History Repeating Itself

Isaac Clarke trudged on through the corridor, the only sounds accompanying him being the light thuds of his heavy boots against the steel flooring, and his own breathing, amplified inside his helmet, his vision a light shade of green inside the helmet of his engineering RIG, a series of vital info reeling off across the top left corner. He clutched the makeshift plasma cutter in his right hand, almost as though it were an extension of his own form. He guessed if he held it any tighter his fingers would snap off, but considering that the last Necromorph he had encountered had fallen through the roof of the elevator he had been riding on (and given him a near-fatal heart attack), he wasn't taking any more chances.

Like I was taking any chances before, he thought sardonically, shaking his head slightly. Having survived that nightmare three years prior, this was the last thing he had expected upon being bought out of stasis.

The blind panic and terror he had endured on the Ishimura was bad enough, but here, on the Sprawl, it had been amplified tenfold. With a population of over a million people, and countless apartment towers and other residential areas, he had long lost count of how many deformed former humans he had dismembered over the last 3 hours as they sprinted from every direction imaginable, a forest of spiked arms and teeth looking to tear him apart.

And he had been treated to new forms of Necromorphs as well, if 'treated' was the relevant word. Chief among them being the small shrieking monsters that attacked in packs, looking to drag him down and tear him apart through sheer overwhelming numbers. 'The Pack' seemed a fitting name for them, and he still remembered the sight of over a dozen tiny, broken corpses that littered the floor of the Concourse, after he had scythed through them with a pulse rifle.

He also briefly remembered the animal-like creatures that had ambushed him not too long ago in the basilica, running from him and looking to attack from the sides, unlike every other Necromorph he had fought so far which always attacked him head on. The horrific screams they issued as they charged at him like maddened bulls still rung clearly in his ears...and the pain in his ribcage from where one had tackled him out of nowhere, when he was too focused on attacks from the front. That incident taught him that he could never afford to drop his guard now.

And to top it all off, he was currently tiptoeing through the Church of Unitology, the same damned Marker Heads who thought this entire situation was 'divine'. As he had passed through great cavernous halls and corridors, taking in opulent statues of Michael Altman himself, as well as countless decorations in the shape of the Marker itself, its twin spires extending towards the heavens like bloody knives. Those bastards had been responsible for the Ishimura, he had convinced himself, responsible for her death, as well as hundreds of others.

And yet he had little choice but to come here, on the request of that woman, Daina. He still had no clue who she was exactly, contacting him out of the blue, and barely any reason for trusting her at all: after all, the last female who offered him support and guidance via the RIG link was Kendra Daniels. And he knew fine well how that panned out for everyone involved.

But still, this Daina woman had sent that technician, Franco, to free him from stasis confinement and warn him of the outbreak-

-before he was promptly killed by an Infector and transformed into a Slasher before Isaac's eyes, bladed arms erupting from his shoulders in great gouts of blood, the necrotic tissue tearing through his skin, muscle and sinews in a horrific display that Isaac had only previously seen from a distance. Needless to say, it was a rather stomach-churning sight, and he still didn't know what gave him the coordination to head butt the monster as it screamed directly into his face.

And she said she would be able to cure his dementia, which he feared would do him in before one of these Necromorphs did it for him. The visions had been troubling enough, flashes of those damned symbols and of mutilated, screaming corpses pressing in all around him, but it was the fact that he was seeing her that was most troubling, taunting him with venomous words over his weakness, over his willingness to run away from the past rather than to accept it for what it was.

And as for that incident in the executive office he had crawled into via the maintenance duct...the less said the better. Though convinced he was fighting for his life, in reality he was barely millimetres away from stabbing himself through the eye with a hypodermic needle- a fact more terrifying than wading through hundreds of those monsters in the first place.

He had literally nothing else to go on. All of the shuttles were either already gone of lying crumpled and wrecked all around the Sprawl, so escaping like he had done on the Ishimura wasn't an option. And every EarthGov trooper on the colony was gunning for him too- hell, they had sent a fucking gunship after him. And besides, Daina had insisted the dementia would kill him sooner or later, and the thought of committing suicide during one of his little 'episodes' didn't sit very well with him.

