Proto-Space 2

by Blitz King

Second installment of the Proto-Space series. Isaac Clarke finds himself in another nightmare when he experiences a new Necromorph outbreak on a space station. On the run from undead monsters, EarthGov and the Church of Unitology, he'll have to work with anyone he can to survive. One friend seems to be on his side though- Alex Mercer. But even HE has secrets of his own to keep...

2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

(Warning: Of all things I could have done in this chapter, I found an opportunity to insert a Spongebob reference. Don't judge me.)

Isaac gasped as light was shined into his eyes. Blearily he looked around as a man stood in front of him, keeping him steady in a chair. Thankfully he was not the man who "interviewed" Isaac from before. This man seemed to be trying to help him. If anything, the man appeared incredibly stressed himself, as if there was something after him.

"Isaac?", the man asked. "Isaac, can you hear me?"

He snapped his fingers to make Isaac focus, then looked around as if there was indeed something after him. The man then put his little flashlight onto his shoulder and spoke into his RIGlink, saying, "Daina, I found Isaac Clarke! Repeat, I have him!"

A woman then replied through the RIGlink, "Great work, Franco", but added, "Be careful, he's been out a long time."

Franco pulled Isaac to his feet, stating, "Good, good. Steady, steady. We gotta get you out of this straightjacket."

Isaac had not noticed that before, but when Franco mentioned it, he looked down and saw he was indeed in a straightjacket, binding his arms in front of him. As he was up and almost about, Isaac coughed before asking, "Where, where am I?"

Franco took a breath of worry and said, "Alright, I know you're confused right now. I can explain everything, but you gotta trust me, OK?", before leaning in to add, "Listen! You're in terrible, terrible danger-"

He was cut off as a sharp object stabbed itself right through his chest. As soon as it removed itself, causing blood to splatter everywhere, a horrifically familiar monster leapt into his back and leaned over his head. It used its' proboscis to impale Franco in the head, sending it deep into his brain. As the creature flew off, Franco struggled to remain standing, convulsing as his voice changed from that of a man... into that of a monster.

Suddenly a bladed appendage burst from his right shoulder, and then another one from his other shoulder. A tiny tentacles wormed its' way from the hole in his head, then two more on either side of his mouth, and soon the flesh from his face and neck peeled off. What was left of Franco reared his head back as he gripped Isaac tightly, then leaned in inches from his face to roar, revealing his entire face was gone, eyeballs bulging from their sockets.

Isaac became sufficiently awake now and battered the monster away with his head, stumbling as he tried to get away. The woman from Franco's RIGlink, Daina, called in to ask, "Franco? Franco, what happened?"

Fearing and soon realizing the worst, Daina shouted to Isaac, "Isaac? Isaac Clarke!? If you can hear me, run! RUN!"

He needed no more motivation as the Franco-monster stood up and began walking towards Isaac. He ran out of his padded room to find the stuff of his nightmares all back to the forefront; not just with his mind, but within reality itself. More monsters began to break free of the glass and infect other patients into becoming like them. Isaac ran from all of it as he tried to find safety, dodging the blades of creatures and away from it all.

A computerized voice stated, "Evacuation in progress. Please consult your RIG for the nearest exit."

That was of little help to Isaac- the best he could do was run in whichever way the monsters were not in. He continued sprinting as his fear-addled brain allowed him, soon reaching a door with a dead person in a wheelchair beside it.

At least Isaac thought it was dead.

It suddenly jumped on him with one sharped limb remaining, mouth gaping to take a bite out of the man. He struggled to get away and kick the monster off, eventually doing so and forcing it between the closing doors. As the creature itself struggled to get free, it failed- the doors closed and cut off the head and arm, killing it for good.

As the immediate danger passed, Isaac shuddered and took several breaths, getting to his feet with only his legs to work with. The damage was done though- Isaac was hurt by the freak; his RIG was very low and even the weakest punch might have been able to hurt him, if not outright kill him.

