Hey, guys! A1 here! I would let you know on more of what goes on, but I'm in bit of a rush, so I'll just tell you now. We're are now six chapters away from the end of Ed Space, then seven till the epilogue, and eight till the celebration of Ed Space. And I can't believe this story is still going. I want to thank each and every one of you readers for, well... yeah, reading this. XP Especially to a special someone I know and am grateful to have as an awesome friend and is the only supporter of Ed Space. I'm not gonna say the name, but I hope that awesome person is reading this part. I promise you guys, by the end of this story, we will carry on to Ed Space 2!
Until Chapter 9:
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C'mon, everybody! It's may not be much, but I'm still going to continue whether you like it or not! Anyways, enjoy the chapter!
Last time on Ed Space...
The tram doors close and the group heads their way to Mining Deck as Eddy and Ed sit across from Edd's body and could not believe that he survived that generator. Isaac sighs in relief at the sight of Edd being here, but was suspicious of how he manage to stay alive from the malfunctioning generator. More importantly, when Edd turned it off, Eddy said it turned itself back on. How was that possible. He thinks of one of two things. Either Mercer was still around and was able to do so, or... it could have been Eddy himself...
From Isaac's thoughts, could Eddy have done this from the madness in the Ishimura? But as of now, we explore more in the largest area in the USG Ishimura, the Mining Deck...
• "Speech"
• 'Thoughts/Quotes'
• Weapons/Necromorphs/Spaceships
• Signs/Reading: Know God, No Fear. No God, Know Fear
• Video Log/Transmission: *Hold him down!*
• Audio Log/Transmission: *Help me...*
• Ship's Computer Voice: *Quarantine activate.*
Chapter 10: Reaching Down the Mines
Ten minutes have passed for the engineer and the Eds as the tram still moves forward to the next destination of the Mining Deck in order to search for the SOS Beacon and attach it to the asteroid and call for help. Edd still lies unconscious during the time when Isaac carried him to the tram and placed him on the seat. Soon, a injured moan came from him and the Eds noticed that Edd was waking up. Under his helmet, Edd slowly opens his eyes and sees two people wearing the same mask as Isaac.
"Isaac, why are there two of you?" Edd asked, still trying to get his eyesight.
Both Ed and Eddy take off their helmets to show their faces to him in case he can remember them. Edd soon opens his eyes fully and recognize his friends as they had concerned expressions on their faces.
"Eddy...? Ed...? Is that you?"
"Yes, Sock-head. It's us." Eddy wiped a tear.
"Double D, you're alive!" Ed cried as he went to hug Edd.
"Gah! Ed...! It's good... to see you, too...!" Edd gasped.
Ed releases his strong hug as Edd was gasps for air. Isaac comes in to the Eds' reunion.
"Good to see that you made it out alive, Remington." Isaac smirked.
"It appears so, Mr. Clarke." Edd replied as he took his helmet off.
"Double D, I thought you were dead when you were floating in the air and you didn't move!" Eddy believed.
"Well, did you check my RIG, Eddy?"
"I did, but it was empty."
Isaac answers, "Well, it seems that he still had very little health when you thought he was dead."
"Obviously." Edd mused.
"But, Double D, how do you find us? How did you survive that generator?" Ed asked.
Edd rubs the back of his head as he too was confused,"Well, that's a little hard for me to explain, Ed. All I can remember is that I was lying in the East Refrigeration Room alone, had a very massive headache, walked back to the Main Air Control Room and I soon found you three fighting the Leviathan."
"And that's when you saved our asses before going unconscious." Isaac finished.
"Yes... And then I woke up and now, here we are. Back together again."
"Damn right."
"Double D, I've learned my lesson." Eddy said before turning to the rest of the group, "From now on, we're sticking together; no more split ups. We're not letting this happen again."
"Eddy, you don't have to do that." Edd implied.
"Yes, I do, Double D. You almost died and I'm not letting anybody die in my hands, not while I'm still breathing."
Edd smiles to how Eddy was becoming as did Ed and Isaac.
"Thank you, Eddy."
*Tram making final stop. Welcome to the Mining Deck.*
The party heard the ship stating they have arrived at the Mining Deck. The Eds put their masks back on and they wait at the door. The doors open and as soon as the group walks out of the tram, they're contacted by Kendra.
*Video Transmission: Daniels, Kendra*
*This may be our last chance of getting out of here alive, guys. There's an asteroid loaded up in the Mining Bay, waiting to be smelted. If you attach the SOS Beacon to it, you can launch it away from the ship to make a clean broadcast.*
"All right, that sounds simple, but it's gonna be hard with all of the fucking Necromorphs chasing after us." Isaac stated, "Where's the Beacon at?"
*The Beacon's on the Maintenance Sub Deck. You can launch the asteroid from the Mining Control Room.*
"Think you can open it?"
*Let me see.* Kendra checks if the Control Room is open, but curses, *Damn, the Control Room is locked. It looks like they keep an emergency access key on the Processing Sub Deck. Couldn't be easy, could it? I don't know how much more of this I can take.*
*Video Transmission End*
Isaac sighs, "You're not the only one."
"So, Isaac." Eddy called, "Think you can explain again what Kendra just said?"
