Before we begin: In context, this story starts with what would've been Dead Space 4. It runs with the ideas outlined by Ben Wanat, the creative director of Dead Space, though it rapidly spirals away from the post-apocalypse of Dead Space 4. Otherwise, Isaac, Ellie, and Carver wouldn't end up in the RWBY-verse. To recap: Credits to Ben Wanat for Dead Space 4. Due to plot conflicts, some RWBY lore will be different.
Dead Space Belongs to EA
RWBY belongs to Roosterteeth
Let the nightmare begin...
Ozpin watched the monitors in his office as the streets of Vale rapidly fell to chaos, the living running from the dead. And the dead, chasing the living. He could hear the shivers of the first-year students who'd taken shelter in his office from the abominations that sought to end their lives.
He could hear Professor Port load his weapon, a blunderbuss with axe-blades by the spout. The room had been locked down, but it still wasn't enough. He looked up at a monitor to see the Red Marker, the towering 50-foot monolithic structure that sat at the heart of this nightmare. To his left stood Glynda Goodwitch, his right-hand woman, and fellow instructor at Beacon Academy, she to, could only stare at the cosmic horror that flooded the streets, the little canine faunus Lily Lavender clung to her skirt with one hand, and to her plasma cutter with the other, her dog-ears drooped downward.
The undead mutants the Marker created, which all of Remnant had come to understand were called, Necromorphs, raced towards the Red Marker. Ozpin could only guess that this is what Isaac had warned him about, he was disrupted from his thoughts by an urgent contact from another ally, General James Ironwood of the Atlesian military. Ironwood looked disheveled, his armor and clothes badly damaged, likely from the bony blades of the Necromorphs. "Ozpin, it's Ironwood."
"James," Ozpin asked, "how bad is it out there?"
"Really bad, Ozpin, they're all here. And there's way more of them than we anticipated!"
"Are you safe?" Ozpin asked.
"Barely, they don't seem to get within a few meters of the Marker, but I'm stuck here."
That wasn't good. Before their conversation could progress further, the Marker began to pulsate with energy, Ozpin feared what it meant, Ironwood confirmed his fears. "Oh, no... THERE'S TOO MANY OF THEM!" suddenly the Marker let off a blast that turned the screen white, and was visible from the academy, when the screen returned to normal, they found a truly horrific sight.
The Marker was blasting energy into the air that colored the sky orange, picking up Necromorphs all around it, and propelled them into the sky. They could see from the window the monstrosity they were beginning to merge into. Ozpin and Glynda watched as the event unfolded, but their attention was pulled by a slight chant in the background. They turned to find the students muttering the same phrase repeatedly,
Convergence is here, they will come. Convergence is here, they will come. Convergence is here, they will come.
Ozpin turned back to the window and adjusted his glasses. Where are you Isaac, we need you now more than ever, he thought to himself.
-
Meanwhile:
Welcome, former CEC engineer Isaac Clarke and Former CEC pilot Ellie Langford. Preparing Mark II Sentinel Suits. Preparation complete. Please Step into the kiosk.
-
Before:
The woman floated in space, silently, her only companion being her slow breathing. The thrusters in her armored suit swiftly propelled her from her ship to the derelict transport vessel. Her objective, in theory, sounded simple, but in practice, it was anything but simple. The plan was to scavenge the transport ship for basic supplies to keep her own ship going, however, every vessel she'd encountered so far had the same problem, all ships were crawling with Necromorphs. It was almost impossible to find a ship that wasn't.
Before she could board the ship, a small creature leaped out from an unseen crevice of the ship, clinging to the hull and silently snarling at her. It had the twisted face and the arms and legs of a human infant, but any shred of humanity it had was long dead. Three barbed tentacles extended from it's back. The woman drew her weapon, a high-powered industrial plasma-cutter. Cautiously using her jets to dodge the projectiles it launched at her, she lined the cutter's three laser sights at the Lurker's tentacles, pulling the trigger to send a beam of plasma hurtling towards it. She'd managed to kill it with two well-placed shots.