Isaac walking forward, knowing there was no going back to that nightmare he just left. As he was on the verge of death, someone further ahead passed that threshold. The man walked past a person who had just taken their last breath on a hospital bed, as their EKG flatlined to signify that. There was nothing Isaac could do for them but get out before they too were transformed into a horrific beast.

Going through a large door, he rounded the bend and found himself getting close to two security personnel. However it was clear they were not his allies- one of the two men shouted, "Clarke! Take him down!", and both of them fired at him. Isaac ducked under some more hospital beds until a beast from inside the vent system stabbed one through the chest, dragging him into it as well. The other man ceased firing to look up and see what happened to his friend, only to get stabbed in the chest as well.

Isaac stood up again as he heard their screams of terror slowly fade. When he went around the beds and drew near, the monster that got them banged its' way through the rest of the vents and dropped him a present- the severed and dismembered torso of one of the guards. Shuddering again, Isaac went through a doorway and heard someone speaking over the intercom.

"This is Director Tiedemann to all personnel. I want the key subjects terminated and the facility scrubbed. This is not a drill. Tiedemann out."

Isaac hazarded a guess and assumed he was a "key subject"... whatever that was. He understood what the man meant by "termination" though, and he did not like it one bit as he walked up a flight of stairs to another door. Above the door read the digitized phrase, Observation Room, and it was here that Isaac vaguely recalled his unpleasant "conversation" with the man interrogating him.

As Isaac walked through the place, he watched one of the videos that was on loop. It was between that same man and another person called "Nolan Stross", someone who was also having a bad day, at least before the monster madness started.

With that same dispassionate voice, as if he had been doing it for some years now, the man said, "Subject is Nolan Stross. Session 158."

Indeed, the man had done this many times.

"Now...", he continued, getting a closer look at Stross, actually pulling the man's head back in his chair to check. "The eye is looking much better today? Yes, don't you think?"

Stross was clearly uncomfortable and commented, "It hurts. Still h-hurts."

Not caring in the slightest, the man commented in turn, "Yes, I'll schedule you for another session tomorrow."

Stross tried to say, "No... no, no... I don't think I'm ready... I don't think I can take another session. I don't...", but the other man clearly was not about to change his mind. He firmly pressed a button on his computer pad and said, "There. First thing tomorrow."

Continuing, the man said, "Now let's talk about what you saw today."

Stross clearly did not want to talk, so he leaned in and said, "Come on, Stross. I'm here to help you."

Still Stross did not want to speak, but he did so anyway. He muttered, "It was black. Deep black, and glowing red, with symbols... symbols that... whispered to me..."

Getting close to his ear, the man whispered to Stross, "And what did the symbols whisper to you?"

He continued, "Come on, Stross, what..."

Stross stated, "It was just a shard- it was just a shard... but it put so much stuff in my head... so much... shit in my head... There's no more room... for anything", faltering as he asked, "I can't remember what she looks like... Why can't I remember what she looks like?"

Growing annoyed, the man asserted, "The symbols, Stross. What did the symbols tell you?"

Stross shouted, "They told me it wasn't my fault... I didn't kill them... They didn't deserve this and that I didn't deserve this! Fucker!"

Talking to someone else, the man stated, "Put Mr. Stross back in Stasis. Adjust his medication up by 30 milligrams and we'll try another session first thing in the morning."

The video stopped there and looped back to the beginning. Isaac had no idea what to make of that but he knew it was nothing good. He continued forward and took a left through a doorway, leading him into a hallway and to another viewing area. Turning to his right, Isaac saw a man- no, the man, the same one who conducted the interrogation on Stross- just looking out over the glass window and giggling to himself. There was a lot of blood on the ground at his feet, indicating to Isaac that things were not well.

Still... there was no other way to go, so Isaac tried to get past him without putting attention on himself. That was a fruitless effort- the man whirled around as soon as Isaac was near and put a surgical knife to his neck. Isaac said, "Come on man...", hoping there was just a little bit of rational left in the maniac.

He just grinned in return and said, "Patient Four... I remember you... Tiedemann said we... all the key subjects... need to be eliminated... terminated... what's one more?"

Isaac said, "Listen to me man...", while the madman repeated asked, "Will it matter?", until they started shouting their phrases over the other.

