Chapter 9

(Warning: Another fairly long-ass chapter ahead. The trip down Memory Lane must be a lengthy one.)

Isaac and Alex gazed upon the name "USG ISHIMURA" painted just above the entrance to the Planet-Cracking ship. Neither man wanted to take another step, but they knew doing otherwise would result in nothing but delaying the inevitable. Isaac sighed and began walking forward, contacting his friend back aboard the tram to say, "Ellie, we're in. There should still be a computer in the Flight Lounge. I can check the ship's status from there."

His voice was incredibly shaking and faltered a few times when he spoke, which prompted Ellie to ask, "Are you OK? You sound a little nervous."

Isaac commented, "Last time I was here, things didn't go so well, for me or for Alex. Look, I'll contact you soon."

He took a deep breath, and then another, and then one more before continuing to the door. Walking in, Isaac briefly looked around and found an unlocked locker, taking what was inside and also took his mind off of the fact he was back in the nightmare he tried his best to get away from. As he looted the contents, he asked Alex, "This as bad for you as it is for me?"

Alex slightly nervously nodded- even though he feared no man and very few monsters, there was nothing he could do about blocking out the memories of all the terrible incidents he sustained aboard the mining vessel. His mind raced back to the events that occurred three years ago and sometime before- being stuck in a cell like some lab-rat, like Elizabeth Greene, where the precursor to the Blacklight virus was formed inside. Or when he finally broke free of his earthen prison beneath Aegis VII, then slaughtering colonists until he inadvertently entered a shuttle bound for the ship that he knew entered of his mostly-free will.

He hated the feeling of fear- Alex Mercer had once laughed at his own impending demise when James Heller stopped his plans and was about to kill him, but as for what the Ishimura currently did to his mind... that was something else altogether. Alex simply shuddered and kept going, hoping their time aboard the ship would be finished as soon as possible. He walked through the next door and into the Flight Lounge proper, which brought up more bad memories for Isaac than it did for Mercer.

The engineer looked around the room, incredulous that everything could look so different from what he remembered. Even more plastic sheeting and hastily-placed red tape covered large patches of the walls and pretended that the chemical scent in the air and recently washed floors could remove the feeling of death and misery burned into Isaac's mind.

"This was where the madness really started for me", he commented. "I was going to check on the status of the ship when the lights turned off. Slashers burst through the vents for the first time and killed two of our crew mates before Hammond, Kendra and I managed to get away."

He looked over at one of the big doors, lazily barred off with crates and other junk before turning his attention to another door. Isaac said, "In there is the computer I need."

Before he went in though, curiosity outweighed his ability to reason and he began removing the objects blocking the big door before going through. He walked down the hallway and found a text log which humorously detailed someone intentionally clogging the ship's toilets with entire rolls of the white wiping sheets. It was a little joke that made Isaac slightly calmer, though he still eyed the bathroom door with a degree of suspicion.

Regardless, he went inside, finding a power node box for his bravado and a small heart-attack when the lights turned off and a vent blew steam, which somehow knocked a ladder over. Going into the other little area, Isaac thought he heard more whispering of his name and the sounds of Necromorphs in the background. There was an audio log on the ground which came from one of the workers cleaning up the bathrooms. Apparently the noises were not just Isaac's imagination, or just his at play, because the worker heard a noise actually following him, though it was scratching and not his name over and over.

The worker ended with declaring the Ishimura cursed and mentioned trying to get a transfer in order, adding that the person the log was directed to should get a transfer as well. Isaac muttered to himself and told Alex, "I bet you anything there are still a lot of Necromorphs in this damned place."

Alex explained, "All of the Necromorph tissue turned to this organic sludge when the Marker was destroyed. I imagine some of it's still around here in the tightest nooks and crannies to get to... and with the new Markers over in the Government Sector, it's likely they reactivated the virus."

He added, "And with fresh Necromorphs also likely coming in... yeah, you're right- this hellhole ain't any safer than before."

They walked out of the bathroom with their weapons raised before Isaac turned to him and asked, "Are you sure you don't need to go? You didn't use the bathroom the last time either."