"Well, since you weren't paying attention, I'll tell you what we have to do." Isaac replied as Eddy growled in anger and then the engineer shows the objectives of their mission, "First, we have to find the Emergency Access Key on the Mineral Processing Sub Deck— Floor B— in the Control Room. After that, we head to the Maintenance Sub Deck— Floor D— to find the SOS Beacon. And finally, we head to the Extraction Sub Deck— Floor C— that is containing the asteroid in the Mining Bay and all we have to do is attach the Beacon to it, launch it away, and we can make a clean broadcast."
"All right, that does sound simple."
"Yeah, just not to people like you..."
"Shut up."
Isaac gives a chuckle to his joke as he moved forward into the Preparation Sub Deck along with the other two Eds as Eddy grumbled to himself. They walk into the RIG Room and make their way to the elevator. Isaac uses his RIG to call it and he and the Eds hear groans of pain and agony. They wondered where it was coming from. They looked back to see that the elevator is coming up but along with a security officer with a missing left arm as it bleeds out like a small waterfall. The Eds quickly go to him to aid his large wound, but it was too late as he died of massive blood loss.
"Hey, buddy! Hey! Wake up!" Eddy called, but nothing.
"It's too late, McGee. He's already lost too much blood." Isaac implied, "Let's take him out of the elevator. That way we don't have to worry about those things getting to him. James, help me with this."
Isaac and Ed take the man's body and put him beside the walls outside the elevator. When the group enters the elevator, Kendra contacts them again.
*Audio Transmission: Daniels, Kendra*
*Guys, the Mining Sub Deck is offline for some reason.*
"Great." Isaac groaned, "Think you can run a bypass?"
*I'll see if I can.*
*Audio Transmission End*
With that, Isaac then sets the destination to Deck B: the Processing Sub Deck. But as the elevator starts moving down, a vent breaks and the Eds and Isaac aim their weapons at the vents to see where they'll come from. Silence and movement of the elevator was all the party heard. Until they hear a Slasher coming right at them and Eddy makes the first three shots to the Necromorph. Soon, more Slashers came in and starts attacking the group.
"Ambush!" Ed shouted.
With the small room they have, they have to manage to fight back against them. A Slasher jumps at Isaac, but he ducks and it hits the wall head-first. With this, Clarke stomps its body and shoots the limbs off. Two Slashers corner Ed as he uses his Line Gun like a baseball bat. One goes at him and Ed swings at it, knocking the head off. The other swings a blade and Ed blocks it. With this, Ed brings the blade to him, grabs it and rips the arm right out of its socket. Now with a blade of his own, he slices the one armed Slasher's head off, and finishes it off with by chopping the legs off. After that, he sees the headless Slasher is swinging at anything it can kill. Ed runs from behind and stabs it from behind and slams it down to the floor. Then he uses his Line Gun and shoots it to finish it off.
For Eddy, a Slasher was close to slice his neck as he dodged it and shoots the arm off. He moves away from it, aims back and shoots the Slasher's legs off with his Plasma Cutter. However, it wasn't going down as it starts crawling to him, but Edd stops him with his Pulse Rifle at the final limb. Both Eds nod to each other and already they make it to Deck B. The group walks out of the elevator and into the Antechamber. Pretty soon, the party walks around for any ammo and info they can find. Ed has got one as he picks up an audio log, calls the rest of his team, they come in, and Ed plays it.
*Playback Audio Log*
*This is Temple. I found Elizabeth, but there isn't a single spaceworthy vessel in the whole Goddamn bay!*
*Jacob, hurry up! We need to find a beacon!*
*There's got to be one around here somewhere.*
*Audio Log Ended*
"Well, looks like Temple found his girl. Good for him." Eddy said.
"I don't think so, McGee. Though he may have found her, there's no telling if they made it out without that beacon." Isaac implied.
"Good point."
"They had the same idea as us, but from Isaac said, he could be right." Edd stated.
"But let's just hope to God that they did make it out alive." Isaac said.
The Eds nod to Isaac's comment and they move on. As they make their way to the Mineral Processing Room, Isaac looked at most of the bodies around the Antechamber. Under his helmet, his eyes showed depression and stunned silence. The Eds stopped to notice him looking at the bodies.
"Isaac... Is something wrong?" Ed asked.
"It's just... It's just that I knew these men... I've worked with these guys before. I... I can't believe they're dead." Isaac replied, somberly.
Eddy walks to Isaac and pats him on the arm.
"Clarke... I'm sorry about your coworkers. But you don't need to worry about them now. You still got to find Nicole and get the heck off this damned ship. You know that you have to move on." Eddy stated.
Isaac gave a nod and walked forward to the door leading to the Mineral Processing Room and the Eds followed. Walking down the hallway, they already see a crashed asteroid right before the Mineral Processing area. They walk to the hole and see the inside of the area with some corpses in the Zero G, the gravity beam inside the chamber, and about four asteroids in the room along with the gravity control switch. The Eds could not believe the size of this place as they gape in stunned silence.
"My word! I've never seen a room that is this large." Edd gasped.
"Man, this place is big." Eddy said.
"Hello? Echo! My name is Ed!" Ed shouted as the room echoed.