The former tried to reason, "We can both get out of here. Just, just cut me out of this straightjacket!", but the latter replied, "No one's getting out of here alive. No one."

Isaac shook his head. "Don't do it!"

The man did not pay attention, slowly lowering and pulling back his knife until he suddenly plunged it into Isaac's chest, ripping apart his... restraints. Isaac stumbled back and realized his arms were free now, and as he looked back up at the man, the latter just said, "There is no escaping from what I've done."

He started giggling again as Isaac put up a hand slightly defensively, saying, "Take it easy buddy... just take it easy."

The man's smile faded as he regarded Isaac. He eventually stated, "Your RIG is red. It's red", then pointed to the locker on their left, saying, "There's a health pack and a flashlight in there. You should grab them."

As Isaac cautiously walked over to it, the man added, "Go ahead. Take it. I won't be needing it anymore."

Using the health pack and equipping the flashlight, Isaac turned to see the man sickeningly say, "Isaac... we're all gonna burn for what we did to you."

He immediately raised the knife to his neck and pushed it in, dragging the entry wound to the other side of his throat. Blood spurted as he gurgled and slowly slumped against the wall, dying in a pool of his own insanity. Isaac recoiled in shock and took a step back in horror, watching the whole scene unfold. Visually unnerved, he nonetheless continued through the next door and tried to carry on.

Isaac was about to enter the elevator that lead downwards before a video screen of a woman came up. As she asked, "Clarke! Isaac Clarke, is that you?", he realized it was the woman Franco spoke to before.

Isaac asked in return, "Who are you?"

The woman said, "My name is Daina! I'm the one trying to rescue you..."

"Why?", Isaac demanded to know. "What's going on?"

Daina explained, "You're suffering from a unique form of dementia Isaac, something you contracted on Aegis VII."

There was a pause as Isaac digested that information. He then asked, "How do you know that? How do you know all this about me?"

Daina curtly stated, "Your dementia will kill you. But if you can get here I can treat you and get you to safety."

"Why should I trust you?"

Daina quickly grew tired of Isaac's insistence on being wary of her and asserted, "Because I'm not the one shooting at you."

All Isaac had to say to that was, "Fuck."

Daina explained, "Just follow the route I'm sending you."

With nothing more to go on, Isaac got into the elevator and waited for it to reach the bottom. It suddenly got dark halfway to the bottom, but that was all that happened. It opened up to an equally dark interior, lit only by the thin sliver of a doorway up ahead. When Isaac took a step forward, a wheelchair behind that was pushed by... something.

Undaunted... actually, that was a lie. Isaac was extremely daunted by the creepy atmosphere around him, and stumbling around In the dark (literally) was not helping in the slightest. He took a right into a completely dark room and weaved his way through the mess with his meager flashlight. Isaac nearly had a heart-attack when the computer screen up front suddenly turned on, but other than that he was fine.

Making his way out, Isaac checked behind a laundry box for anything and found an audio log. He could not make sense of what the person was mentioning immediately, but he soon realized it was about the Markers and their effects on the human mind, by way of making the target want to replicate the general shape of the relic with anything they could- popsicle sticks, tweezers and anything else the affected- or afflicted- people got their hands on. The orderly recording it made a note to mention it to every research team... whatever they were researching.

Aggravated and confused about not knowing what was going on, Isaac marched onwards regardless, determined to find the truth and figure out why he could not recall what happened before. He entered a showering room and crept carefully, freaking out as a burst of steam blasted out of a pipe behind him. Isaac grumbled at another false alarm, ready for whenever the next one happened.

However what came next was not a false alarm.

As Isaac tried to make it through to the next room, he was suddenly stopped by a pain in his head- the darkness grew a tinge of orange, and he was certain he heard a very familiar voice call out his name. The man sincerely hoped it was just his imagination on high-alert and working overtime.

Isaac..., it said. He thought he saw a shadow behind him and looked around, only to find he was still alone. Shaking his head, Isaac simply wondered to himself, "What the Hell!?", and got out of there quickly.

