Chapter 8
A few minutes ago, inside the Fuel Pressurization Tower...
Isaac looked down again at the steam and smog rising beneath him and figured it was a good a place as any for an ambush. Deducing that the Necromorphs could come from the area beneath him, he pulled out his Detonator and attached mines to the railings and spaced them equally apart. To be extra sure, Isaac added a few on the walls as well. If any creature decided to crawl anywhere near him, it would have no way to get close without being blown up.
His hypothesis proved correct when he walked a little bit forward and heard the mines go off; two Leapers had tried sneaking up on him, only to pay the explosive price. Putting a few more down, Isaac heard another satisfying noise as a Slasher used the rails to get up, but subsequently blew up as well. This gave him a little confidence that he did not really need Alex as his permanent bodyguard all the time.
Smirking as he walked along the rest of the catwalk, Isaac took the rest of his mines back and went onto the lift that lead upwards to another level. Of course since he felt happy, Nicole decided to burst his bubble with another tear-jerking tirade. She said, "We only had two years Isaac. Two years, but they were the best years of my life. I was happy- I had everything I wanted. Until you made me doubt myself."
Isaac hummed to himself to ignore everything Nicole taunted him with, briefly shouting, "OH SHIT!", as another Slasher burst through a vent in front of him, but he went back to humming right after. He walked out of the little detour inside a corridor and found himself facing off against a few more Crawlers, much to his surprise. For a bunch of undead toddlers with only three limbs, they got around rather well.
Isaac checked his Pulse Rifle before trying a slightly dangerous tactic to save on ammo, and it did not require the use of his Kinesis module. He ran up to one of them, only to immediately and automatically run back when they were about to blow up on him. Doing this for each of them, it was a fast and relatively easy method to deal with the little bastards without expending even a single pulse round. The idea worked even better when they came in pairs of two, one after the other, being so close that one took out the other.
Isaac walked through a door into the 2nd Pressurization Control Room, battling a Puker and a few Lurkers that arrived. Relying on his extensive knowledge of what he called "Strategic Dismemberment", the engineer actually used something unrelated to dismembering in order to take the monsters out efficiently. He used the trick numerous times, grabbing a Puker's projectile with Kinesis and lobbing it at another enemy so they died without any hassle. Isaac wrapped up by using another orb of instant annihilation on the Puker itself.
Looking around, Isaac found more supplies and another audio log from one of the shift workers. He expressed his horror and astonishment at being chased by dead bodies. From the body resting beside where the audio log was, Isaac guessed he did not make it.
Isaac looked around for anything else and went to a nearby Store in the room, then did his usual routine of sell everything not essential and buy nothing but power nodes to upgrade his weapons. It was an insane tactic considering the engineer literally sold all of his supplies, barring his upgraded weapons and the ammo inside them. Nothing else was kept, not even the health packs that any other sane man would have kept and honestly hoarded.
He walked away from the Store and went through the remaining door into a short corridor which lead into a steaming room. A strange noise greeted Isaac, a noise that he had not heard in ages. Sprinting out of the steam was a creature that was actually several in one- an aptly-named monster known as a "Divider."
Long and lithe, the Divider had limbs twice as long as an ordinary human's, with talons that stretched into sharpened tips and a vertical height that nearly reached the top of the corridor Isaac stood his ground in. Its tattered and hole-filled lab coat billowed in the back because of how fast the beast(s) went. Isaac used Stasis on the creature(s) to slow it down and blasted away at the thin joints, severing them into their true forms.
Falling to the ground without either arm, the Divider's head and hands blew off from the torso and arms, respectively, into smaller Necromorphs Isaac had fought before his meeting with their final form. He launched an explosive from his Pulse Rifle which took care of them all at once, saving him much of his time and frustration. Isaac took a golden semiconductor for his efforts and went around the steam to an elevator that lead to High Pressure Storage.
Opening on the other side he came through, Isaac looked around the room and noticed a power node box in the corner. Like a fool he took the obvious bait and nearly got a blade up his rear end from an Enhanced Slasher that appeared from a vent above and a little behind him. An Exploder arrived to assist in the fight, though all that did was give Isaac an easy opportunity to take care of the more ferocious foe. He killed the bomb Necromorph without destroying the sac, then used that to blast the Enhanced Slasher to pieces.