They looked at each other for a long time until they started laughing hysterically, doing their best to ignore the underlying feeling of dread pervading their souls. Once the laughter lessened, the duo entered the other room within the Flight Lounge for Isaac to use the computer. They received the diagnostic report of, "Gravity and Life Support Systems on reserve power. Primary systems offline. Main centrifuge offline for repairs."

Isaac turned on his RIGlink and muttered, "Damn it, that's what I thought."

Ellie asked, "What?', to which Isaac explained, "The gravity centrifuge is under repair. I'm going to have to go down to Engineering. This should be interesting."

Ellie wondered, "Is it safe?", which made Isaac respond, "I don't know how it could be. I'll let you know."

He turned around and looked at the door behind himself and Alex with increasing contempt- when Isaac was first attacked by Necromorphs, he ran through the hallway to the elevator and nearly had his life end right then and there. The engineer simply hoped that he would not have to do it again. He calmly walked through the corridors with Alex, slightly happy that he had a friend this time to keep him safe. Unfortunately for him, the time was right for Nicole to contact him again, whispering painful things without even being there to assault him in "person."

"You can pretend to not be bothered", she taunted, "but being here rattles you, doesn't it Isaac? All this plastic and tape covering the scars- trying to hide the blood and the bodies so no one will ever know. But you remember what happened- no matter how deeply you try to bury it."

Isaac reached the door to the elevator and took a deep breath, hoping for dear life that there was nothing behind him that wanted to kill him. He turned around to see Alex still standing there, patiently waiting for the elevator to arrive like his friend was. It gave him another reason to breath and lessened the tension in his muscles just a little bit. The elevator finally opened up and brought the duo downwards to another painful memory for the engineer.

They entered a large room with a section of it raised slightly, with metal slits that revealed the rest of the area to the other portion. Isaac smashed a few boxes but could not take his gaze off the panel that served as his first lesson aboard the Ishimura. He walked up to it and read the words plain as day, even though they were quite faint to Alex- "Cut Off Their Limbs."

Isaac looked down at the table in front of it and said, "This is where I first got my Plasma Cutter."

He pulled out the weapon and inspected it. Although it was refurbished from the older model the Ishimura still stored aboard the ship, the improvised implement of war served as both an adequate way to kill Necromorphs and as an important memento from his time aboard the hellhole. Isaac put it back into his inventory and stepped back down to the main platform, making his way over to the Workbench and saying, "This however is new."

With a grand total of nine power nodes to spend, Isaac looked at his Detonator to double-check it was fully upgraded, then switched over to his RIG for the heck of it. As skilled as he was in keeping himself away from certain death, there were always those few close calls he could not avoid, so Isaac immediately used up all of his power nodes to increase his physical damage and some of his health. Stepping back, his took a swing with his arm and felt the difference right away, satisfied at being able to give an unlucky Necromorph a good right hook.

He looked over at the door on his right and further commented, "That's where I first fought a Slasher. It'd pinned down this one guy and killed him before I could save him. I couldn't save anyone on this fucking ship."

Isaac looked back up to Alex and added, "You're the only person who managed to save anyone; all I did was run and hide... got locked up in a loony-bin for it too."

Alex crossed his arms and replied, "Oh, Hell no- don't you dare go all 'Survivor's Guilt' on me. You know as well as I do that how we survived was a damn miracle, and you getting sent to the asylum was because of the Marker fucking with your head."

He finished, "Get a grip, Isaac. We sure as Hell aren't done with today."

Isaac sighed and took another breath, nodding. He and Alex went through the door and down one hallway after the other. They briefly stopped when a plastic can rolled just a bit forward in their view, but when the duo ran over to check, there was no on there.

As they slowly walked through the room, a monitor there played nothing but static to them... or so they thought. Isaac swore he heard a voice speaking through the muffled noise, yet felt it was not one of his hallucinations. Even Alex admitted he thought there was something more to it, so Isaac fiddled with the machine and managed to get lots of the static to go away.

The voice became clear enough to understand; it was of a man complaining, "I can't sleep. I can't eat. Ever since we got here, I've been having nightmares. I need it to stop! Please make it stop!"

