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Eternal Darkness: Sanity Revived
Prologue: A glimpse into Darkness
By: Ellf
Written for: Iron Fic 11 prompt IN SPAACE
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Disclaimer: Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem is a game created by Silicon Knights for the Nintendo Gamecube, not owned by this author at all.
This book... bound in flesh and bone by the oddest of magicks, is where it all began on Earth, many years ago. My name is Alexandra Roivas, I am an archaeologist. I am also dead. This is not my story, nor is it even the story of the Roivas family. It is the story of humanity. Like it or not, believe it or not as you will, your perceptions will not change reality, but simply color it.
Once, I was as you are, blind to the things that existed beyond the veil of reality. That changed when my Grandfather died. Together with those before me, building upon their knowledge, I fought the servants of Eldritch Horrors known as the Ancients. We were all influenced by the dying Ancient known as Mantorok, who used us to destroy those who started to kill him.
In my final battle with the servant of Xel'lotath, I summoned the Ancient, Chattur'gha to battle Xel'lotath as she was summoned... and then I sealed him away. At that exact moment, Chattur'gha was being destroyed by Ulyaoth... and Xel'lotath was destroying Ulyaoth. All three Ancients fell, and I had assumed it was over.
I had avenged my grandfather's death and returned to my University, with the Tome in tow. Still, I could see them, could tell where they gathered... and they were somehow growing more numerous. How? I wondered. Without their masters, should they not have withered and died? Left humanity alone? Yet they swelled in numbers... so much so that the government started to notice, and a plan had been formed. Space colonization was in the future, and the fact that the servants of the former Ancients were growing in number just sped it along. At one point you couldn't even walk down the street without running into a horror or zombie. Let alone those driven mad by their presence.
In a last ditch effort to save the remains of humanity, the Governments sent off several colony ships, leaving Earth to those beyond the veil. This was several hundred years ago, and I died of old age on one of these colony ships.
The fact that you now are reading these words that I have written in this book tells me something. The Ancients have returned, as I knew they would. Nothing like that is destroyed forever. Once I was blind to those who exist beyond the veil of reality, could not see those who dwell behind. I was once a fool.
Learn to see the world for what it is. Be a fool no longer... for in the dead of space... the Darkness screams. The Darkness... comes.
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Edward Roivas VI closed the book there, looking around his transit shuttle. His ancestor sounded like she was insane if one were to look at the writings in this book. He had found it when going through his grandfather's things. This book was full of fantastic adventures and he swore it would give him nightmares if any of it were real. But that was impossible, wasn't it?
Never mind that. He had been called in on an investigation into the merchant station of Vector V. This was simply a routine investigation to make sure that the merchants were reporting their cargo correctly, and to give the impression that Intersect actually cared.
The pilot of his shuttle, Morris Nexi was a dark skinned man who was both a great pilot of this shuttle and bigger ships such as cruisers.
"Yo Ed, get your nose out of the book and onto the checklist." That was Mia Johnson. The team's medic and one of two women on the team. She tended to dress in a tight version of the Intersect uniform to show off her assets. Her dark hair framed her face well in her short haircut. She was beautiful and knew she was... that was the problem.
Ed himself was of average height, just shy of two meters tall, but he was muscular to balance out his average stature. He was actually the commanding officer of this group, but he was so laid back about his command that it didn't really matter. Everyone knew what needed to be done and they did it.
Shrugging he smiled at Mia and put the book into his bag at his feet. "Right, right. Need to get that done. So we have everything, right? Weapons, food, cargo lists and lists of sales that Vec5 was supposed to have made?"
"Yeah, yeah." Mia waved it off. "We've got everything, Ed. Just needed you to sign off on it."
"Oi, Cap, we're coming into comm range of Vec5." Sasha Brusovic stated from the navigation computer. "Shall I ring em up?"
"Yeah, open the comm line." Ed nodded.
"Opening it up, Cap." Sasha smirked. He loved being useful. The man was a short fair skinned man, barely one and a half meters in height. He was both the communications officer and the navigator of the ship.
"Station Vector 5, this is Captain Edward Roivas of the Intersect ship, Prometheus, requesting shuttle dock." Ed followed protocol to the letter when it was necessary.
"Cap... they aren't responding. We're getting through but we aren't getting anything back but static."
"Station Vector 5, this is the Prometheus, please respond." Ed looked to Morris and then to Sasha. "No response on the next one, start preparing us for a forced entry."
"Right, Cap."
"Sure thing, Ed. I'll just squeeze right up to their shuttle dock." Morris stated from the cockpit.
"Station Vector 5, this is the Prometheus, please respond." Ed looked to Sasha who shook his head.
"Still nothing but static, Cap." He sighed, and Ed did as well.
"Patch me through to the overhead." After Sasha pressed a few buttons, Ed continued. "All right, everyone, suit up. This is no drill we've got no response from Vec5 and are going to have to do a forced entry. This will be a bit bumpy, and we've got no clue what's preventing them from responding. Bring what weapons you feel comfortable bringing... but remember that we are going in where there are likely to be civvies. I'll suit up myself. Roivas out." Ed nodded at Sasha who turned off the comm.
