Chapter 9
Inside the tram system...
Isaac took several breaths- getting out of an exploding ship was not easy, and even seeing Hammond get ripped apart like that was not particularly pleasant either. As soon as he had gotten out of the Valor and into safety, Kendra contacted him to state, "Oh my god- Hammond's vitals just went down. I think he's... I think he's dead. It's just us and Alex now, Isaac."
But when he got to the tram and waited inside, she contacted him again and said, "Isaac, I hacked into Alex's past audio recordings and... well, you won't like this. He's been working with that maniac doctor this entire time. Alex agreed to help bring those freaks down to Earth and infect the entire planet."
She stated, "Isaac, we... I can't believe I'm about to say this, but we can't leave until they're dead. Mercer might be a pain to deal with, but Alex's on a whole different level. We need to find a way to kill him and fast."
Checking through the ship's systems, Kendra stated, "Alright, I can overload the Ishimura's engine from here if I wanted to, but I'll only do that after we're a safe distance away from this damned ship."
Once Isaac arrived at the Crew Deck, Kendra gave another update by saying, "I've located the shuttle Hammond found", only to look at the repair log a little more closely and say, "Shit! No good. That shuttle's brain dead. Someone removed the Navigation cards. God knows why."
Sighing, she continued, "There's three of them scattered around the deck. I'm downloading their locations. I can't access the doors from here, so you'll need a Crew Key. If you can find those parts, I think we can get that shuttle operational again."
Isaac nodded and made his way to the hallway leading to the crew quarters, taking note of the strange lanterns placed on the floor. This lead him into a new kind of horror the Ishimura still had to offer- dead bodies everywhere. Nothing unusual about those, but it was the arrangement of the cadavers that gave Isaac unease. It appeared as if every member had been systematically executed; each one had their faces covered in a white full-faced mask, colored red with a single hole bored into their skulls. All of them were lying in various positions, either fallen on the ground or resting against a wall.
If that was not enough, then the décor really did the trick. Red banners hung from the metal rafters on the ceiling and worst of all, Unitology symbols were everywhere- it made Isaac sick to his stomach. He hated the so-called "religion" with a passion, and if not for the severity of his situation, he would have taken the time to break every shrine and pendant the cadavers wore.
The engineer did his best to ignore it all and continued onwards. When he reached the mess hall, Isaac found with disgust it was completely covered in Corruption. Taking one step at a time, a holographic screen that popped up nearly made him fall backwards. Dr. Challus Mercer was back, and he had something to say to Isaac.
"I was going to show you the birth of a true believer", the madman began, "but a higher power has told me to hold off on that. The Black Light wishes to convert the new followers himself, and so I will wait. But know this- your time shall come as well. The prophet has commanded it."
The screen faded, enabling Isaac to continue forward. He took the elevator down to the lower level of the Mess Hall and killed the small Necromorphs infesting the area, only to be confronted by two Dividers afterwards. Using all of the firepower he had, the monsters once again were defeated by Isaac's hand. Smashing open each crate and then checking the few containers there, Isaac found the Crew Key right before being scared out of his wits because of an unfinished Guardian yelling in pain.
He went back to the upper level and was about to leave the area when Dr. Kyne contacted him once more, saying, "Mr. Clarke! I really... must speak to you! I'm very close to your position, and... and I know you'll want to hear what I have to say. I can explain all this! I know what happened!"
He finished with, "When you have the Nav. cards, I'll let you into the Security Station. We must talk. Hurry!"
Isaac got out of the Mess Hall and into the adjacent Residential Area, armed with his biggest gun at the ready. His paranoia was justified- a fully-formed Guardian and a few Slashers awaited him, but they were dealt with the same efficiency the engineer had with all the monsters that came before. Isaac's adrenaline was pumping so much he even thought for a moment he might have been able to take on Alex by himself, only to recall how deadly the man-monster really was.
