Dead Space: Aftershock

AN: I do not own or take credit for the Dead Space game or any characters from the game that may or may not be included in the story.

Chapter 1: Hostile Environment

Igneous 7, the largest planet ever to be cracked and said to be near indestructible, luckily we're in the most monitored section of the galaxy, nothing could go wrong. "By the book," he says. "This operation will go smoothly and without a mess," he says. Well, Captain Peterson, you couldn't have been more wrong. As I sit here in the -3 floor storage room, writing my recent memoir in an attempt to realize just what the hell happened to this operation, I am thinking about her. Whether she is still alive, whether she got out safely and whether I will ever see her again. If only for one last time I could see her face, kiss her lips, hold her in my arms...but I digress. Listen to me; I'm already getting off topic. What went wrong?

-Leonard McLeod

"Get down there and secure that tether!" said Op Field Supervisor Michael Greenly. Igneous 7 is a cold planet, barren and desolate, almost as cold as the North or South Pole on Planet Earth. As we roamed around the tethers in out Mark V Ranger Hovercraft, we noticed that the valve secure mechanisms were off. Battling the extreme cold and wind gusts, both Chief Mechanic Paul Behrens and I walked up to it. There'd be no way to get this trillion-ton piece of rock to go anywhere if the valve secure mechanisms weren't functioning properly. With only the Winterized 11-52b Rigs on our backs and our kinesis modules in our hands, we headed to work securing the switches to hold this big rock into place. How did the mechanisms manage to come undone? They weigh two tonnes alone! There'd be no way to detach it without a kinesis module. Maybe it was one of the other field op teams that forgot to attach it, I count five teams in the immediate vicinity, but it's hard to tell because of this planet's gigantic climate change.

"Wait!" I yell at Paul. He switches off his kinesis module, I do the same. A hole, approximately the size of an average standing man was burrowed right beneath one of the valve secure modules. Maybe that was why the mechanism was disengaged. "I'm going down there!" I shout.

"You can't, regulation states we should call it in. Do you want to get your ass canned?" yelled Paul. "Regulation also states that I do whatever's necessary within reason to complete my job!" I shouted back over the howling wind. "Yea, within reason Len! We need to plan this out!" "Paul, if you give me the charges, I can cave in this hole and then we can continue our job, they don't even have to know about it!" I shouted back, growing increasingly impatient to go back to the USG Isaac. "Fine, but if you get hurt down there, it's your ass..." Paul shouted, with a smile. He handed me the charges and I went into the hole. It was completely quiet down there, except for the excessive howling I could hear in the hole above my head. Finally, no snow, but the tunnel was pitch black. I started to plant the explosives on the bottom section of both walls, bricks of HE-2, enough to level a skyscraper. I placed the wires in line with the contact switch and set them for a timed detonation.

"Hey Len," I heard over my ear piece. "Paul, go." I answered back, just wanting to get the conversation over with. "Keep your mic on, we can communicate. I'm in the Mark V initiating a sub-planetary scan. I'm getting some weird readings, let me know what you find before the timer runs out."

"Sounds great, I've set the timer for ten minutes, but I haven't activated it, I can see the end of the tunnel from here." "Just be careful there Len, don't want you falling down any holes." "Copy that." I started my trek through the man-sized tunnel, wielding my "weaponized" Plasma Cutter with my flashlight turned up high, as it was absolutely pitch black down here. Who knows what's down here, maybe telling the regulation committee was a better course of action. Why the hell was there a tunnel burrowed right underneath our gravity tether? Wouldn't the engineers have noticed? "Len, I'm getting some weird geographical readings and seismic disturbances right in front of you, do you see anything?" asked Paul. "No Paul, I can't see a goddamn th-"

The last thing I felt were my toes slip off the edge of a large cliff face. Going by pure instinct now, I lashed my hand out at the ledge and to my extreme relief, I caught it. As I hung on with both hands, I watched the fading light of the flashlight on my Plasma Cutter as it hurtled down into complete darkness. I could feel my hands start to sweat and my arms start to get tired. I started panting, going in that steady heavy breathing, my heart pounding in my eardrums, blocking out all other sounds. I flipped my leg back on to the edge and finally boosted myself back up on to the edge and flopped down, exhausted, my Rig scraping against the rocks on the ground.

"Hey Paul, I found the source of your readings."

"Yea?"

"Yea, about a two hundred to a two hundred and fifty foot drop right in front of me. I almost lost it."

"Are you alright? Jesus, I told you! I told you not to go down there!"

"I know, alright. But I'm ok, this is one huge pit. I can't even see to the other side," I said, turning my head to try and look at the other side.

"Jesus, I don't think the HE-2 is gonna cut it."

"I don't think so either; we'd need a whole truck load of it to even cave in one section."

"Hey Len, did you set that timer..."

"No...I left it on standby..."

"The timer reads...wait...23...22...21 SECONDS! Len, get the hell out of there! NOW!" Paul screamed, and I didn't waste any time. I sprang to my feet and bolted for the hole. "Len, wait! The timer...it's going faster! It's at 10 seconds already! I'm sorry Len, there's nothing I can do..."

Rin...

It can't end like this...

I love you...

I turned around and ran as fast as I could for the cliff. I couldn't see the edge, but that didn't matter. Just before my feet left the edge, I could hear the faint last words of Paul Behrens, "Goodbye..."

To be continued...

AN: Cliffhanger, quite literally! You may be wondering why I am using names from Vocaloid for those of you who know who Len and Rin Kagamine are. It's because my girlfriend is my Rin and I'm her Len. =3

But anyways, please review and enjoy my future chapters!