Another voice took over and said, "Flight Control, this is flight I-S-H-one-five-one. Requesting permission to land", then a different voice answered that, "This is Flight Control. Welcome back. Your shuttle has been authorized to land. Did you get it? Are the rumors true?"

The second voice replied, "Roger, we have the payload and it is glorious. Altman be praised."

Then the third voice stated, "Roger that. I am notifying Captain Mathius and sending out a team to retrieve the payload."

Isaac and Alex looked at each other and realized it was just a recording, but also a recording of the events that lead to the start of the madness. They listened in a little more and heard another conversation play out. The new voice said, "We're getting conflicting reports from the colony. Can you say again?"

The other voice replied, "Over a hundred dead on the colony. Most from violent crimes, suicides."

Shuddering, the first new voice wondered, "God, what's happening down there?"

The second new voice replied, "I don't know. I was just glad to get the Hell out of there. It was like they're all going crazy down there."

That was the last thing Isaac and Alex could decipher of the static-strewn chatter, so they left through another door to a long corridor that went left to right. They took the left since the right was not as appealing, only to watch a light blow out and even more whispering filled Isaac's ears. Unfortunately for them, the corridor ended with a locked door and nothing but another audio log for their troubles.

It was made by the same person as the one from the bathroom, only this time things were much worse for him than just a nosy noise bothering him. He woke up in the middle of the night and thought he fell down a ramp, entire left side of his body bruised and his leg swollen. To top it all off, he thought he heard noises near his locker, and soon gave up on his job with the Ishimura and vowed to never return.

With nothing more to interest them on that side, Isaac and Alex went back to the right half of the hallway and down a path to another corridor. They went through with no issues and made it into one more pathway, just like the big circular path they walked in before. More whispering made Isaac uncomfortable and wonder if he would ever leave the Ishimura behind for good. As they walked into a very large walkway with the ceiling above them leading to nothing but pure darkness, Isaac decided the answer was a "no."

As they walked along the ground, Isaac spotted a mine near a bunch of stacked metal boxes and went to pick it up. He immediately regretted his decision as a Brute burst from the ground and knocked him over. Alex jumped over to pick Isaac up and jumped again before the Brute could swing one of its' big fists at them.

Squat and ape-like, the Brute nonetheless stood much higher than Alex or Isaac, and it readied another fist to smash the two men with. Alex got Isaac to his feet and took the beast's attention off of his friend, smacking in the face before it got a single punch in. He ran backwards and kept the creature too preoccupied on himself for it to retaliate as Isaac fired plasma bolt after plasma bolt into its' hind legs.

Eventually both legs were severed and forced the Brute to stay still. It lumbered around a bit before finding a stationary position to remain in, then began its' secondary phase of attack. Rearing upwards and revealing an expanding cavity in its' chest, the Brute fired large explosive pustules at Isaac, which he easily caught with his Kinesis module and fired them right back at the Necromorph. Soon the creature died after, leaving behind nothing but a mere Stasis pack for their efforts.

Isaac grumbled at his meager prize and continued onwards through the dark and seemingly endless passage. He and Alex picked up useful supplies along the way, such as another Stasis pack that made the one that the engineer received even more worthless. As they walked forward and Isaac grabbed a Stasis canister at the ready, they saw there was another Brute barreling down the passage, knocking over lights and things along the way.

Isaac launched the canister and slowed the monster in place, using the time that it bought to lay down several mines, which severely weakened the Brute when it came out of its' delayed state. The explosive canisters stuck to the ground proved to be too much for the beast, felling it as the last bomb blew up. This time it dropped something highly valuable- a golden semiconductor, which Isaac immediately took.

As the duo walked forward, Ellie came online to explain, "Isaac! Isaac, they're swarming into the ship!"

An Enhanced Slasher sprinting towards them made Isaac quickly shout, "YEAH I KNOW! I'll call you back!", and ready his Plasma Cutter. He blew off one arm and then allowed Alex to finish the beast off, taking that severed blade and slashing the monster in half. As he Consumed it, he noticed they were about to be ganged up on both sides by even more Slashers, some Enhanced while others not, and summoned one Claw and a Bio-Bomb to keep them at bay.