Regardless, Isaac pressed onwards to Sleep Block A, opening up the elevator with the Crew Key. Once he arrived, the engineer began to search the area while Kendra gave him another important update.
"The life support system in Sleep Block B has been shut down", she explained. "You'll have to find an override nearby to get to the door."
Isaac nodded and walked into another room, only to get jumped again by yet another Necromorph- this time one of the Drag Tentacles that like to smack people into walls. Struggling to aim his Plasma Cutter, Isaac managed to cut the tentacle in half and free himself. Getting back up and shaking off the unnerving feeling he had, Isaac went into the storage room and overrode the lockdown. He walked out of there to battle one of the Enhanced Slashers and went into the main room again.
Going through the unlocked door and into Sleep Block B, Isaac was now deprived of standard oxygen and forced to rely on the tanks and internal supply he had. Adding to that time-restraint were some Pregnants and a regular Slasher that greeted Isaac in their usual way... by charging at him with their blades raised.
Their demise was no different than anything before them, and Isaac continued to search diligently for the Nav. cards. Traversing the airless space, he found the first of the three cards and made his way back to a breathable atmosphere. He took another elevator to get back to the Common Area, seeing an Exploder leave through an open ventilation shaft just as the doors opened.
Isaac continued back to the Commons Area and into another part of Residential to find the other two Nav. cards. He briefly stopped at the Z-Ball court to search for more supplies, finding with delight there was a schematic for the Level 5 suit and the second Nav. card. He also found there were important prizes to be won if he completed all of the Z-Ball rounds, so Isaac decided playing the game was in his best interests despite how absurd that sounded out of context- playing a game while an infection transformed the living and dead into rampaging monsters.
After about thirty minutes of playing and winning all of the rounds, the winner collected his earnings and went through to Sleep Block C. As he walked through the short corridor that lead into the main area, Isaac heard the voice of Dr. Mercer. Upon entering, he sighed with relief when it was just a recording playing over and over again. The speech itself was nothing more than an insane sermon from the doctor trying and failing to make people willingly submit to the Necromorph infection overrunning the Ishimura.
"How can you turn away from your faith at this vital hour?", Dr. Mercer asked the horrified crowds. "Do not abandon your faith! What's happening on the colony is not a tragedy. It is God's work!"
He continued, "The truth is even more fantastic! On the planet below us, we have found a Marker! Can't you see, God's plan is unfolding, and we are its inheritors! We will ascend, as we always knew we would! UNITOLOGY IS TRUTH! And your death is the first phase towards this transformation."
Mercer asserted, "Do not be deterred by the physical methods of transformation. Soon, you will be beyond any physical concerns! You must have faith in the process."
As the people he spoke to long ago began running away, he tried to convince them to stay, calling out in futility, "Where are you going? You fools! This is what we've been searching for all these years! This is what we have been waiting for. Don't listen to them! Come back! COME BACK!"
The message repeated from there so Isaac continued onwards. Stepping into one of the other sleeping quarters, he unlocked a door using a power node and took all of the contents inside. Back out into the sleeping quarters, Isaac used his Kinesis module on a few of the bunks to move them aside, finding things of value between the spaces and still pressing onwards.
At one point he found a survivor, a woman, sitting on the floor against a fallen bunk and cackling madly to herself amongst the cadavers. Some small part of her was still in control, for as Isaac drew near, she pulled out a pistol and shot her head clean off. Shaking off his surprise, Isaac went to the right side of the bunk and found the last Nav. card there.
As he turned around and prepared to head out the way he came, for the normal way out was blocked, an increasingly delusional Dr. Mercer came online to taunt him. He stated, "This time there will be no escape for you, my friend. You have been most resourceful up until now, but my creation is free, reborn in the fierce heat of life itself! Now it's time to play your part..."
Right after he finished, the Hunter- the regenerating Necromorph from long ago- broke through the ceiling vent and began to attack. Isaac did what he could to slow the beast down, using Stasis on it and dismembering three limbs, but the best tactic he had was simply running away. He ran off back into the stacked bunk beds and closed it off from the creature, forcing it to find another way to follow via the ventilation system it just came out of.