He slowed down as he approached the door at the end of the passage, which would lead into the observation deck that overlooked the rest of the colony- and where Daina was waiting. He remained somewhat apprehensive as he drew closer to the door, waving his hand over the glowing blue hologram to open the heavy doors, before he sent a mental suggestion through the RIG's spine unit to his helmet, letting it fold away into his suit, just above the spinal unit which showed his vitals.

The doors opened to reveal a blonde-haired woman standing a few feet away from him, dressed in plain civilian clothing, her RIG obscured by the blue jacket she wore. She simply stood with her hands in front of her, staring out into space (literally). The far wall was just a set of massive windows, looking out across the skyline of the Sprawl. Isaac hesistated in the doorway for a few seconds, before stepping forwards.

"Daina-" he began, but he barely had time to say or even think anything else when he became aware of movement on either side of him, and then he was suddenly being restrained by the arms, one man on each side of him, both dressed in civilian RIGs and wearing neutral expressions on their faces. He tried to struggle free, but they kept a strong grip on him.

"Daina!" he yelled angrily as he looked back and forth between his two captors, but she didn't move, instead staring out the observation window, not saying a word.

That's when it hit him like a sledgehammer to the gut. Why else would she insist on them meeting at the Church of Unitology, the very centre of enemy territory, as far as he was concerned? Separation of Church and State had nothing to do with it.

"You're a Unitologist," muttered Isaac, on the verge of breaking out into fits of laughter. "Of course you are," he continued, "why the hell did I trust you?" he then asked, speaking for both himself and his own mind.

Daina turned her head slightly before speaking for the first time he had stepped into the room. "Well you didn't have a choice, Isaac," she stated bluntly, her voice remaining neutral. "I told you there was a cure, and you came running."

And aren't I a fucking gullible bastard? Isaac thought to himself bitterly. He had been desperate after escaping from the hospital, and Daina had used that to manipulate him into coming to her. "Why are you doing this?" he demanded, his anger rising. "Why can't everyone just leave me alone?" At that remark, Daina finally turned to face him directly. Her face was as plain as her voice had been- no emotion at all.

"You're a dangerous secret, Isaac," she explained, before starting to pace away from him, towards the railing in front of the giant windows. "EarthGov won't leave you alone because they're afraid they'll destroy their precious Marker." Isaac lowered his head to let that piece of info sink in. She had been right about that part, it seemed- they wanted the power that the Marker offered, and they couldn't just let him run around freely and run the risk of him trying to tear it down. But Daina wasn't done, as she turned back towards him.

"After all, you did build it."

Isaac blinked. "What are you talking about?"

Daina allowed herself the barest hint of a smirk. "Well that's why we bought you here," she stated, as though it were painfully obvious. She began to walk towards him again, arms spread on either side like a preacher addressing their congregation. "To build Markers for us. To bring glorious convergence to the entire galaxy..."

As she came to a stop a couple of feet in front of Isaac, he felt his anger boiling up once again, gnashing his teeth together, in danger of grinding them to dust. If he wasn't being restrained, he was certain that he would blow her face right off with his plasma cutter in an instant. Unitologists had denied him a place in Earth's greatest engineering college as far as he was concerned, thanks to his mother selling off all of their possessions and their family funds in order to purchase a vested title in the Church. Then they had visited that nightmare on the Ishimura, by taking the Red Marker from its pedestal on Aegis VII and awakening the Hive Mind, believing they were upholding Michael Altman's divine wish.

But if Altman could see the nightmares that those damn rocks had created, Isaac believed the researcher would have been horrified. There was nothing holy, nothing divine about the Necromorphs. They were a scourge that only cared in spreading their taint everywhere they went, a scourge that would destroy the entire galaxy if needed, and yet the bitch standing before him was convinced it was all for a good cause. Angry didn't begin to cover how he felt right now.

"You people are fucking unbelievable!" he snapped, struggling against his captors. "Just give me the fucking cure and let me go!" Daina only offered a maddening smirk in response.

