'Ello. Adding the First Chapter.
Once again, I own NOTHING in this writing, except for the storyline alterations.
Along the story, I'll be putting in some references to Bungie, and the game, "Dead Space." For instance, try to find as many references to '7' as you can!
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Above Aegis 7 was the Ishimura, pride and glory of the CEC. She had a chunk of rock the size of two Russias tethered precariously above the planet, kept from falling only by 14 gravity tethers.
They did not seem to think the giant rock mass was their priority, for they found the Artifact.
In the Ishimura, unitologists were exuberant. They had found the Red Marker, their relic of Altman and his teachings. They had no idea of what was also on it. They overlooked the deaths of many colonists who were on the planet.
The Forward Unto Dawn orbited Aegis, and was eventually found by the planet cracker. Captain Matthius ordered the ship to be towed in and searched.
Slowly, and with only a few spare tethers, the ships docked alongside one another, and gravity was restored to the Dawn.
The ship had managed to get through the Ark's Portal nearly entirely, only a few feet of her tail end sliced off. 'Vadam and John, both in cryogenic pods; were found and released by the Ishimura's crew…
John woke up to see human faces behind the cryogenic pod's glass door. Manually opening the pod, he walked out to find three odd-shaped pistols aimed at his head. Normally, the Spartan would have taken out such threats, but these were human.
Looking over, he saw Thel'Vadam also aimed at. *The elite's got to have a lot of self-control not to take them out.*
Raising his arms in submission, he was made to board the mining ship and meet the captain, with a red-haired woman behind him, a pistol at his back. By how the other crewmembers interacted with her, John assumed she was a commander of the ship's police force.
John sat down on an executive chair, locking his armor joints to appear sitting down without accidently breaking the chair with half a ton of armor. The former heretic had the comfort of actually sitting, but with the discomfort of the awkwardness between him and the chair, strictly designed for human seating. The captain turned and asked,
"Welcome to the Ishimura, my name is Captain Benjamin Matthius. May I have the leisure of knowing your names?"
The Chief spoke up first, "Petty Officer John."
The Arbiter followed with, "Thel'Vadam. Were it not for my heresy, I too would also have a title."
This made John crack a smile under his helmet. Matthius looked at Thel'Vadam with a sort of mix between curiosity, disgust, and contempt.
"A heretic, you say? Not one who's separated from Unitology, I hope."
The Sanghili surprised the unitology devout by stating, "I have never heard of such a religion."
The Captain grunted off this piece of news with apathy. He did not feel like arguing his zeal with infidels today…especially not with one of a different race.
"No matter. What does matter is whether or not you have arrived on the Ishimura with clean intentions."
Once more, the former arbiter spoke.
"We came not in hostility. Our ship was adrift, and we stumbled upon your…planet cracker, as you call it. Is it similar to planet glassing?"
Matthius had trouble hiding his contempt for the alien.
"Err…Commander, would you mind taking these, uh, guests to spare living quarters? Perhaps they would like to join the crew, temporarily, while we fix and refuel their ship?"
The Spartan nodded in approval, while Vadam uttered a "yes." (earning another wince from the captain)
The next day, the two war veterans, along with an additional mass of crewmembers from the Ishimura, salvaged what they could from the Dawn.
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Matthius. Quite the rascist, isn't he? I mean no offense by adding inter-species rascism, but human nature will be human nature.
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