"James, keep your mouth shut before you—" Isaac stopped when the sounds of a Leaper came in, "Ah, shit!"
"Oops." Ed said.
"Way to go, big mouth!" Eddy said.
The group prepare themselves for upcoming Necromorph ambush. Then, from their left, a Leaper flies through the gravity to attack them, Edd sees this, and shoots at it with multiple rounds from his Pulse Rifle. He moves away as it makes a landing with only one arm. As it crawls, Ed notices it, grabs the Leaper by the tail, and throws him right to the gravity beam, destroying it to pieces. A Lurker then shows up and attacks Eddy as it is on his face, trying to kill him. Fortunately, Eddy was able to pull it off of him, throw it down, and stomp the little bastard to death.
Two more Leapers show up and they have their eyes set on Isaac. He aims his Plasma Cutter at them and shoots both arms of one of the Necromorphs, therefore killing it. He aims at the other, but it already whips its tail at Isaac and it scratches his left arm. With this, the Leaper jumps right to Isaac, but Ed stops it in time with a swing from the Line Gun and sending it in midair and Ed finishes it off with two Line Rack shots. Now the room was quiet except for the sounds of the gravity beam and the group panting from the ambush.
"James, what did I say about shutting up?" Isaac asked.
"Sorry, Isaac." Ed held his head down.
"It's fine, James. Let's just get this done." Isaac looks to the other side and sees the door to the Processing Control Room is locked, "Damn. Kendra, the door to the Processing Control is locked. You know how are we gonna get to it?"
*From what you just said, Isaac, it won't open until gravity is restored.*
"Well, that's simple. Let's just turn on the gravity then." Eddy implied.
*Actually, Eddy, that's the thing. You can't turn on the gravity until those boulders are cleared from the room.*
"Crap..."
"Maybe we'll try this... If we can all get to the boulders floating around the room, we can use our Kinesis to eliminate them inside that gravity beam and reactivate the gravity. Therefore, we can get in the room and get the Mining Access Key." Edd stated.
"Holy shit, Remington, that's genius! It'll save us some time to get the hell off this place and get help." Isaac said, "Kendra, we got the rest taken care of. We'll let you know when we have the key."
*Okay, Isaac...*
*Audio Transmission End*
"All right. Let's get to it."
With that, the Eds and Isaac go around the room to find all floating boulders and dump them in the gravity beam. Ed already found his at the corner spot, Edd got his from the bottom near gravity control, Isaac already has his that is near the beam, and Eddy got his at the most difficult place in the corner. They shoot their Kinesis at the asteroids and aim at the gravity beam.
"Ready, guys?" Isaac called.
"Ready." the Eds shouted back.
Then, they all shoot the four boulders into the gravity beam and all the boulders have been disintegrated. The group smirked under their helmets.
*All free-floating anomalies destroyed. Gravity can now be restored.*
"Hmph. Fucking A..." Isaac said to himself.
Soon, the entire party are already at the gravity control switch and Isaac switches the gravity back to normal. Then the catwalks came back throughout the entire room.
*Gravity restored. Access permitted to Control Room.*
"Looks like we got it." Isaac implied.
"Now all we need to do is—" Eddy was interrupted when a screech is heard, "...So much for that."
The Eds and Isaac load their weapons for the second ambush. Coming from the vents were Slashers, Pregnants, and Exploders. The group splits up into two as Ed and Isaac run to the left side and Edd and Eddy run to the right side and go after the Necromorphs. Eddy stops at his steps, aims his Ripper, and fires the sawblade attached to a miniature gravity tether as it starts cutting the Slasher apart from limb to limb. The Slasher dies and another appears from behind. He turns around and it was close to slicing his head off as he jumped back and the blade hits his left arm. He cursed to himself as it got closer and Eddy pulled his Plasma Cutter at the last second and shot his head off. He back away more as it starts swinging around its blades and Eddy finishes it off by shoot the arms.
With Edd, he sees he is surrounded by a Pregnant and two Slashers. He knows there was no way he could get out of this one. Then, he remembers something out of the game again as he has memory of Ed using the alternate firing mode for the Pulse Rifle. He had to think fast of how to use it. He soon finds it, then goes on his knees, aims the rifle up, three barrels come out of of the original, and it makes a 360° alternate fire at the Necromorphs, killing them in an instant. It stops firing and Edd looks looks around to see they're all down.
With Ed and Isaac, Ed already shoots at two Pregnants by the legs as he knows not aim at their swollen belly. It still crawls as Ed shook his head, walks to it, and kicks the head off. An Enhanced Slasher sprints towards Ed and it jumps for a double bladed move, but Ed moves away, grabs the armed scythe, puts the Slasher down, and, with great strength, rips the arm right out of its socket. Then he finishes it off with a slice to the legs and head. He then readies his Slasher's torn arm and throws it at the Exploder's sac and it blows up along with the other Necromorphs.