With the room cleared of hostiles, Isaac went back over to the power node box to claim his victory, then peered down into a hole to lift boxes and spotted another one of the valuable semiconductors there. It was of the "ruby" quality, which made it far better than the "gold" one he looted from the Divider. He claimed that one as well and left the room to continue.
As he walked into the twin corridors that lead upwards to his right, Nicole gave him another bit of information to digest. She asked the engineer, "Why would I choose the Ishimura over you? You said I'd regret passing up the chance- that the choice would haunt me forever. It was as if you wantedme to leave."
Isaac ignored her words again and looked at the mines blocking his path, thinking on a way to get past them without wasting ammo. He spotted a box in the distance and used that to trigger the mines, allowing him to walk upwards. The first pathway he went through seemingly went nowhere, but moving a few more boxes blocking his path then revealed another dead body and the audio log it recorded before succumbing to death.
As Isaac listened to the log, which directed any of the remaining survivors to Ellie's RIG for guidance, he found a schematic for flamethrower fuel and picked it up. There was nothing else for him there, so the engineer walked back down and went up the next pathway to continue. He stopped briefly to pick up an explosive canister for a free shot at the next Necromorph that decided to rear its' ugly face at him.
His intuition was well-founded again- there was a Guardian affixed to a wall at the far end of the walkway. They were stationary Necromorphs that summoned smaller monsters called Pods to defend it; they fired sharpened pieces of bone and were where Alex received his second projectile attack, the Spearshot. Isaac however need not fear the creature before him- the first canister he had with him hurt the creature by half- the other canister came from around a corner and finished the job.
With another golden semiconductor in his inventory, Isaac walked past the freak and shuddered briefly before moving forward. He took the elevator right next to it and moved even further upwards, while given yet another imaginary message from Nicole. She continued from last time with, "And when you received my final transmission, you couldn't bearto watch the end, could you? You knew what had happened yet, you went looking for me anyway. You knew deep down all you would find was death."
At that moment the elevator malfunctioned and left Isaac only partially close to the next platform. The Slasher that came after him did not care- it charged at him and gained a few plasma bolts in the arms. Just then the elevator turned on again and soon allowed Isaac to leave. He blew up the Exploder that came somewhat near him as well, looting the corpse but realized there was another noise growing louder behind him. He turned to see a Pregnant waddling through a doorway a few meters to his back and soon killed it before it could drop its' putrid passengers.
Another Slasher came running at Isaac but he immediately used the Pregnant's large blades to kill it. He went into the room and quickly stomped the corpses for their things before going all the way into the area. Looking around, there were many things that caught Isaac's eye, but the most important thing was the button to call the tram. He pressed it but encountered a malfunction, telling him to check he gearbox.
Turning around, Isaac scanned the room again and contacted his ally to give an update. He explained, "OK Ellie, I found the transport, but there's a problem with the release mechanism."
She replied, "No surprise there."
Isaac finished with, "Yeah. I'll let you know when it's fixed", then looked around for anything he could work with. There was a Stasis charger he used to refill his Stasis meter before moving over to the Workbench to upgrade his things; there was no telling when he was going to get to use them again. With just seven power nodes to spare and six empty slots on his Detonator, Isaac fully decked-out it out and saved the last one.
Now that everything else was out of the way, Isaac looked around for what could be done and found a large disk to fix up the gearbox with. Right behind it was the head of a Divider that he immediately killed with the disk before moving the object around. He put it into the upper-half of the gearbox and needed two different ones to finish it.
Isaac pulled up one storage shaft door and took out a connecting piece, slotting it into its place before going to the next one for the other piece. He slotted the smaller disk where it belonged and watched the machine power up, then went back over to the button and activated the tram again. As it worked, Alex checked in to ask, "How's everything going?"
Isaac replied, "About as good as wading through a monster-infested station gets, along with guilt trips from my dead girlfriend, but I'm not complaining. What's on your mind?"
