I absolutely love Dead Space and this is my first fanfiction for the series. I don't know why I got the desire to write this but I really wanted to do it!
I hope you enjoy this novelization of the greatest horror game of all time!
The hull of the USG Kellion hummed softly as it went through shockpoint, taking it across the universe faster than the speed of light towards its destination. Thank God for the Shockpoint Drive, otherwise it would take ships days upon weeks to reach another star system. The screen of the Kellion's computer flashed with an eerie, bluish static as the mission info flashed across the screen, the automated white letters appearing rapidly across the screen…
CEC Mission ER529
Status update…
USG Kellion en route to Aegis VII…
Primary mission assets
…Isaac Clarke – Engineering and ships system specialist…
…Kendra Daniels – Computer Specialist…
…Zach Hammond – Chief security officer…
Directive A: Locate mining vessel USG Ishimura.
Directive B: Diagnose and repair communications blackout.
Time to contact point: 3 minutes…
The video playback of the engineer's RIG link flipped on under his command. A young woman appeared on the screen, adjusting the camera before she sat down in her chair, the blue hue of the RIG's link and the static distorting some of her features. But he could easily tell it was her; he could never forget that beautiful face of hers, no matter what…
"Isaac it's me. I wish I could talk to you. I'm sorry, I'm sorry about everything. I wish I could just talk to someone. It's all falling apart here I can't believe what's happening. It's strange…such a little thing…"
Before the video feed could continue any further he cut off the transmission, a loud sigh of impatience escaping him.
"How many times you watch that thing?" Kendra Daniels asked him, datapad in her hands. Zack Hammond tapped the scrolling commands of the orange hologram, focusing on the mission objectives they entered into the Kellion's databank before leaving CEC headquarters. "Guess you really miss her…"
"More than you know Kendra…" Isaac Clarke said, wishing he could stretch in this seat. He didn't understand why he could stand up like Kendra and Hammond; he felt so constrained in this rather uncomfortable seat, but he knew how Chen and Johnston felt sitting at the Kellion's controls the entire flight. All he could do was sit and enjoy the view of the universe from the cockpit window. "It's been such a long time since I saw her in person."
Isaac did not know Hammond, Kendra, or the pilots very well; he only met them this morning after hearing about the Ishimura's issues, according to their distress call. His girlfriend Nicole Brennan was a crew member on the vessel, and he really wanted to see her. He didn't need to beg the CEC to let him go; Isaac was a very skilled engineer and, needless to say, an asset.
Kendra smiled and gave him a slight chuckle. "Don't worry, we're almost there. You'll be able to look her up once we're on board." Kendra fumbled with the datapad as Hammond turned off the holoscreen and turned to the cockpit window. "Sounds like you do have a lot of catching up to do…"
The small ship smoothly exited shockpoint and entered the rocky Aegis system. The ship traveled through the rock field; it was practically an asteroid field surrounding the dead planet but Chen's impressive piloting skills helped keep them clear of the debris.
"Alright everyone, we're here, synching our orbit now." Hammond said with a soft sigh, a half-smile on his face as he looked out upon the massive planet that was Aegis VII.
"All this trouble over that chunk of rock…"
"Deep-space mining is a lucrative business, Ms. Daniels." Hammond said matter-of-factly, hand resting on the back of Chen's seat. "Aegis VII is a gold mine according to prospector's reports. Cobalt, Silicon, Osmium… Now where is she…..there she is, we have visual contact."
The larger chunks of the planet parted as they approached the planet and sure enough, the magnificent vessel that was the Ishimura came into view.
Kendra joined him behind Johnston's seat, an awed smile across her face. Never had she seen the Ishimura in person, only heard about it, and she was quite impressed with the large ship.
"So that's the Ishimura…Impressive."
"The USG Ishimura." Zach corrected, but not in a rude way. "Biggest Planet Cracker in her class. And it looks like they've already popped the cork."
Isaac's eyes went directly south of the ship where the large tectonic mass hung from gravity tethers, floating like it was just another piece of debris. But that chunk was teeming with valuable resources like Hammond said. Isaac understood the importance of that; after all, where else could they get resources? Those on Earth were depleted a long time ago…
"Why's it all dark I don't see any running lights…?" The suspicion and a bit of worry were very apparent in Kendra's voice.
Hammond waved that concern off; they might be doing emergency maintenance that requires the whole ship to go offline. More than likely, this had to be it. "Corporal take us in closer and hail them," As Hammond commanded Chen guided the ship closer to the mining vessel while Johnston boosted their speed, working in unison with his co-pilot. "And stay clear of that debris field; we're here to fix their ship, not the other way around."