She quickly boarded the ship. The barely-functioning systems kicked in and flooded the airlock chamber with oxygen. She moved fast, not wishing to be on the decaying vessel any longer than necessary. She exited the airlock and into a room where the only thing worse the the intense darkness was the dead silence.
She entered the first corridor, raising her weapon to provide light to pierce the dark. The walls of the rusted vessel were coated with dried blood and viscera, written in repeating patterns were the words, Abandoned, forsaken, lost in the dark, the devils are in the vents, It's all over. Although she hadn't been present for the crew's demise, she knew that the crew did this themselves, minds shattering as hope disappeared, insanity and paranoia gripping the hearts of the living. Violent murder and demented chaos following suit. Then the Necromorphs reanimated the dead, turning against them, slaughtering what was left in a one-sided butchering.
She encountered several slasher Necromorphs along the way, these common ones were largely human in appearance, However their arms had contorted above their heads unnaturally, with foot-long blades of bone extending from their palms. Their necks had slightly extended, their jaws stretched open to show razor-sharp teeth. There was a massive rip in their stomachs, with two little arms extending from them, their internal organs visibly turned to muscle. Their skin was darkly decayed and caked with blood. The only way to defeat any Necromorph, however, was to dismember them, she'd fallen into a routine for fighting them.
She'd just about finished her hunt and had returned to the airlock when she heard the clank of a vent opening. She turned to face the sound, plasma cutter raised. The ammo counter glowed with the number of six. Six shots left, and the corridor was quiet. For undead abominations that roared constantly, they were oddly quiet when they wanted to be. For a few seconds, the only sound she could hear was her breathing. When those seconds ended, one last slasher made itself known with a roar.
She wasted no time dismembering the monster, cutting of one of its blades and using her kinesis module to catch the blade and shoot it back, impaling the beast into the wall. With the last of her tasks complete, she exited the airlock and returned to her own ship.
-
Once the airlock compressed and she could get back into her vessel, she put the sack of scrap aside and stepped over to the adjacent suit kiosk across from the airlock. Upon entering the kiosk's proximity, a holographic screen appeared, giving her a series of options. She selected the 'remove suit' option. The screen retracted and a door opened, behind the door was the outline of a person, surrounded by several mechanical arms. She ducked into the kiosk, turning around as she did. the lined herself up with the outline, she could feel the miniature arms latching onto her suit, the doors shut, then their was a flash of bright light.
When the doors opened she stepped out, wearing her normal outfit, a red short-sleeve top with long cargo-pants and a pair of work boots. Her brown hair was tied into a bun behind her head. She picked up the bag of scrap, and went for her ship's makeshift "kitchen".
Ellie Langford had been surviving through the end of civilization for, if her estimates were correct, six months. Six months since monsters the size of moons, the ultimate end of the Necromophs, destroyed most of the human race. Now, as far as she was aware, there were only scavengers living off the bones of the dead. Six months of being mostly alone. She had met other scavengers before, but those meetings rarely ended well. Her ship was relatively small, with two decks. On the lower deck were the engine room, crew (her) quarters, restroom facilities, and R&R room. On the Upper deck sat the helm, lab/workstation, kitchen/dining area, armory, and suit storage. The ship was meant to be crewed by more than one, but Ellie had managed so far.
With few walls to separate the rooms, Ellie had no trouble finding her way to the kitchen area. She threw the bag down onto the dining table and opened a cupboard hanging off the wall. She rifled through it until her hand wrapped around her prize, a month old (she hoped) package of instant noodles she found on an abandoned Earth-Gov lunar colony. She put some filtered water through a coffee machine, opening the noodle package, and placing it in a bowl. Finally pouring hot water into the bowl, she let it seep while she inspected her loot.