For Isaac, he is already in a hand to hand battle with a Slasher is he holds the arms back and the Necromorph attempts to bite his face off. He gives it a headbutt, then kicks it away, and shoots the limbs off. He sees an Exploder behind him as it is walking towards him to make a suicide attempt. It lifts the sac up, the engineer jumps away from it, and the Exploder kills itself from the explosive sac. The battle was done as all the guys looked around for any more Necromorphs. None have shown up. Soon, the party walk inside the Processing Control Room, only to find footlockers, some ammunition lying around for them, and corpses of engineers. They look all around the room and Ed is the first to find the Mining Access Key. After finding the key, they leave the room and walk their way back as Isaac makes contact with Kendra via audio transmission.
"Kendra, it's Isaac. We got the Access Key." Isaac said.
*Perfect. It'll get you guys into the Mining Control Room so you can launch the asteroid. Don't forget to attach the beacon first!*
"Yeah, we know. We know. Is there any other information you got for us, Kendra?"
*Well, I read another report on the colonist's dementia. It seemed to start after they removed the Marker from the planet. God knows how long it was down there.*
"Hm. That does not sound good at all."
*No... No, it doesn't.*
*Audio Transmission End*
After the transmission was done, they see the door, but the lights then flickered and went completely out along with the door. The survivors ready themselves for wherever another Necromorph might show up. As time passed, a vent broke open, making the group shout and look to the vent. Nothing came out and the lights returned along with the door. Later, the group makes it back to the elevator and Isaac sets the next floor to Deck D: Maintenance Sub Deck. On the way down, they pass by the Mining Sub Deck and when they passed by the door, Ed sees the revived Hunter and he couldn't believe it was back as his hands started shaking in fear and had chills in his spine. Soon, the group makes it down to Deck D and walk out of the elevator.
As they looked around the Repair Room, they hear sounds of liquid being made and looked around to see an Infector already turning a corpse into one of them. Ed aims his Line Gun at the bat-like creature, but an Enhanced Slasher comes in front of him with its blade hitting the gun and hits Ed. It swings both scythes at him, but he ducks it and tackles him at the wall. With his arms around the Slasher's waist, he uses his monstrous strength to literally brake the Slasher in half. However, it wasn't dead yet it slowly crawls to Ed and he grabs both arms and rips them off. With both scythes in his hands, he looks back to see the new Enhanced Slasher and the Infector ready to battle.
Isaac jumps in to help and shoots at the Infector while Ed tackles the Enhanced Slasher down with the scythes. With the blades inside the chest of the Necromorph, he slices through it and starts stabbing it with no remorse. He soon stops as Isaac stomps the Infector to death. After that bloody battle, Eddy already finds a audio log and he plays it.
*Playback Audio Log*
*Dr, Kyne! What the hell are you...? Aah!*
*Get back! Come any closer and... and I'll shoot him! Give me the access codes to the Cargo Bay!* Kyne ordered.
*You idiot! This is Processing! Why the hell would I have codes to cargo?* inquired another man.
*Don't lie to me! I'm sick of everyone lying to me! It is imperative that I get the Marker! Give me those codes!*
*We don't have them! Is this... what you did to the Captain? Go on... Shoot me if you got the balls!*
*IDIOTS! It's the only way to stop it! The only way to end this...!* Kyne's voice then faded away.
*He's completely lost it... Somebody call security!*
*Audio Log End*
From hearing that log, the Eds and Isaac already figured out that Kyne was holding someone hostage for the access cods to the Cargo Bay.
"Okay, I don't know who's more crazier: Dr. Kyne or that Mercer guy." Eddy implied.
"Well, let's sum it up, McGee. Kyne has obviously lost his mind from the dementia as Kendra explained it and Mercer is already bat-shit crazy for sending the regenerating bastard at us and he's a Unitologist. So... I'd have to say Mercer." Isaac replied.
"Well, there you go." Edd said.
With that, they walk to to the Maintenance Chamber before the Lift. Along with that, they see the premature Guardian as it is making a growing process. Isaac shook his head at the poor man as he did him the favor of ending his misery by shooting his head. They look back and before them was Lift along with the gondola away from them. Eddy uses his Kinesis to bring in the gondola to them and it connects to the edge. Isaac walks on it and sees that only three people can be on it.
"Shit." Isaac cursed.
"What's wrong?" Eddy asked.
"This thing can only carry up to the limit of three people. There's no way we can all make it through here."
"Why don't you try going alone?" Ed asked.
"Oh, no, James. That's not gonna happen. I'm not gonna leave you three behind just so I can get to the Beacon."
"Isaac, we'll be fine. I know what I'm doing."
"Um, Ed, I'm gonna have to say that you've lost your mind already." Edd stated.
"Actually, Sock-head, Lumpy's already lost in the very beginning since he was born." Eddy stated.
"Enough!" Isaac implied, "Look, I'm not leaving all you guys behind for this."
"Isaac, don't worry about us. It'll be easy. Just go there, find the Beacon, and make it back here. I can handle this myself along with Double D and Eddy." Ed stated.
Isaac sighs, "Fine. I'll let you take control of this, James. Keep the boys and yourself safe. Okay?"
"Trust me, Isaac. I can handle this."
"Let's hope."
Isaac steps on to the gondola and activates it. The gondola starts moving as Isaac looks back to the Eds with concern. He knows Ed can make it with or without him, but still has a bad feeling about this. Later, Isaac makes it to the other side and the passage opens. Before Isaac can leave, he hears someone calling him.