Chen flipped on the com and easily achieved a signal with the ship; it was very weak but they had a signal and that was good enough for them. "USG Ishimura, this is the emergency maintenance team of the USG Kellion responding to your distress call. Come in Ishimura."
Kendra walked in a half-circle, listening to the indistinct chatter coming from the communications. "You're going to need to boost the signal if their power's low."
"Yes we know…" Hammond said impatiently, looking at the metal floor for a second. "Boost the signal." Chen did so. "More." The humming coming from the signal was louder than ever, almost ultrasonic.
"Never heard of total communications blackout on one of these things," Kendra chimed, gesturing towards the ship. "You'd think with a thousand people on board someone would pick up the phone."
Isaac adjusted the name-tag on the front of his suit and popped his neck, readying himself for a hopefully quick and easy mission. All he wanted was to see how Nicole was doing, how much she missed him like he missed her, but that didn't mean he would neglect his duties as an engineer; the Ishimura needed help and he was there to help provide it.
A response came from the ship and played through the system, but the message was a garbled mess, impossible to understand. The crew stood there, a bit confused by exactly what they were listening too.
"What is that?" Johnston asked, looking to Kendra for the answer. She was the computer expert after all.
"It's a busted array like we thought," Kendra was able to pick up the exact problem with ease, not giving a second thought about it. That's how skilled she was with computers; during her training at the CEC she learned how to listen to the computer messages of broken communications systems and discern the issues just by listening to the distortion of the message: the voice distortion, how much hiss and interference there was in the message, and how weak the signal was. "You get us down there and Isaac and I can fix it. Forty-eight hours max"
"Alright you heard the lady, take us in let's see what needs fixing" Hammond said. Isaac could feel something in the pit of his stomach as he stared at the Ishimura. The fact that the entire ship was dark was bad enough, but it seemed so strange that it just sat there, hanging in space like an abandoned freighter after a ruthless assault by space pirates.
A blue energy field came over the Kellion and the ship started to shake, but that was part of the process involved with attaching gravity tethers. "Gravity tethers engaged, automatic docking procedure is go."
Suddenly an explosion rocked the hull of the USG Kellion, almost knocking them out of the gravity tether connection and Hammond off his feet. Debris flew in front of the window, the culprit behind the explosion. The inside of the Kellion sparked and several systems malfunctioned, others going offline.
"What the hell...?" Hammond said sharply, squinting through the cockpit window of the violently-shaking Wai Lao-class shuttle. Chen and Johnston frantically tried to regain control of the ship, which they were losing rapidly.
"S-Sir, the autodocking-" Chen began before Hammond interrupted, saying "What is it?"
"We're off track! We're going to hit the hull!"
"Hit the blast shields! Their guidance tether is damaged! Switch to manual, NOW!" Hammond shouted his command. Isaac could only sit there in his seat and watch the passing sights of the Ishimura's hull. One small mistake and they would end up charred in a ship explosion, smashed under the weight of the ship if it crashed. Luckily, Chen was a very skilled pilot and he would get them in safely; he hoped.
"Hammond, what's going on here?" Isaac shouted over the siren of the Kellion but his voice was drowned out. The massive shapes and towers lining the inside of the dock was practically a death trap; how could a ship maneuver through without the perfect guidance of gravity tethers?
"Inside the magnetic field? Are you insane?" Kendra argued. "Abort!"
"NO! We can make it inside!" Hammond's voice was filled with confidence; confidence in the skills of the pilots so far successfully guiding the Kellion through the dock. "Corporal, I gave you an order!"
Johnston reached up and pulled down the lever above the controls, giving the ship the command to let down its shields to help the impact of landing. In doing so it broke free of the gravity tethers, leaving them without the guidance of the tethers and relying solely on the skills of the pilots.
"The field's too strong!" Johnston grunted after a sharp jarring of the Kellion nearly forced him from his seat.
The Kellion's computer screen flashed to life and lit up the darkened interior, the staticy blue screen showing everything in front of them behind the obstruction of the shields. Chen's hands were sweaty under his gloves, beads of perspiration flowing down his face. His hands started slipping from the controls but he kept a firm grip, determined not to end up splattered across the Ishimura walls.
The insides of the Kellion flashed and sparked with bright white lights, creating a weird strobe-like effect and that could blind the crew; the ship was coming close to landing, closer than they thought. Kendra and Hammond braced themselves behind the pilot seats as the ship suddenly came to an abrupt and crashing stop, sending them to the floor and filling the ship with another flash of light before going completely dark, the ship systems whirring loudly until they faded to silence, dead.