Isaac and Alex were back-to-back as the former fired his explosives and tore into anything that got too close while the latter mowed everything down with his Pulse Rifle. As they cleared the battlefield, slowly taking down the endless hordes of horrors hunting them, both men could not help but feel like it was just like old times again. Eventually it was finished and every Necromorph lay dead, their remains becoming the fuel for Alex's depleted powers.

They looted everything from the corpses and continued ahead, stopping at one point for Isaac to point out, "I think this is where I first got my Stasis unit. Huh."

Continuing forward, both men watched as various items from a platform above them were knocked to the ground, though they could not determine what creature(s) did the deed. Isaac then noticed a power node box at the far end of the tunnel and took the node inside, then returned to an open elevator which would take them upward to that level where the junk was tossed. He went over to a control box and fiddled with it, turning the elevator online.

Speaking of things online, Isaac decided now was a good a time as any to contact his friend and give her an update. He said, "OK, no Ellie, it isn't safe. But we're on our way to the centrifuge."

Ellie told him, "Just be careful", and Isaac simply responded, "I'll call you when it's online."

Up on the second level, Isaac and Alex searched the area for anything they could use before entering the door to another part of the Engineering Deck. To emphasize this and the sorry state the Ishimura was still in, a computerized voice stated, "Warning: The Engineering Deck has not completed final cleanup and decontamination."

Isaac and Alex walked into another large room and soon realized where they were. It was the location that lead into several important parts of the Engineering Deck, such as the Chemical Research Lab and other places. For lesser reasons, it also served as the area in which both men encountered the madman and Alex's alleged descendant- one Dr. Challus Mercer. Alex briefly teamed up with the insane man in order to regain most of his powers, but ultimately let others get their revenge on the man for the crimes that he committed against everyone.

They turned to their right and found an updated Store there, fully fitted-out like the ones on Titan Station were. Alex could not figure out why that bothered him until he asked his friend, "Wasn't the Ishimura supposed to be decommissioned just last year?"

Isaac blinked and realized as well, "Wait, you're right! Why the Hell would they... do you have any ideas?"

Alex thought about it and guessed, "Well, there have been a bunch of layoffs since the Ishimura's so-called 'terrorist attack.' If I had to guess, the CEC is making up for that by refitting the Ishimura and updating it for continued service... not that their plan would even work."

He explained, "For one thing- it's a stupid idea to begin with. As for the other thing...", and then gestured around the room. Alex finished, "That stigma isn't going away anytime soon, and the Necromorph infestation annihilating Titan Station is just icing on this whole catastrophe cake."

Isaac nodded, then went over to the Store and sold what he could, though with everything he wanted fully upgraded at the moment, he saw no reason to purchase any power nodes. With that done, he and Alex went over to an elevator on their left to go down. In the meanwhile, they found another audio log that confirmed Alex's story to Isaac, not that the engineer needed anything else to believe his friend. The log simply explained what they already knew and guessed at- the sludge inside the Ishimura was made from human DNA and reanimated near the presence of a Marker signal.

The elevator opened and allowed both men to leave, leading them into the area right outside the Decontamination Room. Isaac had gone through the place twice before, irately noting that the chemical spray did nothing against the Necromorphs that attacked him. As always, the cycle had to complete itself before allowing anyone to leave through the other door, and so Isaac impatiently waited for the process to finish, watching as the windows were barred by metal frames and the cleansing spray filled the room.

Immediately things grew tense as a loud banging noise preceded the arrival of an Enhanced Puker, lumbering right outside the barred window to the other corridor. It then broke through a vent on the other side of the corridor and left, though it did not return to attack either of the men. Soon the process completed and let them leave, going through the other door, into the corridor, and then to another door leading into another part of the Engineering Deck.

It lead them into yet another very long corridor, with a Puker ready to attack from afar on their right. Isaac caught the glob of gunk it launched at them and sent it back to the sender, killing it immediately. At that point a legless Stalker and a Lurker made their way from the left side to attack; Isaac used Stasis on the first monster and stomped it to death while Alex went after the latter creature.