Alex wondered, "Should we get going now? Ellie's got Stross on his feet, finally."
Isaac replied, "Yeah, I just released the transport. Meet me at the landing", and then added, "Please keep them safe."
Alex smirked. "As if I would do anything less."
Isaac grinned himself and commented, "I'm really glad you're on our side", to which Alex replied, "Yeah... me too."
He ended the conversation and heard the growling of monster's around him, certain that he was going to be attacked again. Pulling out his unstoppable Detonator, Isaac laid down a few mines and watched as Enhanced Necromorphs rushed into the room. They were blown away by the mines but still kicking, forcing the engineer to switch weapons over to his Pulse Rifle, blowing them up with its' alternative firing attack.
Once it was clear to move again, he walked out of the room and into the tram, pressing a button on the control console to send it downwards. He sighed and retracted his helmet, casually turning around and came face-to-face with Nicole this time, simply standing hunched over and staring at him.
She asked, "Why did you come looking for me if you knew I was dead, Isaac? Did you think I would forgive you?"
Isaac had enough and hissed, "Get out of my head!", before losing his entire temper and shouting, "You're not Nicole!"
Nicole chuckled slightly before rushing up to him and shouting back, "Who am I, Isaac?"
She vanished as the orange lighting flashed before going away completely. Isaac took a deep breath as the hallucination's words rung in his mind, forcing him slightly off balance. He regained his posture as he went over to open the door to the tram, allowing the trio to enter. Shaking off the feeling, Isaac watched them walk in and Ellie say, "Hey, you made it."
Stross walked up to him and creepily commented, "He's staring at me, Isaac. Through the... holes... in his head."
Alex walked behind him and stated, "Those are called 'eyes', Stross. Now sit down and stop babbling like an idiot."
Stross flinched when the living virus drew near and huddled on a seat. Alex just looked at Isaac and said, "You're not dead. Hooray", and made the engineer roll his own eyes. Isaac just went over to where Ellie was- over at the controls- and said, "Let's go."
Ellie continued to press a few buttons as the tram descended further and further downwards until an open section of the facility let light shine through to them. As it did so, both Isaac and Alex thought they saw something hauntingly familiar, then walked to the window to see it again. Isaac pressed his gloved fingers to the glass and then thought aloud to himself, "Oh my God! It can't be- that's the Ishimura..."
Ellie commented, "Yeah, used to be the pride of the CEC. Sad story, actually. I heard everybody on board died- some sort of terrorist attack."
Isaac asked, "What? Terrorist attack?", while Alex asserted, "Like Hell there weren't survivors!"
The engineer continued, "What happened aboard that ship was no terrorist attack."
Ellie asked, "What do you mean?", to which Isaac immediately explained, "That's where all this started, Ellie. Everything that's been happening here happened on that ship. I saw it, Alex saw it, we were... onboard when it happ... happened."
Suddenly the tram came a harsh halt and made Isaac ask aloud, "Hey, what's happening?"
Ellie wondered herself, "I... I don't know", and then guessed, "Something must be blocking the track."
Isaac told her, "Stay here. Alex and I will take a look."
He donned his helmet again and beckoned his friend to follow. They walked out of the tram and onto the catwalk connected to it. Looting a few crates before going any further, the duo went into the Pressurization Fuel Storage Room to find themselves in yet another maze of giant metal boxes and hidden areas. Alex's Neural Vision confirmed there were Stalkers in the distance, though Isaac's eyes were on the power node box near to his left and the audio log close by.
It was by far the saddest one yet in the area- the log contained Kaleb's words before he made a last stand to save Ellie from death. The log ended with Kaleb being mauled to death by the advancing Necromorphs, and his mutilated corpse was right next to where the audio log was. After killing a Cyst nearby in order to get closer to the body, Isaac asked Alex if there was any hope of bringing him back. Alex replied, "Not at this stage- on a good day I can bring someone back from the brink if it's just been a couple minutes after death, like that miracle with Dr. Kyne. But Kaleb's been dead for hours."