Inside the sack she'd brought with her was a handful of electrical devices, the only noteworthy device being a power-node she'd found. Ellie stood up and retrieved her bowl of noodles, heading for the bridge of her ship. She put herself down in the pilot's seat, resting her feet on the main console. She'd only taken a bite of the semi-stale noodles before a light on the secondary control panel lit up and started beeping.
She stared at it for a second, trying to remember what that was for, before deciding that if she couldn't remember what it was for, it could probably wait.
Ellie moved her right leg, and with the back of her boot's heel, kicked the panel, causing it to stop blinking and beeping. She then just went back to her food, not thinking about the meaning of the blinking light.
Ignoring that light, however, proved to be a mistake, the circuit board the light was connected to monitored the engine room, the light signified danger in the vessel's ShockPoint drive. While she ate, the engine began to break down, oil leaked into the engine's electric circuits, catching on fire, and engulfing the engine room. Ellie continued to eat her noodles until the ships alarms started to scream like the furies at her, an artificial voice called out; "Fire in the engine room," on repeat.
Ellie got on her feet, grabbing the fire extinguisher and ran to the engine room fast enough to practically be flying. But when she arrived, the damage had been done. She managed to put most of the fire out with enough time to hear the automated voice say, "Engine combustion imminent. All crew evacuate."
She looked to the engine to see it falling apart. Rusted metal pipes burst, blue streams energy cackled around the room. Ellie ran back to her suit kiosk, applying her suit, the once pristine-white fabric of the EVA suit had been stained with blood and oil. Ellie had also taken to attaching parts of other suits to replace unfixable parts of it. Now it was a Frankenstein of different suit parts, such as the copper-colored armor shingles from an engineering suit she attached.
Ellie grabbed as many med-kits and plasma clips as she could carry. She picked up her Plasma Cutter and quickly jumped to the airlock. She heard an explosion from somewhere on the lower deck, and jettisoned herself into space. She rocketed toward the nearest ghost-ship, only slowing down once she'd gotten close enough to the airlock. She flew into it and punched the close button. She turned around with enough time left to see her ship explode in a ball of fire and twisted metal.
She wasted no time getting back on her feet, she was stuck on a new ship, likely also crawling with Necromorphs, her old ship exploded, and there was no chance of rescue. She needed to clear this ship out, and hopefully, get it working. She hopped to her feet and proceeded into the ship. Like the last abandoned vessel she scavenged, the walls were coated with blood and guts. However, this time, the lights seemed to work, but the silence was tense. She could hear every scrap of metal that hit the floor around her.
She rounded a corner and was surprised to find an already dead slasher strewn across the floor. Upon inspection, she found that its injuries were fresh. Ellie immediately knew what caused them, there were other scavengers on board. Next to the corpse, Ellie found a Force Gun, a weapon meant more to stun enemies, and knock them flat on there asses, she picked it up, knowing she'd need it in a pinch.
She kept her plasma cutter raised, anticipating an attack from anywhere. She arrived at the engine room and could hear the sounds of chatter. She'd found the the scavengers.
-
The scavengers had arrived in the system only minutes earlier, and had deployed onto the ghost-ship almost as fast as they had arrived. like Ellie, they looked for materials to maintain their ship, but unlike Ellie, they needed more than that. They to had dealt with rough encounters with scavengers, but meetings tended to go differently for them. The two scavengers in the engine room were merely chatting amongst themselves before Ellie found them. "So I hear that they finally managed to replace the fuel cell on the Star-Bound Huntress?"
"Oh, yeah, the old one happened to be something of a explosive hazard. Thank God they finally managed to fix it." Said the scavenger's partner.
"Still, I'd not want to stay on that ship for very long, it's one of the oldest we've got," replied the first scavenger.
A third scavenger called in over the comm channel. "Ay', you two find anything?"
"Ah, not really?" replied the first scavenger, in an attempt to cover the fact they hadn't focused on their objective.
