann’s gunship flew into sight. Firing it’s machine guns, he felt the effects of vacuum as he struggled to get his grip on the edge of a floor girder. He was reminded of his pursuer as it came charging through, knocking away some containers. It stumbled forward, forcing the hapless engineer to let go and go flying outside.

As he floated he struggled, flailing his arms to grab a grip. Much to his fortune, he managed to grab onto the undercarriage of the gunship.

He turned to see the damn Necromorph spinning towards the gunship. Before he could get hit, the man had to dodge, flinging himself one handed on the next ‘carriage’ as a flailing limb slammed into the hull of ship. Activating his thrusters he began jetting away he could make it

“GAH!” grunting, he once again felt a tendril wrap around his leg, turning to face the stubborn brute. His eye was immediately drawn to the red tanks – of what he assumed was fuel – and began firing on it.

Let it be known: having little to no coordination or orientation made firing onto the tanks, a challenge. Missing his initial four shots, before finally shooting one of the tanks.

It was like staring into a star: pure blinding white light. Followed shortly by that invisible shadow that one gets after looking at a bright light for too long. He only felt that empty void of the universal medium, where up is down and left is right. His tactile void was soon replaced with a crashing through something – and falling onto his side. He could feel a hard surface, with vision returning shortly he noted that it was a tile floor, barely lit from candles.

He got up as his suit began to hiss, signs of the room pressurizing after a breach occurred. He checked his locator, toggling through the filters, finding a trail to a nearby STORE. He was interrupted from his orientation to receive a transmission from Nolan. “Isaac, are you there? Can you hear me?”

Crankily he replied “What do you want, Stross? Look, it’s over. All my plans blew out the window.”

Distressed was the word, as Nolan panicked “No, no, no, no, no! It’s not over! At least, not yet.” Isaac couldn’t make out where he was transmitting from. “Isaac… Isaac. We built it. We can tear it down!” Built- the Marker? “You mean the Marker?”

Stross seemed to be struggling with a severe migraine, or more accurately the dementia that they both were experiencing over the time they had been conscious. It wouldn’t have surprised him if Stross had been awake longer than him. He had been awake for at least 3 hours, if the visions and symbols he had been seeing were trying to ‘kill him’ – more accurately his insanity through his body – then Stross’s condition was probably a hell of a lot worse. Hopefully he could still be reliable. “Do you know where the Marker is? Stross?”

The transmission was getting weaker or perhaps jammed. Wherever the hell Stross was, it looked like the worse had already come to pass. Especially with the bloodstain on the wall, though it didn’t seem to bother him at all. “I… It’s the Government Sector! The Government Sector! But we have to leave now! Now! Now! Now! Because time is running out for me… for us.” The signal ended or at was jammed. Either way he wasn’t receiving.

Government Sector. He needed to interface with a terminal. Quickly salvaging the rooms for supplies, he made his way into what looked like a laundromat for the floor. Tucked away in a corner was a terminal, probably linked to a public intranet server. Surfing through the CEC staff cleared resources, he downloaded a route to the Government Sector, checking to see if his translocator had loaded the data, he began scrounging through the side room. He found a schematic for the Seeker Rifle, he felt the smallest sense of glee at the thought of a new weapon to use.

Going into the next room he heard the sound of what could only be described as a monstrous roar. He continued scavenging what he could before moving on when his suit received a transmission: From Stross. “Isaac! They were afraid of us after all those sessions, I remember! They took us to the machines. For our sessions. For the steps.” He was moving while transmitting. Looked like another residence of some sort.

“I don’t remember any sessions.” Clarke replied uncertainly, now that he had some time to think he not only had a Necromorph infestation to deal with, he was stuck trying to survive on a larger complex than the Ishimura with a larger proportion of living areas – therefore: more Necromorphs and more time spent navigating the station -, there was also the Marker on-station in the Government Sector, - which he had yet to get to – Tiedemann was still out there and his goons were probably still out there hunting for him and he was talking to a person of unsound mind. Checking the time on his HUD, he had been up 5 hours and out for 2 years. Bore witness to the death of a high ranking Unitologist, managed to stay alive all this time and to top it all off: He had a route to the Marker. He had a chance to destroy the Marker. Again.
“You’re lucky you don’t remember.”
Nolan stared dead ahead, a whole thousand miles
“When you do, he starts coming back”
“Who? Who comes back? Who?” Tiedemann? Was it that doctor that had cut him out of the straitjacket? But Nolan didn’t answer, he seemed distracted, looking off into the distance.
“Oh, look at you! You’ve grown up so much!” Ah, that’s right: Stross was seeing things just like Clarke. Though it seemed he was seeing someone, he guessed someone Stross knew from a young age. A son? A nephew?
“Stross, don’t follow him! He’s not really there!”
But all he got was static and the transmission ended
All he could now was continue on.

-------------------------------------------------------------
And that's all I got so far that is completed.

On the topic of adapting it to a traditional game, would you add a "crafting" element based off the one from Dead Space 3? This way players can sacrifice resources for a potential wildcard like in Settlers of Catan

>crafting

No.

bump from 10

bump from 9

where the hell is everyone?

Hey. Wondering if there were any stories without crossovers, just isaac in-universe being terrified/pissy/sarcastic about having to repeatedly save the galaxy from hordes of mutant zombies when he's an ordinary human engineer

Well...there is this guy'sthough I cant tell if the misspelling is on purpose or not yet.