"Oh, we don't want to cure you, Isaac," she said softly, reaching out and touching his chin. He drew away immediately. "We need that precious little head of yours just the way it is," she then finished, beginning to walk away once again, before giving a curt order to her subordinates. "Now would you escort Isaac to the shuttle and put him in stasis?" she asked in that condescending, half-mocking tone which reminded him so much of the late Doctor Mercer of the Ishimura. She paused by the railings again and turned back to face Isaac once more.

"The last thing we want is for him to die."

Isaac stood his ground, struggling against his captors as they tried to drag him away, his eyes remaining fixated upon Daina as she continued to smirk. He couldn't allow these zealot bastards to spread harm elsewhere, and he had to get free. But as he struggled a little more, he realised that he had to find some other moment to act.

And he would be granted one very shortly, from an unexpected source.

In the next instant, a blinding light filled his vision, and then he heard the sound of glass shattering and the unmistakeable sound of a decompression effect taking place, sucking out everything inside the observation room out into the limitless vacuum of space. His vision cleared in time to see the same EarthGov gunship from earlier on hovering directly outside of the observation room, its twin-linked chain guns spitting out hundreds of rounds a second. Daina recoiled backwards in utter shock, that smug smirk finally gone from her face.

"No!" she managed to scream, pointing towards the gunship, before the high-calibre bullets ripped straight through her body like wet paper, tearing off her right arm before knocking her off of her feet. She was probably dead in an instant, which was just as well before her corpse was then sucked out towards the vacuum, disappearing through the intense glare of the gunship's spotlights.

The man holding Isaac's right arm didn't fare much better, the bullets stitching a way along the floor towards him, before tearing off his head in a spray of blood that splashed across Isaac's face. He teetered sideways, and then Isaac finally thrashed his arm, throwing the corpse off and letting it get sucked out the window, much like Daina had.

That just left one final Unitologist, the man holding onto Isaac's left arm for dear life now, his eyes wide and terrified as his mouth begged for the engineer to save him, his words muffled by the decompressed room. But Isaac was in no such charitable mood, and as he sent another mental impulse to don his helmet, he snatched up his plasma cutter in his right hand. Then he was raising his right leg and booting the man in the stomach with as much strength as he could muster. The man spun away like a piece of discarded paper in the wind, his scream swallowed up by the decompression effect, before he was dragged at high speed into one of the window frames with enough force to snap him in half messily.

Freed from his captors, Isaac only had a fully-equipped gunship to deal with now.

With a grunt of exertion he dived back towards the entrance, barely avoiding a hail of bullets that swept over his head, chewing through the far wall instead. He hit the ground hard and then he was scrambling for purchase as he felt himself beginning to be pulled across the ground, in danger of suffering the same fate of that unfortunate Unitologist. The fingers of his left hand gripped around the edge of a floor panel, even as bullets bounced all around the room, barely missing him every time. With the sheer amount of gunfire it was pumping out, it was some small miracle that he was dead yet- or the infamous 'Isaac Clarke lucky streak' was continuing to hold up-

-or not for much longer, as the floor panel suddenly tore loose from its fitting and he was wrenched backwards, flailing through the air, left arm extended in time to grab onto the railing in front of where the massive windows once stood, his arm nearly popping out his socket. He then hurriedly wrapped his right arm around the railing, giving himself a stronger hold as he could feel the ever-present vacuum trying to pull him out.

He shot a glance over his shoulder in time to see the gunship hovering outside of the windows, moving to and fro, its chain guns firing on full auto now, great lines of tracer fire chewing into the far wall and anything else that got in its way. Isaac saw there was nothing subtle about the way they were trying to kill him: the sheer amount of bullets it was spewing out, it was a miracle that he wasn't torn clean in half when Daina was. But if he continued hanging onto that railing like this, he was bound to be ventilated sooner or later.

Allowing himself to be pulled backwards somewhat so his body was flat, he began to sway himself up and done, gradually building up momentum for his next move, even as the gunfire was beginning to slowly stitch its way along the rim of the observation platform to his far left, closing in on him gradually. Cursing to himself, he swung a few more times, and then finally pulled himself forwards and up with a scream of exertion.