Up ahead was an Enhanced Slasher and a Pregnant coming after them, so Alex tore both limbs from the former and plunged them into the monster before taking them out and plunging them into the creature up ahead. That would have been a fool's error for anyone else, as the Swarmers were released and crawled all over Alex, but he just released his own Biomass and Consumed everything instead. As he and Isaac reached the end of the corridor, they saw the Corruption that ran through the Ishimura once before, now growing exponentially once again.

They were interrupted by another Slasher and legless Stalker, though neither were much of a match for the deadly duo they came for. Eventually an Enhanced Puker came over to kill them, though they did not know if it was the one they saw earlier. Even if it was, that made no difference in how quickly it was killed- the same tactic used by the lesser brethren still worked worked wonders against the so-called "superior" variant.

Even after all of that, there was still one last legless Stalker that tried desperately to kill them. Alex just kicked the thing away while Isaac aimed a free bone blade at it, impaling the creature while it was in the air. They chuckled as it became stuck to the wall, giving the two men another much-needed moment of mirth.

Both men thought it was over, but another Slasher proved them wrong. Their humor waned as irritation inflamed in its' place, and Alex wasted no time in smashing the creature into a wall and Consuming it instantly. Isaac watched until he heard the cry of a Lurker behind him, then ducked behind a box to avoid getting a bone projectile in his back. He leaned over and fired several plasma bolts into the Lurker's tentacles, which killed it afterwards.

Both men stood back-to-back again and prepared to fight anything else foolish enough to mess with two pissed-off men. Alex even shouted, "Anyone else wanna tangle with us!? We'll fuck you up good!"

When nothing responded, Alex relaxed his Biomass and said, "OK, I think we're clear."

Isaac nodded and followed his friend to the end of the right half of the corridor... only to be met with another Pregnant waiting for them behind a wall. Alex roared and smashed the creature into the wall, tearing it apart and Consuming every little bit of it until there was nothing left but the indication that a monster stood there before. Once Alex finished punching, all that was left were a few dents in the wall.

He did not even acknowledge the Lurker nearby that fired a few quills into his side, simply Consuming that and patching up the unwarranted holes with Biomass. Alex turned around and grabbed the creature by the neck, smashing it into the wall repeatedly until once again there was nothing left. He Consumed everything- even the blood- and took a very loud, very angry sigh to try calming himself.

A legless Puker made him lose it again and tackled the creature, tearing it into little pieces and tossing them aside. Isaac inched his way to his ferocious friend, wary that he might accidentally cause the living virus to flip out on him too. Once Alex was done venting his frustration, he took another deep breath and eyed the room, waiting for anything else that wanted to test his temper.

Another two Slashers took him up on his offer and did not even live long enough to regret it- Alex summoned his Blade and swung downwards, slicing the first monster completely clean in half and swinging his weapon around, cutting the other creature sideways. Once that was over, Alex asked Isaac in an overly-calm voice, "Would you excuse me for a minute?"

Isaac nodded and let the man go back into another room from where they came. It was quiet for a few moments until Alex shouted at the top of his lungs, "WHERE-THE-FUCK-ARE-THEY-COMING-FROM!? I'LL BLOW UP THIS GODDAMNED SHIP AND EVERYTHING IN IT IF I HAVE TO! AAARRRGGHH!"

Alex walked back to where Isaac stood- deathly afraid- and heard his friend say, "I'm better now. Let's keep going."

They walked away to the next door, Isaac walking backwards because he was quite wary of anything else coming to attack them. When they went through the door and into a Zero-G environment, Isaac realized they had finally reached the Gravity Centrifuge. He got to work on fixing the device as Alex smashed every single crate floating around the room and took out every Necromorph that appeared.

The main problem with the centrifuge was that most of the pieces enabling it to function were disconnected from their spots. Isaac gathered up the lost sections and then followed the pipe part each one had. Correctly matching them with the missing spots on the main piece of machinery sticking out, it began to rotate and allowed Isaac to activate it on a console upon the upper level he and Alex started out on.