"Isaac?"
He looks to his right to see a figure coming out of the shadows. The figure is reveled to be the person Isaac has been looking for the entire time, Nicole Brennan.
"Nicole...?"
"Isaac! Is that really you?"
"Yeah, it's me! My God, Nicole! You're alive! I knew you were alive."
"Isaac, it feels like it's been so long..."
"Yeah, it does..."
"But I can help you now. Come with me."
Then Nicole runs inside the room and Isaac heads into the Equipment Maintenance Bay. He gets inside the room and sees there was a gap between them.
"The Beacon's in the Storage Room next to you." Nicole pointed.
Isaac looks to the door, but it is locked, "Thanks for that, but the door's locked. Can you disable the lock from there?"
"I can try. Hold on!"
Nicole then starts working on getting the Storage Room unlocked and already, a vent busted open and a Slasher came out of it.
"Nicole, look out!" Isaac shouted as he fired at the Slasher's limbs.
After killing it, more started showing up to attack Nicole. As they start going to Nicole, Isaac fires at the many who dare to assault her. Then a Slasher comes right in front of him and it attacks him. It goes for right swing, but Isaac dodges it and punches the Slasher's head right off the body. He shoots the arms off and kicks it away from him as it falls down to the dark depths of the gap. A Lurker even showed up as it flies at him, but he strikes at the little bastard and it hits the wall and falls to the bottomless gap. One last Slasher is already near Nicole as it goes for the kill.
"Hey!" Isaac shouts to it and the Slasher turns to him, "Get away from her, you bitch!"
Then the Slasher responds with a screech and jumps towards Isaac and he aims and fires at the limbs. The corpse hits the rail and falls to the gap below. As the attack was over, the door to the Storage Room was open thanks to Nicole. Isaac and Nicole face each other from the distanced gap.
"Okay, the door's unlocked, Isaac." Nicole said, "I can't get over to you... but I'll find a way."
"I hope so. Be careful, okay?" Isaac inquired.
"I will... Isaac... I love you..."
"I... I love you, too, Nicole..."
"This will all be over soon..."
With that, Nicole walks away, leaving Isaac confused of what she said.
"Wait, what do you mean 'this will be all over soon'? Nicole? Nicole!"
But she already walked away and he could't catch up to her as she was already gone. He goes into the Maintenance Storage Room and finds the SOS Beacon. After he got the Beacon, Kendra contacts him.
*Audio Transmission: Daniels, Kendra*
*Isaac!*
"Kendra? What is it?" Isaac asked.
*I lost your signal for a while. You had me worried...*
"Huh. Sorry about that. Had no idea what happened. Anyway, I got the Beacon."
*Good, now head for the Mining Bay and attach it to the asteroid. I've been running trajectory calculations and if we launch soon, there's a good chance the asteroid can reach a safe distance to begin transmitting.*
"That's good to know. Anything from Hammond? You'd find him yet?"
*...Still no sign of Hammond. In his state, I can't imagine he's still alive...*
*Audio Transmission End*
"Shit... Well, it was nice knowing ya, Hammond..."
Then Isaac leaves the Storage Room and heads back on the gondola. On the way back, he realizes that the Eds haven't contact him yet at all. He thinks something bad has happened as he contacts them.
"McGee. You there? Remington? James? Guys!" Isaac called over audio, but there was no answer, "Fuck!"
Looking through the dusty smoke from the room, he couldn't see a damn thing. He had to squint his eyes under his helmet to see what was on the other side. He then hears a screech echoing around the Lift. As he looked around, he was close to returning with the Eds. However, he didn't see them. He contacts them again.
"James, are you there? Where are you at, dammit?" Isaac inquired.
*...*
"Come on, guys! I know you're there."
Then a reply came through the audio, *...Isaac? That you?*
"James? Where the hell are you, kid? I thought you were dead."
*I'm back at the elevator with Eddy and Double D. While you were gone to find the Beacon, we got attacked by the Necromorphs and we had to fall back.*
"Well, at least you're safe. Stay put, I"m coming to get you."
*Audio Transmission End*
Isaac leaves the Maintenance Chamber, onward to the Repair Room and finds the Eds in the elevator.
"You know, if you guys are getting attacked by them, at least let me know first." Isaac said.
"We did, but we couldn't reach ya, man." Eddy replied.
"What do you mean you couldn't reach me?"
"Mr. Clarke, after you left to find the Beacon, we tried to contact you via audio, but you didn't answer." Edd stated.
"Really? The same thing happened with Kendra. She said she lost my signal."
"What happened, man? Did you get the Beacon?" Eddy asked.
"Yeah, I got it, McGee. And I have better news. Nicole's alive."
"What?!" Edd and Eddy said, surprised and it caught Ed's attention.
"Yeah, it's true. She's alive. I just met up with her while I was finding the Beacon. The Storage Room was locked and she helped opened it."
"But where is she?" Eddy asked.
"She already left before I can catch up to her."
*Audio Transmission: Daniels, Kendra*
*Hey, good news. I've got elevator access to the Mining Sub Deck.*
"Good to know, Kendra. How was it offline?"
