Emergency
The administrative control room of Titan Station was alight with frenzied activity. Technicians and staff scurried between their desks and consoles, crossing between the carefully arranged rows of holographic computer interfaces to request and deliver reports, advice, queries, orders. All of this was for the overreaching purpose of identifying and taking control over the emergency situation that had enveloped Titan Station, as if the constant haste of movements and discussions was some measure of compensating for the staff's inadequacy in their knowledge and ability to take action based on it.
By contrast, those technicians and staff that remained in no more than a single position, most notably the security officers who stood arranged around the room, appeared to be steadfast, resolute and in control of the situation. It was a false image, created solely because for whatever reason they had decided to face the emergency on their own, without the support of other people.
It was into this chaos that Hans Tiedemann, Director of Operations aboard Titan Station, entered with a full entourage of additional staff and security officers, and a grim and dark expression upon his face, as if he already knew the nature of the emergency on his station.
"Director Tiedemann, sir," the officers guarding the door saluted, but Hans waved them aside, and strode up the staircase leading to his command desk at the head of the room. The security officers escorting him immediately moved to reinforce the already substantial guard presence in the room. His other personal staff remained behind him as he reached his desk and activated the interface, awaiting his orders.
Hans wasted no time in giving them. "All of you, get to your stations," he ordered, his voice carrying across the room in spite of how low and controlled it was. "Get me status on the station's infrastructure, our security teams, and the evacuation shuttles now. I want a complete status assessment up in ninety seconds."
"Yes, sir," they all replied, and moved off to their respective designated stations.
Taking his seat in front of the now-activated holographic interface, Hans went through the tedious but necessary process of authorizing his access and control of Titan Station's administrative functions. It took him fifteen seconds for the computer to accept his credentials and authorization and priority codes, and only then was he able to assume control of the situation.
The first thing he did was to access the file that contained the pre-written protocols for the appropriate actions to take in an emergency. While the file covered virtually any contingency that might be expected to befall a space station, particularly such as major one as Titan Station, most of the measures that it described were useless if they weren't applied to the correct situation. It was the job of Hans' staff to assist his decisions by identifying the nature of the current emergency.
"Sir?" The voice broke his concentration, and he looked away from the protocol file to see a technician holding a holopad standing in front of his desk. The credentials on her uniform identified her as Junior Data Analyst Bronson.
She couldn't have been over twenty-five. "What is it, Bronson?" Hans inquired, checking his chronometer. Thirty-five seconds and counting.
"Sir," she began, "we've been able to identify the sectors that seem to have been affected by the emergency." As she talked, she tapped keys on her holopad to bring up the relevant information, and Hans did likewise with his computer to establish an interface. Shortly enough, the information was presented on both Hans' own display and the large overhead displays at the front of the room, allowing the techs and staff to easily reference it if they required it.
"As you can see," Bronson explained, "the sectors that we've confirmed have been affected include the mines, the public sector, the CEC facility, and the medical center. We're still working on getting an accurate assessment of the damage, but we're seeing a lot of overloaded or short-circuited electronics, and we've got several incidences of breached integrity and decompression in several sectors of the station." All of this was being displayed to the entire room, and Hans could see that several of the technicians winced when they saw the extent of the damage to the station. He likely would have, too, but years of political gesturing and debating against other high-ranking EarthGov officials allowed him to maintain an image of being concerned by the situation, but not to the point that his decision-making abilities were hampered in any way.
"What about the nature of the threat?" he asked, refusing to mince words and call it the emergency.
"We're still working on that, sir," Bronson replied. "We're pulling up video logs now, trying to reference and identify them." She paused, checking her holopad as if unsure of a detail, then added, "According to our logs, the first appearances of the threat were in the mines. There was a disturbance logged there this morning; a security team was dispatched to deal with it."
"Hell." Hans ran a hand over his now-bald head, and checked his chronometer again. Sixty seconds and counting. "Identify the threat as soon as possible. We need to know how to respond, and from the damage it's already caused we have to do it soon."
"Yes, sir," the analyst acknowledged him, and turned to move back to her desk.
She'd already left Hans' mind, but her report hadn't. "General," Hans beckoned.
A man wearing a security RIG, his swept-aside black hair and stern features exposed by his lack of a helmet, turned in his seat to face the Director. He was General of Security Johnson Machette, the commanding officer responsible for security aboard Titan Station. His authority as a result of his responsibility was massive and far-reaching, second only to Hans himself.