Isaac sighed and turned around, saddened that he could barely save anyone- even that baby in the room he pointed out to Alex's people was just dumb luck. They were the real heroes in the end anyway. The engineer thought about it a little more before he just brushed the thought aside and prepared for the incoming fight of cat-and-mouse.
Alex brought out two Bio-Bombs to use and jumped onto the boxes, blowing up any Stalkers that got close. Any that successfully maneuvered past his blasts were taken out by another one of Isaac's clever ideas. He stood near one of the remaining Cysts and stole the organic bombs it created, discovering with disgust that the tiny charge was also alive, and lobbed it at any Stalkers he could hit. The entire hunting pack was dead within minutes, then Consumed by Alex before the duo fought a wave of Exploders and killed them as well.
Taking anything and everything of value within the area, they went through the labyrinthine room until they encountered another Guardian near a door out of there. It took one of the nearby explosive canisters and a Bio-Bomb from Alex before the freak was felled, but they took the spoils of war all the same. Isaac had the nerve to get near the creature and looked behind it, finding a small alcove with some supplies, among the items being a schematic for Seeker shells.
The engineer nearly forgot he even had the schematics for that weapon, let alone the ammo for it. He shrugged his shoulders and went back around to the door with Alex, finding it was another elevator that lead to a corridor. In front of them was another Cyst that Alex killed quite quickly, then turned right to deal with the rest around the place. He changed into his organic Armor to make sure his suit did not suffer from acidic damage.
That was another benefit of his specialized suit- though it offered no protection from acid, there were fitted holes along the body to allow his Biomass to grow through. This enabled all of his powers to function without issue, which was something he just had to have. It was not a "want", it was most certainly a "need."
For example, the ability to weave his organic Armor was absolutely required since even Alex was subject to sneak-attacks, such as the Slasher he did not check for forcing a blade right through his chest. At least it would have if his Armor was not up- the tip of the weapon actually snapped before Alex snapped the whole Necromorph in half. Going along with that, he could also Consume without as much trouble, though forcing all of the Biomass through small holes was obviously not as good as being able to wrap his entire body around the target.
Alex walked forward and sold some things at the Store before allowing Isaac to do the same, purchasing quite a few power nodes with all the semiconductors he gained. All of those credits netted him over six nodes, totaling to eight at that point. Sadly there was no Workbench to improve his things with, but with how powerful his weapons were at the moment, he did not see that as a major issue.
He turned to their right and went through the Fuel Mega Storage Room while Alex commented on how stupid it was to put the adjective "mega" into anything. They walked into the giant room with Alex also commenting, "Well, there's your problem!"
Isaac contacted the others to say, "Ellie! There's a big tentacle blocking the transport door. It's wrapped around a big tank."
Ellie asked, "A big tank?', before realizing, "Nitrogen Trichloride. Those explode if they overheat!"
Isaac smirked. "Perfect!"
He looked around for something to blow it up with and saw a canister dispenser integrated into the wall. Pulling one out, Isaac aimed at the open end of the big tank and launched it upwards. He then looked down and used the canisters lying in front of him to completely blow up the big tank. That immediately caused a blinding explosion, making the Tentacle move out of the way.
Isaac heard Ellie contact him to say, "That worked, we're moving again. We'll wait for you two up ahead."
Isaac replied, "Alright, I see you. We'll meet you there."
He and Alex took the small platform elevator to the bottom floor, noticing there was another open tank being held by another Tentacle. The former stated, "OK Ellie! Get ready, one more!"
Ellie asked, "What!? Are you crazy!? That one in the middle? If you set that off it will incinerate everything in here!"
Isaac nodded. "Yes it will. Tell Stross to hold on, here we go..."
He pulled out a few canisters and fired them at the open tank, only to summon a Tripod in the process. Alex immediately launched himself at the massive monster and tore limbs off, Consuming them in the process. Isaac anxiously waited for the next few canisters to appear in the dispensers- there was a time limit he had to deal with before they arrived.
Once the last few came and were launched into the tank, it blew up with another blinding flash and Ellie shouted though Isaac's RIGlink, "This whole place is going to blow! Get up here, fast! Isaac! Alex!"