Once he waited for his friend and turned it on, the Zero-G turned off and dropped everything floating around. Meanwhile, the activation raised the railings and made the high-rising machine piece insert itself back into the rest of the centrifuge. Once it fitted back into place, the centrifuge fully turned on and spun around at an accelerating speed.

Isaac was satisfied with the results and left, going back through the doors they came through. But as soon as the engineer was about to take a step, a Drag Tentacle appeared from around the corner and wrapped itself around his leg. It literally swept Isaac off of his feet and began bashing him against the ground, knocking the daylights out of him. Alex called out, "Isaac. Isaac! ISAAC!", but it was too late as the engineer was dragged away to his doom-

"Isaac!", Alex shouted again, smacking his friend upside the head. Isaac blinked and wondered what was going on. He looked down at his feet and realized he was still standing in place, not in any danger like he imagined... or at least any immediate danger. The Ishimura was still quite a deathtrap, just not right then.

Alex asked him, "Are you with me again? You started freaking out for no reason."

Isaac just shook his head, wincing when he realized just how painful Alex hit him in the back of his head, and then explained, "Other than you nearly knocking my head clean off, I think so. Had another hallucination."

Alex commented, "We need to get you to a doctor or something. Or just get you away from the Markers. That might work too."

Isaac simply shrugged and kept moving with his friend. As they walked past the blood-soaked hole where Drag Tentacles normally came out of, the engineer shook his head and shuddered. He ignored the feeling of fear and contacted his friend to explain, "Ellie, we've got the centrifuge online. Alex and I are heading back towards the tram station."

Over the rising ravings of Stross in the background, Ellie replied, "OK, I've almost got us disconnected from the mag-rail. Keep me posted."

Isaac and Alex reached the Decontamination Room again, impatiently waiting again for the process to complete. The latter was surprised the chemicals being sprayed did not hurt him, making the former comment on just how ineffective they must have been. In the meanwhile, an Enhanced Slasher burst through a vent on the outside and fruitlessly banged on the barred window of the room, failing to get in. The creature simply gave up and went back into the vent it broke through, leaving just as the cleansing process went into the second phase.

During this phase, some of the Pack arrived and banged on the windows, getting no further than their big brother did. At least that was what Isaac and Alex assumed. The barred metal had raised from the windows during the second phase, making the glass a great deal more fragile. Apparently it was enough for the little monsters to get through, shattering the panes and alerting the duo inside to the imminent danger. They put up their weapons and killed the Pack as soon as they entered, taking the frail creatures down instantly.

Once the waves of the Pack dissipated, the Enhanced Slasher from before broke through a ceiling vent and tackled Alex before he kicked it off. Pulling out his Blade, he sliced the monster down the middle and Consumed the leftover pieces despite feeling his Biomass ripple in disgust. The chemicals in the air coated the cadavers and made all of the organics matter "taste funny", though Alex did not laugh.

Another Enhanced Slasher and two Enhanced Pukers appeared, making Alex whip out the Whipfist and bring one of them over to him so Isaac could handle the others. By using Stasis and his Plasma Cutter, Isaac managed to kill the two creatures while Alex bashed his solo enemy to death. Once it was over, the decontamination cycle completed and let both men leave.

As they left, Ellie contacted Isaac to tell him, "Isaac, Stross is starting to worry me, listen..."

She raised the speaker volume and kept quiet in order to capture what the man said to himself: "... I would never, I would never. But son, Daddy's not a murderer! I would never hurt you and Mommy."

Both Ellie and Stross tried to explain to the man that what he saw was not real, but the man asserted, "Yes he is! You just can't see him because you haven't taken the steps! The needle will make you see! Step three! Step three!"

Ellie hesitantly told him, "Stross, put down the screwdriver!", but he would not listen and so she shouted, "Argh!" in pain. Isaac called out, "Stross! Ellie?", but as the line went dead he finished, "Shit!"

Alex stated, "We need to keep moving, and fast!"

They ran over to the elevator and found an Enhanced Slasher playing dead, but Alex did not play around himself and stomped his foot through the creature's entire back to kill it. He tore the monster to pieces as Isaac called the elevator, then the both of them left as soon as it opened. They left and ran for the tram system, leading right into a fight with two more Enhanced Slashers and a few random Swarmers.