The scavenger on the comms knew that, "Well maybe if both'a you lil' shits kept on the objective, you would find something!"
-
Whatever reply the couple had thought of was cut off by Ellie, who knocked them both to the ground with the Force Gun, and proceeded to kick there weapons away. She then kept them down at Cutter-point while she went through their equipment. Upon finding out that the two scavengers hadn't found much, she retrieved her Plasma Cutter and waved it in their faces, demanding to know where their salvage was. "Where's the salvage?" she asked with an angered British accent.
Of course, considering that the scavengers had no salvage, they had no response other than, "We don't have any," which, in cases like this, is the absolute wrong thing to say.
Ellie was irritated enough to beat a better answer from the scavengers, and was seconds away from doing so, however, her chance would be stolen when an object hit her in the back of her helmet hard enough to force it to retract back into her Resource Integration Gear, or RIG, for short. She turned to face her attacker, and was met with a swift and hard metal pipe to her face.
-
The blow rendered Ellie unconscious, allowing the other two scavengers to get back up, the new arrival handed them their weapons, calling them out, "You two were armed, you can handle the God damn living-dead, but not a single scavenger?!"
"Sorry," the first scavenger defended, "they caught us by surprise."
The third scavenger was unamused, glaring at their companions, they growled, "Pay more attention and maybe you won't get caught with your guard down next time," they paused for a moment, staring at Ellie, "she insane, or just desperate?"
"Is there a difference?" piped up the second scavenger, looking at Ellie as well, "My money's on desperate."
The third scavenger picked her up, carrying her in a fireman's carry, turning to the corridor, and addressed their companions, "Guns up dip shits, we're heading back to the ship, mission's over."
-
Ellie started to awaken much later, the first thing she noticed was the cooler temperature of the room she was in as a breeze brushed past her arms. The second, more important thing she noticed was that, she was in her casual clothes, her suit had been removed. Her eyes flew open as the memories of the ghost ship came back to her, and how she'd been knocked-out by a scavenger.
Her first instinct was to roll out of the bed she was in, she did, once she got back on her feet, she looked around to find that she wasn't in a prison cell, like she was expecting, instead, the room looked more like a medical lab, with shelves of medical equipment, and a model of the human body on a desk.
Behind the desk, sat another human, calmly typing on a holographic computer screen, The human was a male, seemingly younger than Ellie, with short, dirty-blonde hair and several small scars around his eyes and mouth. He was wearing a semi-dirty medical personnel uniform with a nurse's badge on its shoulder. His eyes were green, and, like most people anymore, were empty. Ellie approached with caution, picking up a stray scalpel.
The nurse, noticing Ellie's slow approach, quickly finished what he was typing, before turning to her abruptly, causing her to freeze up, he just simply smiled. He said, "Hello there, you've been out for quite some time," he glanced at the scalpel in her hands, "I assume you have questions?"
Ellie remained silent. The nurse spoke up, "Well, because it need to be explained, you were brought on board and put into the care of our on-board medical-expert. I'm unsure of how hard Jenkins clocked you, but you've been out for at least 16 hours."
Ellie looked at the nurse skeptically, she asked, "Where the fuck am I, and who the fuck are you?"
The nurse stood silently for a second, then replied, "I am Devin Dooley, I'm a nurse on this ship for an away mission. You found us, and were rendered unconscious. The field workers determined that you hadn't contracted Marker dementia, and brought you on board."
Ellie processed the response, "Hold on, you said, an away mission? away from what?"
The moment she finished her response, another human entered the conversation, "I see your finally up, I was worried Jenkins had given you irreversible brain damage!"
Ellie turned and the nurse adjusted his gaze to face the middle aged, grey haired woman who had entered the medical lab. She wore a doctor's uniform implying that she was the head doctor on board. The doctor looked between the two of them, "So," she asked, "what were you two on about?"