He turned and walked out of the bridge and into the armory. Suiting up in combat armor was protocol for anytime a ship failed to respond. More often than not it was simply a communications problem on the station's end, but Intersect believed it was better to be safe than sorry. Ed loaded up with two .44 SMGs and a .7 SPX Assault rifle/grenade launcher. Better to be safe than sorry... and reading that book earlier gave him a bad feeling about this.
Returning to the bridge, he noticed that the last two of his crew were there, Mari Rodriquez and Shiori Kimura. They too were armed to the teeth. Shiori also carried her family katana, a sword that was surprisingly well kept for how old it was.
He nodded at the two of them and sat down to strap in. "Morris get us to that dock, Sasha, get that dock to open."
"Aye, Cap." Came in unison from both of them as they started to work on their assignments. Ed finished strapping himself in as his crew did the same.
"Sasha, got that dock prepared?" Morris asked.
"Yeah Morris, closest dock I'm able to get open is Dock 87b... loaded up on your map screen now." Sasha typed and then strapped himself in.
"Thanks buddy, time to move. Hang on everyone, once we get into their gravity, this'll be a bumpy ride." Morris moved his controls and everyone could feel the Prometheus shudder as it decelerated.
Ed looked out the front window and saw the local star, Vector as the station they matched orbits with the Vector 5 station around the aquamarine planet. There was a colony down on the planet, and he even knew a few people back at the Academy who came from this system.
Ah... here came the bumpy part. The shuttle started to line up with the docking port as it matched both the rotation of the station while keeping orbit around the planet. The Vec5 station itself was about the size of a city block in one of the colonies, not too small, but not extremely large either. It was just about 1.5 km in diameter. Merchant stations didn't tend to get that big, unless they were colonies themselves. The Prometheus shuddered again as the docking mechanism connected with the side exit of the shuttle.
"Bumpy my perfectly toned ass, Mor! That was a damn good docking." Mia said with a smile.
"Why thank you, Mia. Sasha, thanks for making it easier on me." Morris stood up from his cockpit.
"No problem, Morris." Sasha also stood up.
"Right then, Sasha, Morris, Mia, get suited up and meet at the airlock. Everyone else, let's head there now." Ed stood up and put on his armor's helmet. The helmet not only protected his head, but it also prevented any potentially harmful chemicals or hostile environments from affecting his body by providing him with a constant source of fresh air filtered through his breathing system.
Ed headed to the cockpit followed by Shiori and Mari. After about five minutes he was joined by the rest of his crew.
"We don't know what to expect, but pop it, Sasha." Ed and his crew aimed at the airlock entrance with their guns, safety off, but fingers off the triggers. It opened slowly to reveal a darkened station with only every three overhead lights on, and even then, they were on dimly.
"Looks like maintenance needs to come through here, eh Cap?" Morris said with a smirk.
"Eyes peeled everyone, and lights on. I don't want any surprises." Ed led the way into the station and the airlock door closed behind them with a bang. Sasha jumped and then chuckled nervously.
"These situations just creep me out, Cap." Sasha stated simply.
"Yeah... I don't like it either. Something isn't right here." Ed thought back to the book he was reading and then dismissed the thought right then. For some reason he felt compelled to bring the book with him onto the station, and it was not all that heavy for what it was.
Five minutes.... five long minutes is how long it took to walk down the hallway, as dark as it was. No one was responding to local radio hails... there was no contact at all. When they reached the end of the hallway, Ed could see why.
Corpses littered the ground of the room, all in varied states of decay. Some had turned an odd color. There was no reason that Ed could think of for a corpse to be green, unless there was some sort of contaminant in the air.
"Who... what could do this, Captain?" Shiori, formal as always.
"I'm not sure, but we need to find out." Edward responded, looking about the room. Some of the corpses had their heads removed completely, and all appeared to have died violent deaths. Whatever happened here... Whoever killed these people.... they did so with something sharp.
"Sasha... see if you can find life signs at all on this vessel... if not... we'll get the ship's security feeds..." Ed frowned.
"Aye, sir." Sasha walked over to the wall computer and after wiping blood off of the keyboard and screen with a grimace he started typing. Luckily axillary power included the computer systems. "It seems we have a life sign three rooms over."
"Right, we'll head over to them." Ed looked back at the corpses and then at his crew. "Let's hope that whoever is left alive... isn't responsible for this mess."
His crew nodded and they started to leave the room in the direction that Sasha was leading, but Mia stopped. "Uh... Ed... you aren't going to like this."
She gestured around the room as the non-headless corpses started to get up and shamble towards them.
Corpses... lumbering... rotting cadavers.... Ed shook his head and armed his weapon.