Isaac used some of the spare brooms around the area as improvised spears, finding them to be great substitutes. Alex personally fought a regular Slasher and even more of the Swarmers around the place, then both he and Isaac boarded the Ishimura's tram back to the tram with Ellie and the increasingly insane Stross.

Speaking of the lunatic, Ellie called to say, "Aw, Isaac... dammit that hurts. The bastard bit me."

Isaac incredulously asked, "What?", before going, "Oh shit", and then asking, "Are you OK?"

Ellie grumbled away the pain with, "Yeah I'm fine. But he's stopped talking, and won't look at me. How's it going on your end? And please tell me this plan is going to work!"

Isaac explained, "Alex and I are almost there. We're headed to the Bridge now to activate the gravity tethers."

Ellie replied, "Oh good. They're swarming through a hole in the Medical Deck. At least you two won't have to go through there."

Right on cue the tram stated, "Unexpected obstruction ahead. Shutting down. Welcome to the Medical Deck."

Isaac muttered, "Crap", as he and Alex turned around to face the Medical Deck. They found there was a lot of chemical fluid still on the floor. Isaac pointed out, "This is where I first got my Kinesis module. Some blind crazy lady handed it to me and died."

They watched as a barrel rolled in front of their eyes and Alex commented, "Isn't that lovely."

As for Isaac, Nicole made another guilt-inducing observation. "The Ishimura Medical Deck, Isaac. These were my last hours. Frightened, cold, alone. Well, go on Isaac. Don't be shy."

He and Alex walked forward a few meters, only for a piece of glass near them to shatter. They were both on edge again, knowing that renewed horrors awaited them, and things would likely be just as bad as last time. Walking down the blood-soaked corridor, the UV lighting made things more alien to them, as it made them realize the nightmares sustained on the ship would never truly go away, no matter how many chemicals, literal and metaphorical red tape went into cleaning up a grand mistake.

The first monsters to greet them were a legless Puker and a Lurker performing its' namesake behind a few cans. Isaac grabbed the explosive projectile and lobbed it at the Lurker, killing that before he went over to the other Necromorph. As for the Enhanced Slasher charging out of nowhere, Alex summoned his Claws and tore the monster in half.

Something somewhat new occurred happened right after- a female Slasher came over and lobbed an explosive piece of gunk at them, but it was nothing special for Isaac. He killed it just the same as the Puker and moved forward, anxious to get out of there as soon as possible. However the trip down Memory Lane continued as the route they took lead them into the Cryogenic Chamber where they temporarily put the Hunter on ice.

Thankfully that creature was long dead; when Isaac was under the impression that Alex was his enemy, he put both him and the Hunter in Stasis behind the exhaust of the shuttle he used to leave. That burned them both to a blackened crisp and seemingly for dead, though an unwilling victim provided by Dr. Mercer not long after proved that idea to be incorrect.

To the duo's fortune, they did not need to deal with anything like that- just a few Exploders and Enhanced Slashers. After the skirmish finished, Isaac found he needed to put his hacking skills to use again- the door through the area was still locked and had a control box next to it. Isaac cracked his knuckles and quickly got the door open so they could leave.

They were briefly stopped by the sudden arrival of an Enhanced Slasher, Puker, and a few more Necromorphs afterwards, though none were able to stop their targets from advancing. Through the next hallway they went, looting lockers along the way until they reached a big room with a few monitors to the side. Alex went around to retrieve everything of interest though something felt "off" to him. He turned and suddenly realized Isaac was in the middle of another hallucination, staring at the monitors and not moving.

Alex sighed and decided a more direct approach compared to last time was in order. He walked over to his friend and switched to his Musclemass power, hoisting Isaac into the air and carrying him out of the room. The living virus had no idea what horrid thing the man was seeing, but Alex thought moving him away was for the best.

He briefly stopped to take a free power node and hurried out of the area once he heard sounds banging throughout the vents. Once he and Isaac were out of the room, his friend blinked and shouted, "Ah- wait, what? What happened to me? And why the Hell are you carrying me like a rolled up rug?"