They ran back over to the elevator and nervously waited for it to get up before Alex simply said, "Fuck it!", and grabbed hold of Isaac. He bent his knees and charged them and the rest of his legs up with Biomass until he released, launching himself and his friend up into the air and onto the platform. Alex sprinted into the open tram but one of the blasts knocked him over, sending them sliding into it.
Isaac tumbled into the side and mumbled, "Ugh! Uh!", before shouting, "Go! Go! Go!"
He and Alex struggled to their feet as the fires behind them grew increasingly closer to them, slowly guaranteeing their demise. Isaac yelled, "Faster, Ellie! Faster!", but his friend immediately yelled back, "I can't make it go any faster!"
Isaac shook his head and looked back, muttering, "Oh, God. Come on."
The flames covered more and more of the tram until it completely engulfed it in flames, blinding everyone to their deaths... or so they thought. In one more flash of light, the tram flew past the flames and into the cold safety of space. Isaac retracted his helmet and was about to take a deep breath of relief... only to have Hans Tiedemann open up a video screen and speak.
"In another situation, I might admire your persistence, Mr. Clarke. But this is bigger than you and bigger than the lives of everyone on this station."
Just then a soldier came over to tell him, "Sir, final preparations for evac are wrapping up."
Tiedemann considered that for a moment in contemplation, eventually telling all of the people inside the tram, "It looks like it ends here. At this point, it's all just... dead weight."
Ellie asked her engineering ally, "Isaac, what does he mean? What did he mean when he said dead weight?"
Alex looked out of the window where everyone was not looking and just pointed. As a bright light shined near them all, all the living virus could say was, "Oh... crap."
Isaac looked over and immediately realized, "He's using the solar beam! We have to stop the transport! Now!"
Ellie whispered to herself, "Oh shit!", just before the tram rocked around when the beam collided with the track up ahead. She scrambled to make the tram stop in place and struggled to stay up as the tram continued to rock around, knocking almost everyone off-balance. When it finally stopped and they were all alive, Ellie cried out, "He... he cut the station in half. There's no track to get across on."
Isaac looked back and immediately had another idea. He told Ellie, "Back us up", and when she stared at him in confusion he told her again, "Back us up to the station!"
She incredulously asked, "What? Why?", and Isaac shouted, "Just do it, Ellie! Hurry!", before getting knocked around again and grunting, "Uh!"
He quickly explained, "The Ishimura! If the gravity tethers are still functional I can-"
"You can snare Gov Sec and drag it back", Ellie finished... before realizing how terrible of a plan that was. She vocalized that as, "Isaac, this is ridiculous!"
Isaac persisted, "If I can line up the tracks for a few seconds you should be able to get the Transport across", and finished with, "Stay ready, and take care of Stross."
As he put his helmet back on and nearly started walking out with Alex, Ellie replied, "Isaac, no, this is a really bad idea!"
Isaac, with amusement in his voice, commented, "Stick around. I'm full of bad ideas."
He walked through the short tunnel and through the door with Alex behind him. It lead into an equally short room and then into a room with a side tram to the right, which the duo took to reach the other side. Through the darkness they went, recalling with no small amount of dread they dealt with on the Ishimura. Isaac remembered the visions that were not as scary, but no less insidious to him, while Alex sickeningly shuddered upon imagining the voices in his head and from those other severed heads at one time.
Neither man wished to relive the horrors hidden away in the Ishimura, but as they stepped off the tram and into a circular tunnel, they knew deep inside they had no other choice. And so with shaky steps and revolting resolve, Isaac and Alex went off of the tram and into the bowels of that familiar feeling of fear. They went further into the tiny tunnel, seeing the red tape, plastic sheets and chemical supplies that attempted to wash away the madness.
Unfortunately it stuck like glue- Isaac was already hearing the whispers of his own name. And as for Alex... as he and his friend went up the elevator platform to reach the top, seeing the name USG Ishimura displayed proudly upon the walkway that Isaac first too into the madness that awaited him... the living virus simply hummed the tune, "Hello Darkness My Old Friend...", as the darkness greeted him back.
He came to talk to it again.