Incredibly, his plan worked, and he felt himself lifted over the railing and landing roughly on the steel flooring, barely avoiding the bullets which chewed away at where he had been dangling helplessly a few seconds beforehand. Keeping his belly low to the ground to resist the vacuum effect pulling him towards the gaping windows, he crawled forwards and gripped the edge of a maintenance hatch he had spied while hanging on for dear life, lifting it up. However it stubbornly resisted his efforts, until he had raised it a few inches, and then the decompression effect ripped it clean out of its setting, sending it spinning out into space. He looked down into the gaping black void in the floor, unsure of where it would take him.

Gunfire bouncing off of the floor around him made his decision for him, as did the warning indicator on his HUD that his oxygen levels were at critical levels.

Into the rabbit hole I go-!

Isaac plunged forwards without a second thought, the sounds of gunfire and other background noise dropping out as he fell head-over-heels down the narrow maintenance shaft, before he suddenly hit the bottom, bouncing off of another couple walls and plunging down another narrow shaft, his viewpoint becoming a blur of cold steel walls and piping as the shaft opened out into a cavernous room, and he hit the ground hard a few seconds later, rolling onto his front as he landed in a lake of blood.

Taking only a couple of seconds to regain his bearings, Isaac stumbled back to his feet, clutching one arm to his stomach as he heard the light hiss of his suit pressurising once again, now that he was safe from the vacuum. He checked himself over, but he was in one piece, the ribbed armour plating of his engineering suit having protected his body. From what he could gather, he was in some sort of maintenance area, a wide tunnel in front of him leading towards a heavy-looking steel door bearing the GRIP symbol, compatible with a kinesis module. In front of him was an overhanging bridge, likely used for repair personnel that came down here.

He knew he had to get moving, as he knew fine well that the Necromorphs loved using the vents and places like this to move around-

A bestial roar cut his thoughts off, and he swore mentally, as he thought one of the gorilla-like Brutes had managed to track him down. He raised his plasma cutter just as he glanced up and saw a massive shadow swing itself down from the ceiling, landing with enough force atop of the bridge to shake the entire room, shaking dust from the ceiling and rattling the overhead lights.

When he saw it in the light though, he stepped backwards, his mind numb from sheer terror. Whatever this thing was, it wasn't a Brute.

It was at least five times the size of a Brute, its massive front limbs thick like tree trunks and clad in ribbed, chintinous armour that looked resistant to most forms of attacks, its heavy body supported at the back on a series of thin, spindly, tendril-like limbs. Its huge, twisted mouth extended out from its body, a series of mandibles resembling human bones extending from the corners. Just above the mouth, Isaac could discern the exact features of a human face stuck in a blank stare; eyes, nose, eyebrows and all, another chilling reminder of the exact origin of these monsters.

As he stared into that dead face, Isaac's mouth couldn't formulate the words necessary for such an abomination, so his mind did it for him instead.

Oh, fuck me!

The monster leaned forward and roared once again, this time directly into his face, splattering the front of his helmet with foul drool, interspersed with flecks of human flesh and other small bones. As soon as its battle cry had ended and it drew away from him, Isaac's mind caught up once again and prompted him into his next action.

RUN!

He darted forwards, barely underneath the monster's perch when he heard a metallic groaning sound and it buckled underneath the monster's immense weight, dropping a pair of thick steel pipes in Isaac's path, forcing him to duck and weave between them, his heart thundering in his ears as he moved. A split-second later something smacked him in the back and threw him onto his face. He spun around just as he saw one of the monster's massive arms come down and effortlessly smash aside the pipes, and then take hold of another thick bundle of wreckage, pulling it to the side. Another second later, the monster appeared, leaning in from the edge of its perch, drool streaming from the corners of its huge mouth.

Oh fuck!

It snapped its jaws hungrily, but was unable to reach him due to the wreckage blocking its path. But judging by the groaning of steel, it wouldn't be much longer until it had a clear path to him, and he hated to think what it would do to him, much like he did with every other Necromorph he had encountered over the last three years. He raised his plasma cutter and fired off a single shot, the pale blue bolt simply deflecting off its armoured hide.

Fuck! Now what?

He then suddenly saw that the area where its elbow should have been was of a sickly yellow colouration, wrapped in a thin layer of armoured hide, and he gathered that was a weak spot of some kind: besides, many Necromorphs on the Ishimura had only died when he had fired upon and burst the glowing sacs dotting their bodies: even the Hive Mind itself. And who could forget that three-legged monster that had descended from the ceiling of the Great Hall and tried to stake him through the mouth?