He found a special tunnel engineers used to get around, and upon entering it, the computer recognized him as such: "Welcome, CEC Engineer... Isaac Clarke. Access granted."

Isaac crawled through it, seeing the back end of a monster nearby, but when he got close it vanished. He thought he was going to get to the other side without incident, but that was where fate proved him wrong... again. The metal grating he was crawling on inexplicably gave way, making Isaac fall all the way into a Kinesis Surgery Room.

As he groaned and got up, Daina came online to ask, "Isaac, what happened, are you alright?"

Instead Isaac simply asked, "Why are you helping me?"

Daina replied, "If Tiedemann finds you, more people will die."

"Including me", Isaac muttered, but Daina immediately responded, "Not if you follow my route."

Isaac still said, "I don't like this", and Daina had yet another response to that. She stated, "You don't have to like it. Just hurry, before you get locked in!"

Once their conversation ended, Isaac refocused his efforts on anything he could use. He looked at the dead body being held up by the Kinesis machine, then to the panel controlling it. Getting an idea, he removed the front panel and began to mess around in the machine's guts, eventually removing enough parts to make a Kinesis module usable on his arm, as well as turning off the machine and making some rods fall to the ground.

Isaac took one of these metal rods and aimed it at the glass wall near him, sending it forward with a single blast. It broke through the glass and gave Isaac a way out... as well as the monsters a way in. As Isaac drew near to get out, several of the vents were broken and the monsters- the ones attacking him specifically known as Slashers- began to run at him.

Taking another rod, Isaac impaled the first one into the wall and readied another rod, taking down the advancing horde one at a time. Soon they were all dead, and Isaac took what they had on them. It was just a few measly credits- it would take him a lot of looting in order to buy anything with it, as well as a Store he could even buy from. But Isaac was now armed with a weapon and ready to fight.

He took the elevator before him and found a small health pack waiting inside. It brought his overall health up to a bright yellow; still terrible, but better than where he was before. Exiting the elevator, Isaac now found he was in the viewing room above the Kinesis surgery room, and more Slashers made their way towards him. To his surprise, there were even more rods up there he could use to defend himself with, and so Isaac fought tooth and nail until he was the last man standing.

Searching the small supply caches on the walls, he took anything and everything he could, finding so far it was all credits for him to spend later. Isaac went through the next door and found a crate for him to smash, gaining even more credits from it. There was a corpse up ahead that held even more money for him, though he had crushed many corpses beneath his foot long before then out of habit.

Making it into the ICU, Isaac heard the cries of help from a man in the center of the room. He instead ignored the man briefly to loot everything he could until he was in a better position to help. Going inside, he found a man strapped to the table and right in the middle of surgery- his chest was surgically open and his heart exposed, though it was clear fear gripped him much more than pain. That or his RIG was doing a majority of the work to keep him alive- they were peculiar things, RIGs.

Isaac walked behind the man to the control console and stated, "Calm down, I'll cut you out of there", before looking at the apparatus aimed at the man and asking, "Is that a tissue laser? A Plasma Cutter?"

Just then a Slasher walked past the open doorway and turned to face the two men. As it walked forward the surgery man looked up and shouted, "Oh my God!", as Isaac grumbled, "Fuck."

The man shouted, "What the fuck are you doing?", as he desperately kicked the monster back. Isaac assembled a jury-rigged Plasma Cutter as fast as he could, but it was too late. The surgery man was already dead as the Slasher turned its' attention to Isaac to kill, but it in turn was too late to stop him. Isaac raised his Plasma Cutter to the Slasher and blasted away two limbs, then using Kinesis on the sharp limbs to kill another one that got in his way, finally using the same tactic on a third Slasher restrained by the straps of a gurney.

Walking inside another room, Isaac received another call from his supposed ally to say, "Isaac, it's Daina. You have to dismember the creatures to stop them."

Isaac replied, "I know, I've had a lot of practice."

Apparently Daina took issue with Isaac's exasperated tone, for she simply stated, "Just try and stay in one piece."