"What, Director?" Machette replied, carrying that insubordinate streak in his voice that Hans had learned to forgive, if only for the man's efficiency and commitment in carrying out his duty.
"This morning, a security team was sent out to deal with a disturbance in the mines," Hans stated. "Who was the officer in command of the team?"
The General didn't need to consult his computer's logs. "Colonel Victor Bartlett was in command," he answered. "His last report said that he and his team had deployed in two squads and were moving into the mines to secure them."
"Get in contact with him," Hans ordered. "We need to know what happened down there, and why."
"Routing will take a couple of seconds," Machette remarked, even as he moved to comply.
"Just get it done," Hans said, putting emphasis in his voice.
"Yeah, yeah." While Machette hit keys on his computer, Hans checked on both his chronometer and his staff's progress. Seventy-five seconds and counting, and still working away frantically with the data they had to meet the ninety second deadline that he had imposed.
"Got him," Machette said, waving at Hans. As Hans authorized the routing of Machette's communications to his computer, the General switched on his pickup and started talking. "Colonel Bartlett, this is General Machette. Acknowledge."
For a moment nothing happened; then static emerged from the speakers, and a video feed opened, showing a man whose eyes were bloodshot and his features haggard. In the background, Hans identified the cabin of an EarthGov Sentry-class police gunship. So Bartlett likely wasn't in any immediate danger.
"General, this is Colonel Bartlett," the man replied. "Communication acknowledged."
"Give me a sitrep, Colonel," Machette demanded. "What's the status of your mission?"
Bartlett seemed to need to take a few seconds to draw breath before he could respond to his superior's demand. When he did respond, he stared straight into the camera in an attempt to meet the eyes of Hans and Machette. "The mission is fucked, sir," he stated bluntly. "We tried to contain them, but they overwhelmed us and tore my men to shreds."
"Contain what? What threat did you encounter?" As the General continued to demand answers from the obviously battle-shocked Colonel, a window opened in his interface, showing a neatly tabulated list of the security officers that had accompanied Colonel Bartlett into the mines. The list displayed all of the last known RIG logs received from the officers, detailing a variety of gruesome injuries that had all resulted in the same thing.
User Integrity 0%.
User Vital Functions Terminated.
"The most fucked up thing you ever saw," Bartlett declared. "A Class One biological threat. Creatures formed from humans that kill people and make more of themselves out of us. That's what happened to my men. All of them." He took a breath, and added, "Except one."
"What do you mean, except one?" Machette asked, having lost the edge of anger in his voice, but Hans's mind was on a much more crucial and horrifying matter. A Class One biological threat that killed people and formed more of itself out of them. Hans had read through all of the entries in EarthGov's database of potential threats that could endanger Titan Station, and only one fit that description.
Knowing he would dread the answer, Hans input the search parameters into his computer.
Eighty-five seconds and counting.
The search turned up a single entry.
Necromorphs.
Mortification slowly spread like liquid nitrogen in Hans' blood as he scrolled down the file, renewing his memory of the malformed human monstrosities that were what Colonel Bartlett had encountered in the mines. The images and logs attached by EarthGov personnel whose names remained classified, even to his security clearance, were just proof that such a horror was real, and was threatening his station.
Below and in front of him, Titan Station's administrative staff elicited collective gasps and whispers of horror and fear as relevance-filtered auto-sorting algorithms dutifully routed the information to the room's overhead displays. Even the security officers, their expressions hidden behind their polarized faceplates, seemed to visibly balk as they registered the data in front of them, their pulse rifles trembling in their arms.
Only Hans, who had been somewhat prepared for the revelation, and Machette in all of his maverick personality and approach to his duty seemed to retain their rationality.
"Shit," Machette growled as he read the data on his own computer. "I don't know if our security teams are equipped to deal with the threat. Most of our officers are on patrol in the public sector, but they're not effectively equipped for warfare or containment."
"What's your recommendation, then?" Hans asked, knowing that Machette would already have some solution for his grievances.
"We'll have to enact a holding and containment procedure," the General explained, tapping keys on his computer to bring up a tactical and strategic display of Titan Station. The holographic interface showed a three-dimensional schematic of the station, which included both the public and government sectors, the mines and smelters under the government sector, the transport hubs and the docking ports on the rim of the station. "Currently the majority of Beta division is deployed throughout the public sector, with several squads from Alpha division guarding the atrium of government sector, and we have assets from Gamma division on patrol inside of our control space. I've already ordered that incoming traffic is to hold their position until further notice, and anyone who tries to dock without authorization is going to join the ranks of astronomy as a radioactive navigational hazard."