That was fun...

He snapped out of his sardonic thoughts to see the beast had almost shoved the obstruction aside, and he fired a second plasma bolt into the yellow spot on its arm, tearing off some of the armour and flesh in a spray of blood. The beast shrieked in a higher pitched sound than before, even as he fired a third shot, tearing through the armour some more. The monster visibly reacted this time, drawing its head backwards, giving him some time to rise up slightly and throw himself to the side, barely avoiding its immense jaws as it snapped towards him, almost biting him in half.

His back smacked against a wall, one of the possible worst places to find yourself in when fighting these monsters, but he didn't really have a choice, with this hulking, screeching behemoth trying to tear him into chunks. It fixed its eyeless gaze on him again, the blank human face inset into its armoured hide remaining indifferent to the carnage all around as dust tumbled from the ceiling and animalistic shrieks and metallic groans mixed with one another.

He wasted no time in unloading two more rounds into the elbow joint, spraying more blood and even blowing off some more of its armoured skin, which elected another piercing shriek from the monster as it pulled itself backwards, wriggling frantically to dislodge its massive bulk from the narrow space. Seeing another chance, Isaac got to his feet and made a dash for the exit tunnel once more, but it recovered faster than he had anticipated and swung its massive arm around to try and smash him into a bloody smear, forcing him to dive onto his front once again as it swept overhead.

He hit the floor at the same time as the fist smashed into the wall with enough force to completely collapse the bridge, trapping the creature underneath a collection of heavy piping, steel beams, and other construction material. But even in that awkward position, it still constituted a very real threat, as he suddenly felt one of its spindly rear legs wrap around his ankles and wrench him into the air effortlessly, forced to dangle like a rag doll as it slammed him back first against one of the walls. Somehow, he managed to keep a firm hold of his plasma cutter.

From his vantage point he could see the gigantic beast now, trapped underneath the wreckage from the bridge with its right arm pinned beneath a series of pipes, the rest of its body twisted around awkwardly, its other limbs thrashing wildly, as was its extended mouth, shrieking madly all the while as its jaws snapped hungrily, eager to drop him down the hatch, so to speak.

Fighting through the aching sensation in his right arm, Isaac managed to extend his right arm and ready his cutter, fixing the glowing blue targeting lines over the monster's elbow joint, the portion of yellowed flesh now almost totally exposed. He fired another shot, spilling even more blood as the white hot plasma cut through flesh, sinew, and whatever else had built this fiend. He swore he saw a severed part of a human arm drop to the cold steel floor from the monster's thrashing movements.

Speaking of which, it didn't take too kindly to being shot once again, and it thrashed its limbs once more, raising him up and smacking the back of his helmet against one of the ceiling lights, knocking it out in a spray of sparks. Stars and bright oblong shapes swam before Isaac's vision for a few moments, and when it cleared he realised that he was only about three feet away from its slavering jaws now, as it continued to strain and stretch from beneath the debris keeping it trapped, though the heavy pipes looked as though they were on the verge of being pushed aside. He didn't have much time left.

Gritting his teeth, Isaac aimed his cutter once again; the glowing red ammo counter read out showing that he only had two shots left in the current battery. And he had better make them count, as otherwise he wasn't in the ideal position to reach for a fresh battery, or for his pulse rifle. Setting the sights across the joint once more, he pulled the trigger, sending another white bolt down into the flesh, spraying more blood and leaving him with one last shot. Holding his breath, Isaac sighted over the most torn section of the limb, blotting all other sound: the creature's pained screeching, the sound of groaning steel, and his own thunderous heartbeat.

This had better work.

He squeezed the trigger, and the final plasma shot tore straight through the Necromorph's thick limb, spraying great gouts of blood across the floor and severing it from the monster's massive body.

The beast totally ignored Isaac now, throwing its head back and letting off an even louder shriek than before, screaming in agony as blood continued to jet from the severed stump of its considerable limb. Seemingly annoyed at Isaac's efforts in cutting one of its arms off, it raised him up even higher, his view turned right way up for a few moments, before it tossed him to the side, hurling the engineer nearly 30 feet down the exit tunnel, leaving him to roll over onto his front and then slide along until he came to a rest after a few more moments.