Isaac was now thankful for the constraining seat. Kendra coughed loudly, the impact causing some painful force on her chest. She and Hammond got to their feat as the Kellion automatically let up its shields and the sights around them had instantly changed. They successfully landed on the Ishimura's flight deck, albeit lacking a graceful and painless landing.
Isaac sat up, his waist hurting from the sudden push of the constraint belt in the crash landing. He leaned his head back against the head rest and took a deep breath.
"Is everyone okay?" Hammond asked, showing his honest concern for the rest of the crew.
"Wow, that was fun…" he mumbled to himself, rubbing his forehead.
"What…what the hell were you thinking?" Kendra raised her voice at the Chief Security Officer. "Were you trying to get us killed?"
"I just saved our asses Ms. Daniels." Hammond's tone was calm and collected despite the frustration and relieve he felt deep within. "If we had aborted at that speed and distance we would've smashed right into the side of the Ishimura. Now settle down, let's get to work. Corporal, report."
As Johnston started reading off the damage report, Isaac bent forward and put on the helmet of his Standard Engineer RIG, unclipping the restraints and standing to his shaking legs.
"I'm not getting any reading s from the Port Booster, and we've lost comms and autopilot. It'll take some time to fix."
"Alright," Hammond said. "Let's get some hands from Flight Deck to help out."
Kendra sighed and turned to Isaac, connecting her datapad to his RIG link. "Hold still Isaac, I'm synching up everyone's RIG with the ship…" Within the seconds the empty meters on their backs flashed with blue light, filling all the way to the top of their spine. Their health was full so no one had sustained any injuries from the crash. "Okay we're done. Clean bill of health for everyone."
"Alright, we've still got a job to do. We're moving out." Hammond said, taking charge of the mission that now officially started. Chen and Johnston stood, Pulse Rifles in hand. Hammond carried the same weapon. Isaac watched his comrades leave the ship before he joined them on the long stretch of the docking bay.
"This ship is a mess…" Isaac thought after getting a look of the surrounding Flight Deck. "Looks like they're having problems with more than just the comms array."
Kendra stopped beside the front of the ship, shaking her head in disbelief. Johnston was wrong; the Port Booster was completely gone, lost in the crash. "You didn't lose power to the Port Booster, you lost the Port Booster. Unbelievable…"
Isaac patted her on the shoulder, sighing gently to show he had some frustrations with the mission so far. Kendra gave him a look before continuing down the runway. Isaac looked up at the white glowing words that read "USG ISHIMURA" above two computer screens. As he walked away from the Kellion the screens instantly turned on and a series of pictures displaying the Ishimura and its accomplishments went across the screen, accompanied by a woman's voice:
"Welcome CEC employee, to the USG Ishimura. The Ishimura was the first Planet Cracker-class vessel and is now the oldest serving, with sixty-two years of continuous service. It holds the record for highest number of planet cracks, with thirty-four to date and highest dead weight of refined product at fourteen trillion kilotons and counting."
"Wow, impressive…" Isaac said to himself, stopping to watch the video. He heard great things about the Ishimura and its status as the backbone of Concordance Extraction Corporation. But thirty-four planet cracks? Fourteen trillion kilotons? Needless to say Isaac was very impressed. Maybe getting Nicole this job wasn't such a bad idea.
"Whether you'll be joining us aboard the Ishimura or strengthening the extraction work force on the colony, the captain and crew would like to welcome you and we hope your stay is a pleasant one. Concordance Extraction Corporation: 'Powering Humanity into the Future'."
The inspirational music played for a few more seconds as the CEC logo lingered over a starry backdrop of space, the red planet spinning in the grey C before the video feed went off.
Isaac could not help but smile. "Kinda cheesy and overdone, but I like it." He looked at Johnston and Chen who stood guard at the lobby entrance, watching and waiting for something to happen. Isaac wondered what the point of that was. No one on here was a potential enemy. They're just here to fix a busted array; what's the worst that could happen?
Hammond examined the locked door that lead to the Flight Lounge, based on the sign above it with the phrase 'Welcome to the USG Ishimura' scrolling to the left. As if that fancy video feed wasn't enough of a welcome…
"Guess the power's down everywhere. Isaac, get over here and hack the doorpad."
Well, time to crack in those skills. Isaac kneeled down in front of the door, his skin-tight engineer RIG snagging certain areas of his body that made it very uncomfortable. Sometimes Isaac didn't like wearing this RIG; he wished he could have clear view of everything around him like the others, but he had the most dangerous job in the maintenance team. The helmet was required and it certainly was better than having half your face blown off in an explosion cause by a faulty power fuse. He was also more grateful he did not have the higher leveled RIGs; while they offered more protection, they hindered and made certain movements harder.