Isaac sarcastically said, "Thanks", and continued making his way through the hospital area. He entered the Intensive Care waiting room and took a right, followed by a left through the area, only to stop when a burst of flame-retardant foam obstructed his vision. Isaac carefully took a few steps forward when a Slasher burst from the ceiling and attacked him. Killing the first beast, more and more showed up to fight him and soon were felled by his makeshift plasma cutter and conservation of ammo by using their own blade arms against them.

One of them finally dropped a health pack and nearly healed Isaac back up to full strength. Feeling much better than before, Isaac went inside a room and took anything he could, then went into the adjacent room to hear the failed battle of some security officers against the recombinant hordes. Once he went around a pile of rubble blocking his path, Isaac found a text log detailing how the medication patients were taking made retaining recent memories impossible.

Isaac hazard another guess and assumed that was why he could not remember anything, but he was sure to bring it up with Daina the next time he though to ask about that. He entered the upper lobby as it was entering a lockdown, and saw a familiar face shouting at him to follow.

"Isaac?", Stross asked before realizing it was indeed the same man he thought it was. "Isaac! Come one, come on! They're after us!"

Isaac tried to say, "Wait. WAIT! Who is? Who's after us?", but Stross did not stop for anything. He trailed after the man and followed him to a closing bulkhead, arriving too late for him to go any further. Stross called out, "Isaac! Isaac! Through here! C'mon! Isaac!", but as the bulkhead went down too low for the engineer to get through, Stross unhappily said, "Awww, no, no... Isaac."

He then tried to job Isaac's memory with, "Remember me- patient five- I'm patient five, remember? Do you remember?", but the bulkhead fully closed and he went, "Agh."

With no way through, Isaac angrily contacted Daina and berated her, "Daina, your fucking route didn't work. There's a security lockdown!"

Daina cried out, "I told you to hurry! How did you miss it?"

Isaac snapped, "Look, I don't need your help."

"Fine!", Daina snapped right back. "Let's see how long you last without it!"

As vents burst and a first sounds of Slashers filled the room, Isaac's last words were, "Aw, shit", before pulling out his Plasma Cutter and bracing for the fight. It was long and drawn out; even with his clever use of the Kinesis module, taking the blades from downed monsters and using them to kill the others, there were simply far too many for his liking. He was without his Stasis power, his supplies and armor, or even a backup weapon if the Kinesis module was just discounted.

In short, Daina was frustratingly right- Isaac did need her help. He gave up and contacted her to ask, "Daina? Daina! OK, you're right. I do need your help. Talk to me?"

Daina explained, "Look, Isaac, we don't have to be friends. But like it or not, we're stuck together. Tiedemann's your enemy, not me."

She then paused to check her map and said, "Alright, I've found you a new route."

"Fine", Isaac replied. "So where the Hell am I? How did another Necromorph outbreak get started?"

Daina began, "You're on Titan Station, orbiting Saturn. As for the outbreak...", but she paused when she realized something was wrong. "...Shit, Tiedemann's jamming my signal..."

With nothing left to do but search around and look for more supplies, Isaac did a quick sweep of the area and found more credits and an audio log that explained the slow decline of a patient in her physical health. What little of her strength remained was for recreating the design of the Marker in anything she can. The orderly noted her outlook was uncertain, then ended the recording.

Having taken everything he could, Isaac was on his way through the new route before a voice whispered to him, You can't trust her..., and made him jump again. Isaac looked around and wondered what was, for the source was neither from his RIG nor anything nearby. Since nothing was around, he shrugged and moved on.

Isaac continued forward through an office, finding a text log explaining that there was a strange and sudden spike in psychological cases. The engineer postulated from all of the previous logs he found that, somehow, all these people were afflicted by the same type of dementia that came from the Red Marker. But Isaac also knew that had to be just impossible- the Red Marker was destroyed when a chunk of the planet tethered by the Ishimura fell back onto the rest of Aegis VII, obliterating the whole thing. Nothing survived... not even Isaac's allies.