*It was a security lockdown actually, although I don't think it helped them.*
"So much for keeping cover." Eddy stated.
*Indeed so. Now that you've got the Beacon and the key, head over to the Mining Sub Deck. It looks like the asteroid is held in place by some gravity tethers. You'll have to knock those out before you can launch it.*
"Thanks for the info." Isaac replied.
*Audio Transmission End*
After the conversation ended, Isaac sets the final destination to the Mining Sub Deck. They soon arrive and walk into the deck. When they walked in, Necromorphs have already showed up. Three Slashers and a Lurker come from the right side and Two Exploders and a legless Slasher comes from the left side. The group load their weapons and prepared fire. Isaac and Eddy fired against at the right side while Ed and Edd fired against the left side. Two Slashers were down, but one was still standing as well as the Lurker. The Lurker then jumps right on Isaac for its tentacles to kill him. Clarke then throws the Lurker at the wall, it slides down, and Isaac walks to it and stomps it to death.
With Eddy, the Slasher swings its right blade to him and Eddy ducks it before shooting the legs off and it falls. However, it starts crawling to him and Eddy finishes it off with another two shots to its arms. With Ed and Edd, Ed kills the legless Slasher with his Line Gun as Edd already killed the Exploders while aiming at the sac. The battle was short and the group moves on to the Mining Bay. When they walked to the left side, they find out that there was no power box to turn on the cargo lift.
"Great! There's no power to that elevator." Eddy implied, "What are we gonna do now?"
"Hang on a minute, McGee. There should be another power box in the Extraction Room. We can use that to power up this elevator and head our way to the Mining Bay." Isaac stated.
"Like this one?" Ed asked while holding the power box.
Isaac and the other two Eds turned to him as he holds the power box.
"What the hell...? Damn, you're fast, James." Isaac said.
"Nice work, Lumpy! Now plug that thing in so we can move on." Eddy ordered.
"Oakey-dokey, Eddy!" Ed replied as he walks to the plug.
Ed puts in the box in the plug and it powers up the elevator to the Mining Bay. The Eds and Isaac step on it and it sets down to the destination they need to go. After arriving in the hall before the Mining Bay, the party walks down their way to the area. They soon arrive at the door, and when it opened, they see two dead bodies floating in the Zero Gravity air. Edd, Ed and Isaac were disgusted by it as Eddy looked away from how he remembers seeing Edd floating in the same Zero G area. They move forward and see the large asteroid being made by two smelting gyrators along with the gravity tethers holding it.
"So, that's the asteroid, huh?" Isaac said, "That's pretty fucking huge."
"You're not kidding." Eddy implied, "So how are we going to destroy the gravity tethers, Clarke?"
"Hm. Let's check the monitor over there."
Isaac walks to the monitor below the asteroid as the Eds followed. They see the asteroid in the middle as there were only four gravity tethers from each corner.
"Okay, if there are four of those things, then where are the other two?" Eddy asked.
"That's the thing, McGee. They're outside..." Isaac answered.
Eddy looks back at the monitor and sees what Isaac meant.
"Aw, crap... How the heck are we gonna get through the outside if those things are in the way?"
"You got me. Seems impossible to get through."
Edd, however, already knew what to do, "Actually, it's not impossible to get through those gyrators."
"What do you mean, Double D?" Eddy asked.
"Look at the timing for both gyrators, Eddy. Look at them very closely, and you'll get it."
Eddy looks back to the gyrators as they moved. They soon stop and wait for five seconds before moving again. Eddy already sees how long the gyrators will move as well as Isaac and Ed.
"Okay, I got what you mean, Double D." Eddy implied, "So how is this going to work?"
Isaac answers, "I already got an idea. James, you and I will be the ones outside destroying the gravity tethers while McGee and Remington will be here to also destroy the gravity tethers here."
Edd replies, "Um, Mr. Clarke, I'm not sure if Ed is quite comfortable with—"
"Yay!" Ed cheered.
Isaac gave a smirk under his mask, "You were saying?"
"Never mind."
"Okay, let's get to work."
Eddy and Edd head to the gravity tethers while Ed and Isaac wait for the gyrators to stop. They come to a halt, and Ed and Isaac jumped onto the asteroid and quickly run up to vacuum area. With both Eds, Eddy is on the ceiling where the second gravity tether is at and Edd is near the exit where the first gravity tether is opposite from the ceiling. However, Eddy had trouble of shooting the tether and it just doesn't break. He contacts Edd via audio.
*Yo, Sock-head!*
*What is it, Eddy? You know I can see you from up there.*
*I know that, Sock-head! I just want to know, how are we going to destroy these things?*
*Elementary, Eddy. Stasis. Aim. Fire.*
*What? What the heck does that even mean?!*
*Just think about it and you'll know, Eddy.*
*Sheesh...*
Eddy looks further into the tether as it spins at normal speed. He sees the inside of tether and gets what Edd's riddle was. He shoots a Stasis at the tether, slowing its process, aims his Plasma Cutter and shoots. The gravity tether then deactivates and shuts down from Eddy's fire.
*I got it now, Double D.*
*There you go.*
The transmission ends and Edd does the same as Eddy did to the tether. After destroying them, both Eds hear a screech and they see three Enhanced Leapers coming out of each vent.