"Sometimes I wonder what kind of future I have with this corporation…" Isaac said aloud to no one in particular as he pressed some buttons and manipulated a few devices on the door.
"You're an asset to the CEC based on your records Isaac." Hammond said in a supportive voice. "I'm sure you'll have a bright future with the CEC."
Isaac smiled slightly. "Yeah, thanks Hammond…" he said that, but what he really thought was, "My bright future is spending the rest of my life with Nicole…"
Eventually Isaac managed to hack the door and it slid open with a loud mechanical whirr. He stood up, glad he still had the touch. The lounge was dark, lit by only a green elevator sign against the back wall but the second a step was taken inside the room, the lights flashed on and showed there was nobody around.
Not a single trace of life, the only indication someone was even in here being the forgotten luggage scattered here and there.
"…Where is everybody…?" Isaac said to himself, looking around through his helmet's narrow vision. The engineer took a look at the cubby holes as Hammond, Kendra, Chen, and Johnston walked in, the door closing behind them. Isaac found a small Med Pack and 800 credits.
"Hm…a Med Pack…this could really come in handy." Isaac wasn't sure how well or even how badly this mission would go but he wasn't one who took many risks; risky was not his middle name. Nicole helped make sure of that. He took the Med Pack and the credits, storing them in his RIG's virtual storage container. This allowed any object to be broken down into virtual memory and stored within the RIG's massive database. Later if he wanted to, he could take out any item he wanted and use it without having to lug it around anywhere.
Isaac walked past Johnston and looked up at the flight schedules in and out of the Ishimura. Interestingly, every single flight to and from this ship was cancelled; every one of them. This made Isaac a little nervous.
Hammond looked around the empty lounge, from Isaac to the pilots to Kendra who had her position at the door leading to the Tram Station.
"Seems like everyone was trying to pack in a hurry…" Kendra observed.
"There should be a security detailing in here…" Hammond responded.
"Yeah, well there's not. There's nobody here!" she said as if that fact wasn't already obvious. Aside from the lack of workers to assist them after the crash landing, who could even say there was a single crew member on the Flight Deck? "I can't pick up any broadcasts!"
Hammond's eyes picked up a security console behind the glass directly beside Johnston. "Well that security console's still alive. Isaac log in and see what you can find. Kendra, get that elevator back online…"
"Power's dead. I can't!"
"Then reroute the damn power!" Hammond said angrily. Kendra scoffed and turned away to give her attention to the door, insulted by Hammond's lack of patience. Johnston and Chen looked at him, wondering if everything was alright with their team leader. The Security Officer quickly regained his cool; there really was no point in arguing. It would get them nowhere. "Look if we all cooperate, we can figure this out a lot sooner. Just get that computer display up Isaac."
Isaac nodded and went through the door that lead to another path to an elevator, like the one Kendra was trying to open. The thing that really caught Isaac's attention, were the red stains all over the floor and walls.
"What the hell is this?" the engineer said, looking all around the separated section of the room. "This can't be…blood? Okay, this is creepy…" Isaac shook his head and turned to the computer console, getting up the display with the push of a few buttons. A holodisplay of the Ishimura came up and every section of the ship began flashing red. He stood there, knowing he'd have to fix all of it…
"Huh, that doesn't look good," Johnston said. "She's taken a lot of damage."
Hammond nodded and pointed at the display. "The tram system's offline. Getting around is going to be difficult." A soft click broke the silence and the air conditioning system flipped on, the cool air blowing down onto the hot sweaty faces of the crew. Isaac wished he could take off his helmet and feel the nice cold air on his face. That was another thing he really hated about the RIG suit. "The air seems to be flowing again, that's a start."
Isaac took his helmet in his hands, wanting to feel the air so badly but before he even got a chance the lights went out and a loud siren blared in the lounge, an orange light spinning on the ceiling. The display was gone and now it was red, the words "QUARANTINE" flashing with a common biohazard symbol accompanying it.
"What the…what's going on here?" Isaac said with great concern, but they didn't seem to hear him over the sound of the overly loud alarm. Johnston, Chen, and Hammond kept their Pulse Rifles pointed at the ceiling, the flashlights mounted on the top of the barrels aiding in breaking the darkness.
"What the hell was that?" Kendra said with the same amount of worry Isaac had.