But none of that mattered now- he hoped. Isaac shook his head and continued searching, finding a power node he could use to upgrade his weaponry once he found a Workbench to tinker at. He went through the open hallways until he reached the Triage Room, with a warning flashing that the Stasis beds were in use. That gave Isaac an idea as he walked in and found a semi-broken bed halfway in the process of being repaired.

The engineer cracked his knuckles and began messing with the wiring, adding the parts to make a portable Stasis projector on the same arm as his Kinesis unit. As he was close to finishing, a vent broke and a Slasher began charging at him, only to be caught in a blast of Stasis from the same machine. Once Isaac was ready, he blasted the Slasher's leg off and ran forward while it was still stuck in Stasis, swinging his fist hard enough to tear the Necromorph's arm off as well. He swung another punch to take the loot and kept going through the facility.

A gate on the other side of the room would have stopped him, not recognizing him as someone to be let past, but he then used Stasis on the open door to keep it unlocked long enough for him to get through. Stepping through the next door, Isaac heard gurgles and coughs of a man dying a little ways in front of him. The man struggled to get away from whatever did it, but his whole body burned from something acidic, and Isaac soon met what caused that face to face.

Entering the room the nurse had barely gotten out of, he saw a new variant of Necromorph vomit all over a woman and melt her flesh. It turned to kill Isaac next, only to meet a barrage of plasma fire in return. As it died another one burst from the ceiling, ready to attack Isaac as well. It launched an acidic ball of death at him but the engineer's Kinesis module and quick reflexes made him learn an interesting fact- the puke that the Necromorphs made was just as dangerous to them as it was their targets. Launching the orb right back at the Puker, it fell apart almost instantly.

Isaac took everything shiny in the room- including another power node- and went through the nearby elevator to patient care. He thought everything was normal until the power went out; instead of regular darkness however, this was something else. It was not someone's average everyday darkness. This was...

Advanced darkness.

Looking around at the nothing Isaac muttered, "What the fuck?", as his RIG lit up a bit to counteract the pitch black bleakness. He then turned to his left and saw there was something there in the shadows. There was someone else in the elevator with him, even though he knew there was no one before he went in. She slowly looked up and began to sing, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", but it was clear everything was all wrong.

First off, it was Nicole singing. Nicole was dead and has been for quite some time, so Isaac understood immediately what he was seeing was not real. Secondly, it was the Nicole from his nightmares, the one with the bloody face, glowing eyes and mouth, and the fact that her "singing" sounded like a recording with distant static and screaming in the background. Her mouth was not even moving, just... gaped open, as she very slowly walked forward.

Nicole suddenly lurched towards Isaac to shout, "MAKE US WHOLE", before everything turned to darkness again. Soon it faded and Isaac found he could see again. The door to the elevator opened soon after. He walked out into Patient Care and winced when a nearby balloon popped. Walking over to the balloons, Isaac found another text log from an orderly complaining about the mystery surrounding the labs in the psych wing, the very same wing Isaac first escaped from. Whatever they did to Isaac, Stross, and anyone else involved, it was kept quiet from everyone else.

With a sickening suspicion in his gut, Isaac moved forward and searched the area for anything of value. He found a third power node before leaving the area and going to the Critical Needs Patient Room, thinking there was no big deal in going inside there.

That proved to be a terrible idea.

As soon as he walked in, the glass door to the outside shattered. That normally would not have been too much of a problem, but the problem with the Titan Station was, the whole thing was in space. So Isaac had to deal with a vortex of airless space trying to suck him out and into a cold death. To rectify this, a computerized voice spoke over the intercom and explained, "Attention: decompression. Shoot the lockdown switch to stop decompression."

Isaac needed no more motivation to do so, hitting the red triangle at the top of the shattered window before a large red wall moved up to stop the breach. He let go of the bolted bed he was clinging to and unsteadily stood up- today was just not a good day.

Getting out of there before anything else happened, Isaac nearly pissed himself when a Slasher playing dead jumped up and attacked him. He nevertheless blasted the thing to pieces and stomped it a few times for good measure. Looking ahead, there was a power node box to snag another node from, and going back, there was a Store to his left. Isaac stepped up and happily listened to the machine say, "Welcome to Microstore: CEC Engineer Isaac Clarke. Updating inventory to CEC Engineering load out."