"Dammit," he grunted, glancing over his shoulder before rising sluggishly to his feet. "How do I keep getting into this shit?"

Though that was the least of his worries when he saw the wreckage from the destroyed bridge erupt into a shower of twisted metal, and he saw the monster come galloping towards him, supported on its remaining arm and its spindly rear limbs, screaming in rage and hate, its advance shaking the entire structure, dust cascading down from the ceiling.

"Oh, give me a fucking break!" yelled Isaac as he quickly ejected the spent battery from his cutter and loaded a fresh one, before clipping it onto his tool belt and pulling out his pulse rifle instead. The monster had covered about a third of the gap between them now, screaming all the way. He raised the rifle and fired off a few shots, the rifle's recoil slamming back into his shoulder, but he saw no visible effects upon the creature, barely slowing it down.

"Dammit!" he cursed, before raising his left arm and activating his stasis module, freezing the monster mid-stride, its movements slowing to the extent that it may as well have been swimming through treacle. But it gave Isaac the extra time he so desperately needed, and he quickly turned and used his kinesis module to move the heavy-looking door blocking his route aside, giving him a clear path towards the large open room he could see in the distance, its far wall replaced with a thick glass window, overlooking the buildings outside.

But he would take it right now, considering the circumstances, and he began to sprint towards the room as fast as his legs would carry him. Even with over 75 pounds worth of engineering RIG slowing him down, Isaac could still move his ass when needed, such as when being chased by an immense, slavering alien formed from countless human corpses. He had made it another 20 feet when he heard the creature's screeching come back again, the corridor shaking once more as its advance returned to its original speed- the stasis had worn off.

But Isaac had already set foot within the open space now, and his eyes scanned for a possible exit he could use-

-when a blinding light filled his vision once again, and he skidded to a halt, raising his arms to cover his face, before the light faded and he saw the gunship from before hovering outside of the windows, its chain guns already winding up to fire once again.

Oh hell-

He ducked down as it opened fire a split second later, shattering the windows and causing another decompression effect, and immediately wrenching him towards the open windows, his left hand reaching out and curling inside a power port on the floor, acting as an anchor spot to hold him place, even as gunfire stitched up the ground either side of him.

Though things were about to get worse, when he glanced up to see the giant Necromorph come barging through the threshold of the room, continuing to shriek madly, blood still dribbling from the stump of its severed arm. It fixed its gaze towards him and moved forward a little, but then the decompression effect took hold of it too, and it began to skitter forward awkwardly, its rear limbs scrambling frantically for some kind of purchase on the smooth steel flooring, but it was having trouble, more so when a large steel container in the far corner was pulled out into space, catching one of its feet and making it stumble noticeably, heading straight towards Isaac.

He cursed inwardly just as it fell onto its front, barely a few inches from the engineer's curled hand, and he instinctively let go, feeling the vacuum drag him effortlessly out into space, rolling end over end.

The second he passed the empty window frame, all sound around him dropped out immediately, save for an eerie, concussed whistle that prickled his eardrums, and the subdued thud-thud of his heartbeat inside his chest cavity. He was also granted with a close-up view of the gunship, its impossibly bright spotlight beams turning away as it swung about, clearly trying to get to a better vantage spot, even as the engineer collided with the grated underside of the ship, dragging along a few feet before he managed to curl his fingers around a section of grating and hold on for dear life, just as he noticed the large red fuel canisters concealed beneath the grating. He planted his feet on the surface as the ship continued to swing about, trying to get away from the area.

But they wouldn't be so lucky, as Isaac glanced over his shoulder in time to see the monster come spinning towards the ship, its limbs flailing in every direction.

Oh crap-

A second later it impacted against the gunship, rocking the large ship and setting off a silent explosion, a bright flash of light filling his helmet for a brief second, as he pushed himself flat in an effort to maintain his grip. It worked, though he felt the ship's movements become much more pronounced as the heavy impact no doubt sending it spinning of course. He glanced up to see the monster towering over him, lifting a foot and bringing it down with bone-shattering force.