"Automatic quarantine must have tripped when the filtration system restarted. Everybody relax…" Zach didn't want his team panicking. He had to keep everything under control otherwise things would start going wrong. Horribly wrong…
Isaac stood there in front of the console, only able to see his comrades because of the orange light and the lights of their weapons. As long as they were okay, he was fine…
"What was that? Did you hear that?" Kendra said in a panicked voice after a very loud knocking in the air vents scared the shit out of her.
"I'm not sure…" Hammond said, starting to lose his calm demeanor no matter how much he wanted to hold on to it. A loud crash radiated throughout the room followed by the sound of metal-on-metal. If the lights were on they would've seen the ventilation covering shatter to pieces.
"What the hell…?" Chen said, trying to squint through the blackness.
"I don't know something's in the room with us!"
The orange light flashed Isaac's way for a split second, and he saw it. Was it…a man? It had the shape of a human but it had blades protruding from its arms and its body looked…deformed. And it was right behind Johnston.
"Johnston! Johnston look out! It's behind you!" Isaac yelled, banging on the glass with his fists as hard as he could. Unable to hear Isaac's frantic yelling because of the deafening alarm, Johnston was unable to see or hear the creature creeping up him. With a loud, inhumane roar the blades were brought down up Johnston and the man was ruthlessly attacked.
"Jesus! Open fire!" Hammond screamed before he and Chen started firing barrages of bullets its way, but they were unable to stop it and Isaac watched in horror as Johnston's head was taken clean off his shoulders, blood spattering on the window in front of Isaac and the sound of his RIG flat lining echoing through the room.
"Kendra! Power!" Hammond yelled over the siren as another monster came into the room. "Kendra!"
Kendra's fingers went rapidly all over the holographic display. She was almost there but they were running out of time. The second creature lunged at Chen, pinning him to the floor before a violent bite to his neck caused his vitals to instantly go out, a second flat-lining filling their ears.
"Come on…come on…" Kendra mumbled nervously as the creatures came towards them. Isaac started to panic, having just witnessed two of his comrades murdered right in front of him. "Got it!" The door slid open, as did the one behind Isaac.
"Isaac! Get the hell out of there!" Hammond yelled.
"The doors unlocked! Run!" Kendra and Hammond ran through the door, leaving Isaac alone in the Flight Lounge.
The events that just transpired were a lot for the engineer to process, but despite this he immediately turned and ran through the door into the narrow, winding hallway. He ran, legs pumping hard as if they were moving on their own. Now he was really glad he wasn't wearing a higher level suit.
"What the fuck is going on here?" Isaac screamed aloud as a vent exploded above him, nearly making him lose his balance and go tumbling down the ramp. The siren blared through his ears and behind him he could hear the sounds of those…things, roaring like mad rabid monsters. He dare not look behind him to see what they were. He made another sharp turn to the right as the next vent was destroyed and he just barely caught a glimpse of what came out of it. Shaped like a man, blades in its arms…what is it?
"Run Isaac! Get the hell out of there!" Kendra's voice radiated over Isaac's RIG link.
"I'm running as fast as I can!" he yelled turning to the right once more. Dead ahead, in the middle of what looked like fog, he could see an elevator. A wave of relieve washed over him and he started running faster, his lungs working as hard as his legs were to supply oxygen to his body.
The elevator got closer and closer. Isaac held out his hand to touch the pad of the doors to get them open as fast as possible. His insides were telling him to run faster; he could feel them getting closer, gaining up on him, but he dare not check to verify.
Isaac pushed his hand around against the doors, not giving them enough time to open all the way; he forced his way through the doors and slammed his hand against the elevator controls, crashing against the back of the elevator as the doors closed.
"I'm safe…thank God I'm safe…" Isaac breathed out, leaning against the wall with his elbows resting on the bar. His head was sweating profusely beneath his helmet and he knew it was time to get some fresh air.
Before he could even motion to take his helmet off, something started attacking the doors. Two long blades forced their way through the doors and forced them open. Isaac gave a loud, horrified scream as the creature roared at him, red and yellow fluid leaking from its mouth as it pried the elevator doors all the way open. There was nowhere else to run, nowhere else to go. Isaac stood there, in the mercy of the creature. He held up his arms over his face to block its attack, seeing it lunge forward at him.
But the attack never came. The interrupted mechanisms of the elevator doors made them snap shut, smashing the creature and killing it instantly. Isaac lowered his arms, staring at the bladed arm and head that were at his feet, the cold sunken eyes staring at him in the darkness of the elevator.
Well, what do you think? If this gets some attention I will continue it! If you thought this was good (I hope) it will get better!
Read & Review!