"She's asking about what we're up to out in deep space," Devin cut in, "and wondering what's going on."
"Ah, I see," the doctor said as she looked toward Ellie, "well, allow me to properly introduce myself," she extended her hand, "hello, I'm Dr. Jillian Schmidt, chief medical officer on board the USM Dutchess."
Ellie cautiously shook Dr. Schmidt's hand before asking, "I'm Ellie, Ellie Langford. Dooley said something about an away mission, what exactly did he mean?"
Dr. Schmidt smirked, before asking, "How long do you thing it's been since the fall of the Earth Gov, and humanity?"
Ellie was getting irritated, crossing her arms, she replied, "You're dodging the damn question."
Dr. Schmidt patiently said, "No, I'm not, just take a guess."
Ellie groaned, "Six months, my guess is six months."
Dr. Schmidt Smirked again, "That's actually correct, and in those six months, humanity has been rebuilding, and our job is to supply materials to keep us all going, and bring other survivors home."
Ellie was confused, never in the last six month, with all her encounters with insane survivors, could she see this happening, nor had she found evidence of it either. It seemed to fantastical an outcome for her to believe it could happen. Dr. Schmidt seemed to notice this, she gestured for Ellie to follow her. The two women exited the medical lab, and navigated the corridors of the ship, which Ellie now knew was called the USM Dutchess, Until they came up to a steel door. The sign above the door read Bridge. The pair entered to an unusually busy deck. Dr. Schmidt approached an older looking man, somewhere in his 60s, wearing a senior officer uniform, Ellie guessed that this was the captain.
saluted the man, "Captain Ulysses."
"At ease, Doctor," the captain replied, he turned and quickly inspected Ellie, "I take it she's the survivor found during collector-team's mission?"
"Yes sir, this is Ellie Langford." Dr. Schmidt replied jovially.
Ellie looked over Captain Ulysses, his eyes, like most other people, were empty, a consequence of surviving the extinction. She turned towards the massive window looking out towards space. The USM Dutchess was currently in FTL travel, outside everyone could see a swirling, pulsing blue and grey vortex. This was know as ShockSpace, named after the core that made FTL travel possible, the ShockPoint drive.
Ellie found herself staring at the familiar sight until the voice of a nameless pilot called out, "We're approaching the flotilla, and will be de-shocking within the next minute, captain."
Ellie turned back to the captain and Dr. Schmidt, her eyebrow raised. She gestured to the pilot, "The fuck is he talking about?"
Ulysses looked at the good doctor, "Dr. Schmidt, I'd assumed you'd have explained it to them by now, why haven't you?"
Ellie turned her head as Dr. Schmidt plainly said, "Er... I was getting to that."
The pilot spoke up again, "De-shocking in 3... 2... 1... now!"
Everyone felt the sudden lurch as the USM Dutchess decelerated from ShockSpace back into the realm of human perception. Ellie looked out the window and was stunned to see a flotilla of space ships. However, unlike the many flotillas she'd scavenged in, this on was comprised of fully functioning space craft. There were various shuttles and one-man fighters moving between and docking the bigger more notable vessels. The bigger vessels seemed to be teeming with life, Ellie could see various types of ship ranging from massive planet-crackers she was familiar with from her time in the CEC, to military vessels the likes of which she was only vaguely familiar with.
The same pilot from earlier was communicating over the comms, while Ellie couldn't hear what was being said on the other side, she could damn well hear what the pilot was saying, "USG Spirit of Hope, this is USM Dutchess, requesting permission to dock and offload our cargo."
A few seconds passed before anyone said anything.
"Captain, we've been granted permission to dock, approaching USG Spirit of Hope now."
The ship approached a planet-cracker, which Ellie guessed was the USG Spirit of Hope. Captain Ulysses spoke up, "Ms. Langford, welcome the Final Flotilla. Humanity's final hope."
Ellie stared blankly at the USG Spirit of Hope.
...
"Huh..."