He rolled to the side in time to avoid the stomp, which still tore loose some of the grating and left the fuel canisters free to start spilling out into the void. Feeling his heart rate increasing even higher, Isaac knew he had to get off of that damned gunship, even as a second spindly limb tried to grab onto him. Crouching down and making sure both feet were planted firmly on the ship's hull, he pushed away and activated his boosters at the same time, feeling himself launch out into the void, away from the gunship, away from that giant Necromorph-

-but he was wrenched back to reality when he felt something powerful grab onto his ankles, the sudden force of stopping almost tearing him in half. He looked behind him to see the creature's remaining arm wrapped around his feet and lower legs tightly, as its hind legs scrabbled frantically for purchase against the ship's smooth hull. The gunship itself was spinning wildly out of control by now, its wings auto-adjusting pathetically as the crew desperately tried to regain control.

Isaac knew it wouldn't be long until the creature found its footing and finished him off, so he didn't have much time. But its armoured hide prevented him from striking any vital areas, so he couldn't rely on his pulse rifle-

-until he saw a couple of the red fuel tanks tumble past him, spinning away to some far away part of the Sprawl, and another idea hit him. An incredibly risky idea, but hell, he was full of bad ideas. Raising the pulse rifle up as far as he could manage, he waited for a few more seconds until one of the tanks was practically beside the monster, and he squeezed the trigger.

There was no sound from the resulting chain reaction of explosions, just an impossibly bright flash of white light that swallowed up his vision, almost like the light from the sun itself. He screwed his eyes shut, feeling the intense heat through even his RIG suit, as he felt the grip on his feet release, and he was suddenly flying freely through the endless void of space, spinning end over end to God knew where-

-and then he was colliding with a glass viewing window, tumbling inside one of the Sprawl's tiny apartments, before he crashed through the door almost as though it were made of wet paper, rolling through the corridor for several more yards before he came to a halt. He gasped in relief as he remained lying on the floor for a little longer, just staring straight down, until he heard the hiss of his RIG pressurising once more, and the sound flooded back into his ears in an instant. He looked back the way he had come, to see a thick emergency plate had come down over the window he had just shattered, sealing the corridor off from the ravages of space.

Isaac continued to stare towards the closed plate for a while longer, and then finally sank to his knees, allowing the pulse rifle to clatter free from his grasp. He didn't even consider the fact a Necromorph could be creeping up on him right now, as there were far more important things on his mind right now.

It was all over. There was no cure for his condition, and he had fallen for Daina's ruse hook, line and sinker. Why else had he trudged across half of Public Sector, through hordes of those creatures, stared death in the face countless times, suffered through the visions? Because there was some shred of hope that he would be able to beat the sickness, to be free from the horrific visions, the ones that almost drove him to suicide.

And now that had all been blown to hell, by both an EarthGov gunship and the insane goals of the Unitologists figures that occupied Titan Station. They were truly blind to everything else if they thought that the Markers were divine. The fact Daina intended to bring 'glorious convergence' to the entire galaxy showed they were dead set on building more markers. Why the hell couldn't they see that the Markers weren't divine icons? That they were alien artefacts which had inflicted the nightmare of the Necromorphs on the Ishimura, and now on Titan Station?

Just like on the Ishimura. He had always assumed that Kendra was his main ally throughout the entire endeavour, directing him and handing out objectives, leading him towards the last shuttle on the ship, even as Hammond had been ripped to pieces by a Brute in the engine room of the USM Valor, right in front of Isaac's eyes. And then she had screwed him over right before they could take the shuttle down to Aegis VII, shooting Doctor Kyne and leaving Isaac for dead, her helpful but somewhat scared demeanour giving way to a cold and indifferent persona- just like what had happened with Daina.

History had a funny way of repeating itself, that much was certain.

Whatever, it meant nothing to him now. There was nothing left for him now. All the shuttles were likely gone or wrecked, leaving him with no escape route. And there was nothing else he could aim towards either. All that he could possibly do now was to sit around and wait to-

The static burst of a video log opening in front of him almost made him leap out his skin, and he glanced up to see the image of a rather thin-looking man with brown hair and dressed in hospital patient scrubs appear on screen: the same man he had encountered during his escape from the hospital, and who had tried to contact Isaac a couple of times since then.