He then obtained his engineering suit and proper Plasma Cutter. Stepping inside the changing room within the Store, Isaac closed his eyes and waited- the process took a few seconds to complete as his bloody asylum outfit was exchanged for something more befitting of him. When he was out, Isaac briefly admired his old suit before attaching the helmet.

It was good to be back.

Isaac also found it was more than a good time for a costume swap- even before he walked through the next door, the airless void of space greeted him. He walked in to see that the hull breach did more damage than he thought; much of the outer walls had been stripped away to nothing, forcing Isaac to rely on his internal oxygen supply in order to get through.

With silent steps he marched through the area and took whatever supplies were still in their lockers or just floating around, then entered the Emergency Arrival area. Isaac took a few steps forward until something from the nearby wreckage began to emerge. Made of at least six human bodies, the tripod Necromorph stomped over mangled ship parts and landed in the large room Isaac had just entered.

Charging at him, the Tripod was hit by a blast of Isaac's Stasis and held in place long enough for him to get a few shots in with his new Plasma Cutter. The Stasis wore off much more quickly than with other monsters, so Isaac ran to the nearest recharging station. He turned and was nearly hit by the beast before he used another shot of Stasis, then repeated the process of "Stasis, Attack, and Run The Fuck Away" before he was able to sever both main limbs. All the creature had left was a whipping tongue, which Isaac removed after a bit as well.

Relentless in its' pursuit, Isaac took a breath as the monster was finally dead; but it did suddenly shake violently for a bit after he thought it was done for good. Still, it was dead and Isaac took the spoils of war to celebrate, though he felt the need to comment, "Jeezus that thing was angry!", before contacting his sole ally to say, "Daina? I'm out of the hospital!"

Daina replied, "OK, the tram station is just beyond the apartment blocks."

Before she could say anything more though, Isaac demanded, "Hang on. I need more answers. How long have I been here?"

There was a pause before Daina replied, "Three years. Tiedemann found you floating in space near Aegis VII and brought you here for study."

Isaac then asked, "Why can't I remember anything?"

"The Marker you found imprinted your brain with a self-replicating code. The longer you're awake, the more the signal spreads."

She then sighed and reiterated, "It's killing you, Isaac. Tiedemann tried to keep it in check with memory suppressants."

Isaac nervously asked, "Y-you said you could fix it, right?"

Daina stressed, "Only if you reach me in time. Tram station. Get moving", but right before she could end the conversation, Isaac asked, "Wait, wait- did anything else survive Aegis VII? Anyone?"

Daina replied, "No, not that I'm aware. You were the only survivor of that incident, sorry to say."

Isaac looked down and grimaced. "Damn, I was hoping at least Alex was alive-"

"You mean Alex Mercer?", Daina blurted. "You know that manipulative bastard?"

Isaac responded, "You've heard of him? That means he's still alive! I thought you said no one survived Aegis VII but me?"

"I didn't know he was connected to that incident", Daina explained. She muttered under her breath, "That explains a lot...", before saying aloud, "Look, I'm not sure if he's on Titan Station or not, but if he is, stay the Hell away from him. He's a known terrorist with agents in both EarthGov and the Church."

Isaac was about to disagree- slightly- but he decided to keep his mouth shut. Even if he had a different interpretation of the living virus, Daina was still the only ally he had at the moment. He simply ended the conversation with, "Aright, I'll try", and went into the next room. Isaac wormed his way through the maintenance space and eventually found a loose panel which revealed another engineer's tunnel he could use to leave.

Crawling through it and taking a left, Isaac found himself in a workshop and saw an audio log on the ground. It was from someone in the CEC, explaining to a few other people that the only way to kill the Necromorphs was to cut off their limbs. Isaac looked down at the dead body where the log came from and assumed it did not go well. He then looked back up to survey his surroundings- there was another Store which likely had a much larger inventory to buy from, and to the left in front of a display window, to his delight, was a Workbench.

Isaac cracked his knuckles once more and said, "Time to get to work..."