Keeping a safe distance, Isaac managed to outpace the creature as he went into another room. Fighting off a few enhanced Lurkers along the way, Kendra came online to explain, "Isaac, that son of a bitch just overrode the door lock! I'll try to run a bypass. Hold on!"
Running as fast as he could and avoiding dangers all around him, Isaac eventually managed to find safety back in the starting room after dispatching a few Infecters. With the Level 5 schematic still in hand, the engineer sold off what he could and purchased it. Feeling a little better about his situation, Isaac went back to the locked door upstairs to meet with Dr. Kyne.
The man had his back to Isaac from behind a glass window, seemingly speaking to someone else. Isaac grew annoyed that yet another remaining person on the Ishimura was utterly out of his mind, but at least Dr. Kyne was seemingly on his side, and even capable of realizing he had company.
"Amelia", Dr. Kyne said to an empty space, "I knew you would know what to do, I knew, I love you so..."
He turned and found Isaac awkwardly standing there, suddenly blurting, "You made it! Thank God, you made it! I've been following your progress. I know you want to repair the shuttle and leave this place, but..."
Dr. Kyne sighed and explained, "Escape is impossible at this point. The... the shuttle's Shockpoint Drive is destroyed."
He suddenly blurted again, "No no no no no no no, don't lose hope! Don't lose hope. At first I lost hope, I tried to scuttle the ship, sabotage the systems... but Amelia... she changed things."
Kyne shouted, "The Church! They think the Marker is divine, but they don't know what's happened here! What's been released! Look, look, look... Look at this."
He brought up a holographic screen, displaying an event that occurred during the early stages of the chaos. There upon the screen was a gigantic Necromorph, so much larger than anything Isaac or anyone else had ever faced before, slowly rising out of the planet's depths to kill everything in sight.
Dr. Kyne continued, "That is what we found, in the core of the planet... Mercer calls it the Hive Mind. It's the source... controlling the Necromorphs telepathically! We were SO STUPID!"
Taking a breath, he then rapidly added, "But Amelia, she knew! She knew it could be stopped... by returning the Marker to the planet! The Marker was containing it within the planet. Return the Marker, and seal the Hive Mind! Please..."
He looked back at the empty space and sadly stated, "I'm sorry Amelia... I bear much of the responsibility for this tragedy. Now I must bear the responsibility for ending it, and atone for my sins."
Gaining a small smile, Dr. Kyne looked back at Isaac to add, "But you can help me. If you repair the shuttle, and bring the Marker back on board... we can end this. Forever."
He unlocked the elevator in the room for Isaac and went through a path on his own side. Isaac went in and found it lead into the Executive sleeping quarters, and upon entering, several Pregnants greeted him. Once they were taken care of, Isaac searched the area for anything useful, finding the captain's personal quarters and an audio log by him. It was just more drivel about Unitology as far as Isaac was concerned, but he also found a text log from a disgruntled Officer White, which listed every single confirmed Unitologist onboard the Ishimura, at least from what White could determine. Isaac felt sorry for the man; they had something in common- hatred for the so-called "religion."
Once he was done sweeping the area for anything of value, Isaac left through another door and into the Executive Shuttle Bay. There he found the shuttle, and going in, he inserted the three Nav. cards into the exposed panel with loose wiring. Once Isaac fixed it, Dr. Kyne came online to say, "Excellent! Excellent! Wait for me there... I'm on my way."
Isaac went over to the control room and waited for Dr. Kyne to enter the shuttle. Just to make sure it was working, he test-fired the ignition and watched as flames shot out the back of the shuttle. As soon as it was over and Isaac was sure it was working, a Twitcher came out of the vents and tried to find a way to him. And as if that was not bad enough, the Hunter found a vent directly inside the control room and jumped in, making Isaac scramble for the exit.