Hans nodded with approval.
"Our main priority is the transport hubs and the docking ports. I'm moving squads now to secure the facilities and make sure they remain functional. I've also ordered several of Gamma's gunships to launch and orbit the station in order to provide tactical support for Beta division. Then I'm calling up Alpha's off-duty personnel, and having the whole division deploy throughout government sector. They're to secure the entire sector, and keep it that way until we've dealt with the threat."
Machette looked up from his display to Hans. "But all of it is useless if I don't know what our objectives are."
Hans had been expecting this question, and had already formulated his response based on EarthGov security protocols and his own decisions. "What's our security presence in the medical centre?" he countered Machette.
"We have several squads in there already," Machette replied immediately. "Colonel Bartlett is also en route now, ETA seven minutes."
"Excellent," Hans said. "Have Bartlett take command when he arrives, and supervise the disposal procedures to prevent our Marker research from being comp–"
"Bartlett doesn't seem to want to cooperate," Machette interrupted before Hans could finish. "He claims he has a higher priority objective that he must complete in order to facilitate disposal procedures."
A glower manifested on Hans' face, but his manner remained calm and controlled. "And what objective might that be, General?"
"Apparently, one of the members of his team has gone rogue." Machette pulled up a file. "Sergeant Gabe Weller. He was assigned to lead Bravo squad, and apparently he was the only other survivor. His RIG's signal confirms he's alive, and he seems to be heading for the medical centre in Bravo squad's gunship. Bartlett had a head start, so he'll probably reach the medical centre before Weller does," Machette added.
Hans' glare intensified. While a rogue security officer represented a palpable threat to his operations, he was running out of time to make his decisions; the decisions that could alter the fate of Titan Station. "I don't have time for this bullshit," he snapped. "I've issued the order to initiate disposal procedures, and Bartlett can go after this Weller if he thinks he's a threat. But in the meantime, we need to focus on the security of our station.
"As of this moment, I am declaring a station-wide evacuation, effective immediately."
Whatever Machette might have been about to reply caught in his throat as he heard Hans's words. A look of surprise, then suspicion, as Hans glared him down, daring the General to challenge him. They both knew the ramifications of what he had said, and judging by the stillness and silence amongst his personal staff, they did too.
Finally, Machette folded his arms and sighed. "I know why you're doing this, Director." His tone betrayed no resentment at the decision Hans had made. "If I were you, I might even have done it too. But I'm not, and you're the one who decides whether we all live or die." With a wry smile, Machette snapped a salute. "God be with you, Director." And with that, he turned back in his seat to face the holographic interface, and began issuing orders to the security officers under his command.
Hans breathed a private sigh of relief. For all his dedication to his duty, Machette's opinions and attitudes remained a mystery to him, and he'd had little idea of how the General would react to his declaration.
Ignoring the looks that he knew his staff were giving him behind his back, Hans typed commands into his computer to enable a station-wide broadcast. He briefly considered his words, then he cleared his throat and enabled the transmission.
"Attention all residents and security officers of Titan Station. This is Director Tiedemann. A station-wide emergency situation is now in effect. In accordance with the Titan Station Civic Code, I am hereby declaring martial law, effective immediately.
"I am also declaring a station-wide evacuation. All residents are ordered to move to the nearest evacuation route immediately. Security officers will police the evacuation. Public order is expected to be maintained during the evacuation. Any residents found looting will be considered to be engaged in an act of sabotage, and will be shot on sight as such."
"All residents are ordered to move to the nearest evacuation route immediately.
"This is not a drill.
"Tiedemann out."
A/N: While Tiedemann and the rest of Government Sector's personnel spend most of the game sitting it out in Government Sector, they still play a large role in the events of it, as evident by Tiedemann's constant attempts to eliminate Isaac Clarke. Though he will take a backseat compared to the others on the front line battling the Necromorphs, I'm hoping to get some good exchanges out of Tiedemann and his staff.
It's not exactly clear where the timelines of Dead Space 2 and Severed converge, so I gave it my best guess. I don't think I'm going to do anything with Gabe or Vic though, since we already know what happens with and to them and they don't seem to have any significant effect on the rest of the storyline (as far as the Sprawl is concerned).
I'm also happy I got a review. While I probably won't respond personally to every one I get, I will to this one. I'm glad you think my story has potential, and I'd love it if you felt free to post your own story regardless of mine. And if you think copyright is an issue, think about what our stories are about =P.
Thanks for reading, and please feel free to review!