"Oh, crap...! Clarke, we got a problem here. Can you come and help us?" Eddy asked.
*Um, yeah, I don't that's gonna happen, McGee.*
"Why not?"
*Because we have the same problem as you.*
With Isaac and Ed, they were surrounded by three Enhanced Leapers and two Lurkers after destroying the gravity tethers.
"Isaac, you got an idea of how this is going to work?" Ed asked.
"Well, consisting that we only have about a minute and a half of oxygen left, let's just try to make this quick." Isaac replied, "You're gonna take this beacon, run over to the asteroid and plant it on there. It's that simple."
"What about you?"
"I'll be fine, really. Don't worry about me. Though, honestly, you'll probably have some of these bastards following you, so just take this and go! Now!"
With that, Ed takes the Beacon and runs like hell through the Necromorphs' path. An Enhanced Leaper and a Lurker followed him as the rest were after Isaac and he starts firing at them. Ed leaps onto the asteroid and before he could plant the Beacon, the Enhanced Leaper tackled him from the side and the Beacon floats in the vacuum. The Leaper is on top of Ed as it tries to kill him, but Ed pushes him off, grabs his tail, puts his foot on its head, holds onto the tail and crushes the Leaper's head. He throws it away and sees the Beacon floating near into space. He shoots the Kinesis to the Beacon and catches it in time. It comes back to him and he grabs it before a Lurker comes in to attack him and he dodges it. He runs back to the asteroid, jumps on it, stands on the top, and plants the Beacon in it. After he was done, he looks back at the two Necromorphs, readies his Line Gun and fires.
Back with Eddy and Edd, the Eds are still having problems with the Leapers as they kept coming with no avail. Eddy then jumps through Zero G back down with Edd as he kept firing at them. Edd dodges a Leaper's fatal tail strike and fires again until it dies. Eddy finishes it off with his Ripper as the blade starts cutting every Leaper apart. Blood spreads everywhere onto their engineer suits as Eddy almost cracked a sinister smile from this bloodshed of Necromorphs. After Eddy was done, he pants heavily from the aftermath of those Leapers being cut up by the Ripper. He is soon contacted by Ed and Isaac.
*Audio Transmission: Clarke, Isaac*
*McGee! You guys all right?*
"We're good, Clarke. Had some trouble, but we're fine now." Eddy replied.
*Alright, then. You got the tethers?*
"Yep. Same with you?"
*Yeah. We'll meet you down there in about a minute.*
*Audio Transmission End*
Later, they regroup and head back to the elevator. When they arrived back, they see flames coming through the exhaustion tubes. Now this was going to be a bigger challenge then the gyrators.
"Got another idea, Double D?" Eddy asked.
"Well, yes. It's obviously the same thing with the gyrators. Wait for the moment, it stops, then wait for it come back, then let it stop, then you'll finally go through." Edd stated.
"Hm. That will work. But we're gonna have to take this power box out first if we want to to head to the Mining Control Room." Isaac mused.
"Good point, Mr. Clarke."
"Hey, Lumpy, take that thing out and plug it back where it was." Eddy ordered.
"Sure am, Eddy!" Ed replied.
Ed then puts his hands on the power box and pulls it out, turning off the elevator to the Mining Bay. The flames burst out again through the tube, and when it died down, Eddy is the first to run first and dodge the flames. Edd goes next and goes through before the flames could come back again. Then, Ed and Isaac run to the rest and pass through the fire before it could get to them. They walk out, but unfortunately, they see more flames along their way.
Minutes passed and they all make it through. Walking inside the Extraction Room, Ed plugs in the power box and the cargo lift turns on. The group soon arrives at the door to the Control Room. Isaac takes the Mining Access Key out and uses it to unlocked the door. The party walks inside and see more corpses of the engineers. They ignore the sight of it and moved forward to the monitor. Isaac launches the asteroid and it now flies into the depths of space. The Eds and Isaac smile under their masks and Kendra contacts them.
*Video Transmission: Daniels, Kendra*
*Beacon's on its way. All functions normal, and broadcasting wide band. Good work, guys.*
"Thanks, Kendra." Isaac replied.
"Now all we have to do is hope somebody's listening." Eddy implied.
*Hm. Okay, right now, I'll position the Array Receiver...*
"You okay, Kendra? You look like you saw a ghost." Isaac implied.
*Well... I thought I saw my brother again. He waved at me, like nothing was wrong.*
"It's probably just nothing, Kendra."
*Maybe... Okay, I should be able to leave this channel open...* then Kendra checks on the monitor, *Hang on... What?!*
"What is it?"
*The Comms Array Receiver isn't responding. Guys, can you get back to the Bridge? We need that array online or we can't receive signals from anyone responding to the Beacon!*
"Shit. Will do, Kendra."
*Video Transmission End*
With that, the group walks to the door, but they were cut off as the door locked itself due to the quarantine activating.
"Ah, shit! Here we go again!" Isaac groaned.
"Yeah, and I'm the one that complains." Eddy muttered.
"I heard that, McGee."
"You're supposed to hear it, buddy!"
"Gentlemen, now's not the time to be arguing. Now's the time for fighting for survival." Edd mused loudly.