He ran to the door he came into before but found it would not open. Isaac turned around and killed the Twitcher racing towards him before facing the relentless Hunter. The engineer quickly searched the room for anything he could use to incapacitate the beast, but as his eyes latched onto the shuttle's rockets, his bad situation was about to become even worse.
Alex Mercer himself came out of a hatch, fully formed in his Biomass armor and wielding a Spearshot as one arm with a Bio-Bomb for the other. He looked over to the Hunter approaching Isaac and shouted the man's name. The Hunter turned to face the living virus and attacked him instead, seeing Alex as the more important target. They fought each other while Isaac once again raced towards the control room.
Alex knocked the Hunter over into the shuttle's rockets and tried to Consume it. It simply regenerated more limbs to compensate and prolonged the fight, though Alex was slowly winning. As he changed his right arm into a Musclemass one and punched right through the Hunter's body, his vision suddenly turned blue and everything seemed to go faster around him.
Alex groggily turned to see Isaac just before he entered the control room, putting two and two together in his mind; he and the Hunter had both been hit by Isaac's Stasis, and now he was going to the test-firing button to... That moment was when Alex realized what was about to happen and tried to shout, "Isaac, don't!", but his voice came out too deep and incomprehensible to understand.
Soon all Alex could see was a bright light burning away everything, and his vision went away. As he and the Hunter were cooked alive, the former tried to Consume his foe in a desperate attempt to survive. Tendrils wrapped around the Hunter and began tearing away parts of it while the rest was burned away by the intense heat. By the time the test-fire was over, the only thing Isaac saw left was a charred mess of burned flesh and guts.
Once it was over, Isaac released the clamps on the shuttle and allowed Dr. Kyne to enter. He stood outside of the shuttle and asked Isaac, "It works?", before he then stated with excitement, "Yes, this will work! There's still time to make things right! The shuttle needs to be released before launch... the Control Platform, there! I need you to guide the undocking procedure while I start the shuttles engines. This will make us whole again."
He then added, "Hurry! I'll take the shuttle up to the Flight Deck where the Marker is being held!"
Walking inside and starting up the shuttle, Dr. Kyne contacted Isaac through his comm-link to explain, "I'm en route to the Flight Deck. Meet me there, and we can take the Marker onboard."
Talking to himself, Kyne muttered, "Yes, Amelia. Soon, we'll take it home..."
Cautiously getting out of the control room and making his way over to the pile of horrific-smelling death that remained of Alex and the Hunter, Isaac found a power node and several thousand credits, which either came from the Hunter or Alex. Regardless he took all of it and headed back to the Flight Deck.
As he left, Kendra commented, "I don't know if Kyne is crazy or not, but we need that shuttle. Let's keep him on our side... for now."
Isaac made all the way to the Executive quarters before Dr. Mercer came onto a holographic screen, stating, "You may think you have defeated the Blacklight creature and my own creation, but I tell you, they are much more powerful than you think. Just wait, my friend... your ascension has only been delayed..."
With that cheery thought, Isaac nonetheless made it back to the tram system and picked the Flight Deck as he next location, almost feeling a twinge of hope that it would be the last location as well. As the tram left, the area grew silent other than the noises in the walls... and the footsteps of one determined individual.
He walked through the hallways utterly calm despite the horrors all around him, knowing that, in the end, everything would work out. Making his way into the shuttle room Isaac had just been in moments before, battling for his life, the man who stood before the charred remains of two powerful beings decided that it was now time to give up a life for the sake of the future.
With an unwilling sacrifice bound and gagged in his possession, Dr. Mercer threw the body onto the charred mass and broke it open from the force. Small puddles of black Biomass began to ooze out, covering the muffled person who screamed for their life. As time passed the already dampened cries grew silent, and the massive pile of flesh began rearranging itself into a new form... a dangerous form... a familiar one. As the figure rose from the coalesced components of both monsters, it grew a large sword from its' right arm, then said, "Alright... if Isaac wants to play hard-ball... we can play hard-ball..."