Dead Space: Flatline

by GC Rust

Over one month has passed since the distress signal from the USG Ishimura was received and the USG Kellion was dispatched. Now it is the turn of the Reclaimation Vessel USG Pathfinder and her crew to discover the horror of what awaits.

1. Chapter 1

Ring around the Rosie

Pocket full of poises

Ashes

Ashes

We All Fall Down

DEAD SPACE

Flatline

Chapter 1

Grave Robbing

"Well I'll be damned. There she is."

The ship was quiet in hushed reverence as the USG Pathfinder exited out of shockpoint drive into the Aegis system. The small, five man crew gawked at the sight that awaited them. Aegis 7 was practically in pieces, large chunks of the planet now orbiting the remaining body like misshapen moons. The debris field surrounding the planet was gone, or rather had become replaced by even larger chunks of rock. But standing out boldly near one of the undamaged polar regions of the planet was the massive ship, the pride of the fleet...

The USG Ishimura.

"What the hell happened?" The pilot, a woman in her mid-20s wearing wireless glasses and a old, stained leather jacket inquired.

"Hell if I know Jackie." The woman's copilot, a man in his late 40s wearing a baseball cap and scratching at his three day old stubble, replied. "Looks to me as if the shit really hit the fan out here."

"Planet Crack went awry, that's what it looks like anyway." A third individual, this one in a matienance RIG, replied from behind his suit's visored helmet. "I've read about potential repercussions to a failed crack. My guess? Grav Tethers failed and sent the entire chunk of rock screaming back down onto the planet."

"The harmony of this section of the universe has been disturbed." Another male's voice came from behind the helmet of a Security RIG.

"Oh can the Unitologist Bullshit, Vasquez." A female in another Security RIG replied, her black and red hair covering her face as she leaned over her seat to check the barrel of her Pulse Rifle.

"Both of you can it, before I can you!" The man in the matienance RIG shot back. "The Ishimura has been out of contact for a month, and I don't see any sign of the Kellion! A busted communications array shouldn't take this long to fix, and the fact we've got a planet wide cluster fuck leads me to believe something else is going down here."

"Could this have been the source of the distress call?" The copilot inquired. "I know officially the company's not suppose to be here, but that kind of planetary damage? No way the colony could have survived."

Jackie snorted in wry amusement. "If all that happened was like the Skip said, and it was a gravity tether failure, smart money would have been load up the survivors and quietly leave the system - not scream for help where God and everyone else could pick up the signal."

"Jackie's right Don." The Skip nodded as the Ishimura grew closer. "Whatever happened here, it wasn't the reason this old bitch went silent."

"And silent's the right term for it." Vasquez pointed out, leaning forward on Don's chair and pointing out the window. "No running lights."

"Well that makes no damn sense at all." Jackie said. "The ship's nowhere close to the crack site. Someone had to move the thing into higher orbit to avoid the debris field."

"Which means someone's still onboard."The female security officer said while she checked the ship's scanner station. "Scanners not detecting any escape pods or lifeboats in their tethers, Skip. Looks like people got the hell out of there by any means necessary. Also got impact craters all over the ship. Looks like their anti-asteroid defenses went offline for awhile....what the hell?"

"What?" Skip asked.

"Sir, I don't know." She replied, shaking her head. "Near their main com array...it looks like something was tearing chunks out of the ship."

"How could something tear chunks out of a vessel two miles long?" Don demanded.

"Maybe they didn't clear the crack site immediately." Vasquez put in.

The female security officer shook her head. "No, these aren't consistent with impact craters. Like I said, it looks like something was tearing chunks off. Damn strangest thing I've ever seen."

"Well, we're almost there." Skip said. "Jackie, anything on their comm?"

"Nothing Skip." Jackie responded. "Their communications are online and up and running, but nobody's picking up the phone."

Skip sighed and shook his head. "Alright people, we do this by the books. We go aboard, secure any company people and documents we can get our hands on, then see whether or not this ship's worth flying out of here or if we just rig her to blow."

"I'd also recommend everyone staying together once we get inside Skip." The female security officer suggested. "I don't know why, but something about a ship this size being so...dead...it doesn't smell right."

"Lady, that's the understatement of the century." Don muttered. "Coming up on Ishimura's docking bay. Docking tethers engaged."

The Skip and the other crewmembers of the Pathfinder waited patiently as the docking tether slid them down the grav field towards the Ishimura's docking bay. Skip shook himself absently, chastising himself for his own silliness. At the same time, he couldn't help but shake the feeling he was entering a waiting mouth.

As the ship entered the cavernous docking bay, the sun of the Aegis system briefly peeked out from behind the Ishimura's bulk and illuminated the docking tunnel. If anyone aboard the Pathfinder had bothered to look at the reverse camera, they would have seen the mutilated corpse of a technician float lazily down the concourse, out into the waiting emptiness of space.