Then a vent busted open and out came an Enhanced Slasher. Ed, without thinking, goes charging right at it and tackles it down. While he fights the Necromorph, three more started showing up, and one of them was also an Enhanced Slasher. With Ed, as he holds the blades down and the Slasher tires to bite his neck, Ed stands up, puts his foot on the chest, and pulls the arms out right out of its socket. Blood bursts out like a stream and Ed finishes it off by slicing its head off with both scythes. With Isaac, he battles with a normal Slasher as it goes for a left swing and Isaac dodges it. He then hits a right haymaker to its head, knocking it off completely. As it starts swinging its blades around, Isaac moves away from it as it continues swinging blindly.
With Edd, he gets cornered by the Enhanced Slasher as it readies to kill. It lifts the blades up, swings right down at Edd, and he quickly dodges it and slides under the Slasher as he aims and fires... but hears clicks and finds out he was out of Pulse Rounds. Now he was in trouble as the Enhanced Slasher turns around and readies its scythes again. Edd covers himself to as it swings down the blades, but only to blocked by another. Edd looks back to see Ed has saved him as he struggles with the Slasher.
"I've lost my best friend once already... I am not going to lose him again!" Ed shouted with pride as the Slasher screeches at him.
Then Ed pushes the Slasher away and stabs the blade right through the chest of it. Ed finishes it off with a slice to the arms and legs and throws the body away. With Eddy, he got stuck with his Slasher for a while and then Isaac gets him out of the way as the headless Slasher gets its kin and starts stabbing it to death. Clarke then kills off the headless Slasher and the quarantine soon lifts. The party leaves the Control room and head back to the cargo lift. They arrive in the Extraction Room and before they leave, Isaac sees an audio log and goes to it. He plays and hears a message from passenger as he states of what went down on the ship. It wasn't much info, though, but it helps, at least.
*Playback Audio Log*
*Processing Log: Supervisor 2nd Engineer Dallas reporting. This will be my last report. I've seen what they do... to the bodies. What they become. I can't let that happen to me. At least if I don't have any limbs, I won't be able to kill anyone while I'm infected. Please, tell Dawn... and the kids... that I love them.*
Then a gun blast sound came from the log along with groans of pain.
*Oh, God...!*
The another shot is made as Dallas was close to shouting in pain.
*One more... one more...*
And the final gunshot was made before the log ended. Isaac shook his head in shock from hearing that message. The Eds called him and he follows. Minutes after passing through the flames and heading back to Preparation Sub Deck, the group walks their way to the tram, but Isaac notices something different. He remembers an security guard's dead body next to the elevator doors, and he looks back and sees it's gone.
"Um, guys?" Isaac called.
"Yeah?" the Eds replied.
"Don't you notice something's off here?"
"What?" Eddy asked.
"The body of the security guard... he's gone."
"What?! How can he be gone...?"
Eddy stopped as he heard snarling noises coming from behind Isaac and he looks back to see the Slasher.
"Oh, shit." Isaac said in surprise.
Then it roars and Isaac falls back to his comrades. Eddy notices something different about this Necromorph; it only had one arm.
"Um, Isaac?" Eddy called.
"Yeah?" Isaac replied.
"I think we just found him."
"No shit. When'd you figure that out, Einstein?"
"Hey, uncalled for, man! At least I'm not the one that suggested to put him outside the elevator."
"Hey, excuse me for trying to get your asses safe!"
"Um, guys?" Edd called.
"Not now, Sock-head. Isaac, maybe if you were smarter, you wouldn't have put the guy outside the elevator so more Necromorphs can eat him and turn him into one of them."
"What does that have to do with anything, man?"
"Gentlemen?" Edd called again.
"What?!" Eddy and Isaac shouted.
Ed only rolled his eyes and kills the Slasher. Isaac and Eddy blinked twice from that as Ed already leaves for the tram. Edd follows as Eddy and Isaac kept their mouths shut for the rest of the walk. The Eds walk in first and before Isaac could walk in...
"Search and rescue..."
Clarke turned around as he heard that whispering voice. He comes back into reality and walks inside the tram. Isaac sets the tram to the Bridge, the door closes, and the tram starts moving. The Eds and Isaac sat down at their seats, exhausted from the many battles and ambushes of Necromorphs.
'Not sure how long I'll keep going... but I will keep fighting until I find you again, Nicole. I swear to you...' Isaac thought.
Isaac could be wrong... or he could be right. As of now there is still no sign of Hammond, Kendra still stays in the computer room, and both Isaac and the Eds had to suffer through all of this madness...
Well, that seems to be done. Nicole is found out to be alive all this time... I think. Looks like Isaac and the Eds are gonna have to go through hell again as they travel back to the Bridge where they last met Hammond in the flesh. From Kendra's point of view, it could mean Hammond's probably dead. Well, hope you've enjoyed this chapter, guys.
Chapter 11: Calling for Help
Until then, later! :D
RIG Status:
• Isaac Clarke: Alive
• Edward James: Alive
• Eddward Remington: Alive
• Eddy McGee: Alive
• Kendra Daniels: Alive
• Zach Hammond: ?
• Nicole Brennan: ?