"They're dead already everyone. Let's make it so they stay that way. The dead do not walk again." Ed fired his assault rifle at the head of the nearest corpse, causing it to lose it, but the corpse only stopped at that point and felt where its head should be. It then started randomly swinging its arms around. Seeing that it was still up, Ed continued his fire, dumping ten more rounds into its body before it fell. He shook his head... it was a corpse of a woman. Too bad there were about thirty more just like it shambling towards them. He then did a double take at the headless corpse... it was still writhing there on the ground. Shuddering, he fired three more shots at it while it was on the ground. Finally it stopped moving.
"Sir, we don't have the ammo to burn on all of them." Mari stated. "Especially if they can take that kind of punishment and still be moving."
"Then clear a path and we'll use a grenade. They might be able to take that kind of punishment, but let's see them take a few explosions." Ed ordered, and his team followed those orders. Using bullets on only the corpses that got in their way as they headed towards the door, they managed to clear a small path. Ed switched his rifle into grenade launcher mode and prepared to fire... but it malfunctioned. The grenade was stuck in the rifle while it was armed and it would go off in about three seconds. Two seconds.... One second.... It exploded, ripping Ed's top half of his body from the bottom, and killing Morris and Sasha.
"This... isn't... really... happening!" Ed screamed as he clutched his head and armed the grenade. "Get the fuck out of here, guys! I'm firing!" He launched the grenade out of his weapon at the center of the group of corpses, and he then ran out of the room, shutting the door behind him and listening for the explosion. Upon reaching the next hallway he was immediately grabbed in a hug by Mia.
"Ed... it'll be okay. We'll be okay." Mia's hug seemed to have a calming effect on him... and his face relaxed from the crazed expression he hadn't even realized he had.
"If you'll excuse me, Cap, Mia, what the fuck were those things? They were corpses and then they weren't? What the fuck causes that?" Morris was a little hysterical.
"Reanimated corpses... hungry... I could feel it." Shiori stated. "I could feel their hunger... their desire to prey on us. Zombies."
"Okay... how the fuck do zombies even exist?" Morris asked.
"I can think of a few ways. Perhaps it was some new contagion that animates the body after death... or gives the appearance of death while eliminating all but the most basic of instincts." Mia answered, letting go of Ed.
"I only hope this isn't some sick experiment by someone in Intersect's R&D team." Sasha spoke up.
"No... I don't think so. Let's go find that life sign that you saw, Sasha. We'll ask them what happened." Ed seemed calmer now.
The six-man team walked through a few more rooms, luckily none had any more corpses in them. Ed didn't think he could handle having to re-kill people any more. None of this made any sense to him... yet the book in his bag called out to him. Almost begging him to read it. He quashed that feeling down to focus on the matter at hand. That was to get any survivors off of this station.
Finally they reached the room where the life sign was supposed to be, but the door at the entryway was locked, from the inside.
"Hello! Anyone inside?" Sasha asked, pressing the comm button into the room.
"No! No one here! No one who wants to listen to the tricks they want to play on me! I'm not here... where is here?" A man's voice answered, shifting from a panicked tone to a dejected one.
"Sir, can you open the door? We're from Intersect, and we need to know what happened here." Sasha continued to speak.
"Lies! All lies! Coming in to eat my brains and grind my bones into dust! I know you are... Even... my friends... they weren't themselves! Not... my... friends.... but replaced! I know who you are! You're just like them! And you won't get me too! You won't get... me!"
Ed turned to Sasha. "Crack the door. We're getting this guy out of here."
"Aye sir." Sasha started messing with the control console next to the door.
"Sir, my name is Captain Edward Roivas of the Prometheus, and we're here to get you out of here." Ed spoke into the comm.
"Captain... Roivas... I know that name. They were expecting you. They knew that name too. Why were they expecting you Captain Roivas? Was it all your fault? Are you one of them?"
"I'm as much in the dark as you are, sir. We're coming in there!" Ed nodded to Sasha as he finished disabling the lock and then to Morris who kicked down the door to reveal a trembling little man, who was shorter even than Sasha.
"Darkness, Captain Roivas?" The man's voice seemed lucid now. He looked directly into Ed's eyes. "What would you know about Darkness? Do you know what I know? Do you know... that the Darkness Comes? The Darkness comes.... and it will damn us all."
"Come on then, sir. Let's get the hell out of here." Ed offered his hand to the man who reluctantly accepted it. "What's your name?"
"I am Maximilian Archer, Captain Roivas... and I hope you are who you say you are. Swear to God that you are who you are...."
"I swear to God and by my rank that I am Captain Edward Roivas VI. I can even offer proof to you, Mister Archer."
"Yeah, he's a good Cap, Mr. Archer. I'm Sasha, the person who was talking to you earlier. Communications Officer of the Prometheus, and this is the rest of the crew, Morris, the Pilot, Mia, the doctor, Shiori and Mari, the engineers."
A loud crash came from the room behind them, followed by a loud roar.
"What the hell was that?" Morris yelled out.
"The Horror.... the Horror..." Was all that escaped Maximilian Archer's mouth.
(End of Prologue and Iron Fic Entry.)
Author's notes: Damn you Wata, you made me write this... and I actually have a full plot for a story in my mind. This is only the beginning.