"Isaac!" cried Nolan Stross, glancing over his shoulder. "Are you there? Can you hear me?"

Isaac just shook his head slowly before he spoke. "What do you want, Stross? Look, its over- all my plans just blew out the window"-

"No, no, no, no!" insisted Stross suddenly, screwing his eyes shut as he did. He was looking rather desperate by that point, practically forcing Isaac to listen. "It's not over. At least, not yet." He glanced around him some more, clearly paranoid. "Isaac...Isaac, we built it. We can tear it down!"

Isaac furrowed his brow for a second, pondering that last statement about tearing 'it' down. Then he remembered Daina's remark about being the 'one who built it'.

"You mean the Marker?" he asked, his mind catching up with Stross' statements. The man may have been a borderline psychopath, who had murdered his family, according to Daina-

-but after what that bitch had pulled not too long ago, who knew if even that was an outright lie? What Isaac had deduced though, was that Stross remembered a hell of a lot more about what exactly Tidemann had put them through in that facility than Isaac did. ApparentlyStrosse too had been forced to take the memory suppressants that Daina stated Tidemann used to delay the signal planted in their brains by the Red Marker, but he could recall that particular event, unlike Isaac. And if that was the case...

"Do you know where the Marker is, Stross?"

"It's in the Government Sector! The Government Sector!" snapped Stross, sounding very highly-strung now. Even if he hadn't murdered his family, it's clear that he was on the verge of snapping completely. Isaac would need to tread lightly around Stross if he was going to use him to get to the Marker.

"But we have to move!" continued Stross, holding one hand to the side of his head. Now, now, now, now!" he continued, his tone taking on that insistent, almost manic edge. "Because time is running out for me...us," he finished, and then the screen became filled with a wash of static snow.

"Stross!" Isaac yelled, perking up. "Stross, where are you going?" he added, but Stross was already gone, most likely either out of range, or bad transmission quality from his end. "Shit!" he then cursed, just as the log screen closed up.

He spent a few more minutes, sat on the ground, contemplating what he should do next. The chance of finding a cure for his sickness had been blown to pieces, as he had so delicately put it, but if Stross knew where the Marker was...then perhaps it would be possible to put an end to this madness. He had managed to destroy the Red Marker on Aegis VII, so in theory it made sense that if the Marker that corresponded to this outbreak was destroyed...

He might have been doomed to either be driven insane or be hacked to bits by angry Necromorphs, but he figured if he was going to go like that then he'd at least make sure that the Necromorphs wouldn't spread any further than the Sprawl. After all, after witnessing the destruction caused here, where over a million people lived, he couldn't bear the thought of it spreading to other colonies through the galaxy.

What if it reached Earth?

He shuddered inwardly, before rising to his feet. He calmly reloaded his pulse rifle, and checked that it still had all its parts, doing the same with his plasma cutter. It was decided: he'd find Stross first, and use him to reach Government Sector, to find the Marker, and put an end to this chaos. Considering the loss of all the shuttles, he guessed heading for the Transport Hub would be the best idea for some form of transport. After all, it would be impossible to reach Government Sector on foot. After spending a few more moments consulting his RIG and his personal logs, he began to trudge towards the door in the distance. It wasn't over yet, not by a long shot.

Somewhere close by, the whispers continued to creep into his ears. He turned to look behind him as he swore he heard someone whispering his name.

"Isaac...Isaac..."

He sighed and shook his head. He didn't know how much longer he could put up with this. He had to hurry and find Stross before it was too late.

A/N: OK, here is my first one shot regarding the Dead Space universe. I always liked the original game, which pretty much came out of nowhere, and then since the second game came out I wanted to do some kind of work on Dead Space, as that game was filled with so many great moments and set pieces- not just action pieces, but story and plot scenes as well. I always found the portrayal of Isaac's descent into his dementia was a particuarly well-done feature.

As you can see, I've changed the dialogue up somewhat in the odd place, but either way the events are mainly the same as they happened in game. I hope you all enjoyed it, and R&R if you can please. All feedback is appreciated.