Alex set his friend down and explained the situation, commenting, "If this is going to be a common occurrence, you might want to forget about destroying the Marker all by yourself. We can just blow it up with a missile or something- I have resources; I'll do it."

Isaac stood his ground- literally and metaphorically- and asserted, "No way. I'm the reason there's an infestation ruining Titan Station- I'll take care of it."

Alex stared at him blankly. "You really need to cut the whole 'heroic' crap out already... it's going to get you killed."

Isaac walked to their next destination and replied, "Not if I can help it."

They found an open elevator and took it up to the Chemical Research Lab. A few odd pieces of junk blocked their path as a Necromorph knocked a few more things out of its' way to reach a vent, getting out of view before either man could see what it was. For all they knew, it was another regenerator monster out to get them. Once they got through and to the other door, they found themselves in the Stasis Surgery room, the one where part of the massive machine doubled as a platform needed to move ahead.

A Lurker greeted them when they walked past a wall, though one broom handle later knocked the creature away and into the wall. Moving the Stasis machine back in place so they could continue, an Enhanced Leaper decided to appear and attacked. It died from the thin end of a long, wrench-like tool, fixing the problem with even more "percussive maintenance."

Taking the open elevator downwards to the main level, Isaac tore off a blade arm from one of the monsters and prepared to use it on anything that got too close to him. As for the Slasher down there, it was foolish enough to sprint right into the malfunctioning Stasis machine that constantly spat lightning, killing it. They tried to figure out how to turn off the machine before more immediate concerns made themselves known.

When they got down there, another Enhanced Leaper burst from a vent and soon met with the humiliating fate Isaac gave many of its' predecessors beforehand- a broom to the chest. Another one appeared and received the same treatment, pinned to the wall like "Pin-the-tail-of-one-Leaper-to-another-Leaper-on-the-wall." Admittedly that was a very long name for a game, but it one Isaac could play all day.

He and Alex checked a side room for loot before going back to the malfunctioning machine and taking another look. Isaac traced the power source of the device back to a battery in the wall, which he promptly took out. With the machine off, the duo could go and get to the other side without being electrocuted. However that was when four more Necromorphs showed up to ambush them.

It did not even matter though, not even the fact that some of them were Enhanced. With Alex's raw killing power and Isaac's skills, the two considered the endless hordes nothing more than nuisances. That did not mean they slacked off- each threat was taken very seriously and taken down immediately.

Once everything was dead again, Isaac opened up a power-locked door on the other side of the room and took everything inside. Although the "Swarmers-hiding-in-a-box" trick was old the first time it happened three years ago, and Isaac found himself no less unamused that time than he did this time. And what Nicole had to say to him this time was also no less amusing than last time.

"You never did find my body, never said goodbye", she noted. "Was I just stacked up in the Morgue with the others? Another random casualty? Or did they turn me into one of them? Wearing my bloodied face, stalking the halls looking for more victims..."

Isaac shut out Nicole as best he could, though he secretly knew it was a losing battle. He walked into the main area of the Medical Deck where so much happened- his and Alex's very first interaction with Dr. Mercer, hearing his mad ramblings about how the human race was over and the Necromorph "species" would inherit the Earth. It was all drivel, and yet something similar to what Alex preached in ages past. Knowing that his words were repeated by not just one lunatic, but by an entire "religion" insulted him.

Isaac went over to the nearby Store and sold off nearly everything he had again. It amounted to quite a large sum of credits, and yet he still had no reason to spend any of it until the Javelin Gun caught his eye. With all of the leftover money he could use on just more power nodes, it was not out of the question for him to use the tactic he relied on in a more "official" way. Isaac kept up this line of thinking until he realized he just liked to impale monsters and completed the purchase, buying up nodes with the rest of his cash.

Gaining a whooping 18 power nodes but no Workbench to apply them, Isaac just remained content with his current arsenal for the time being and headed out with Alex to the tram station. However there was no tram... or gravity. Isaac immediately felt the lack of weight on his suit, deciding that it was always... uplifting. He could certainly use the fun with all the madness he has dealt with just on the Ishimura alone, so he smiled under his helmet and jumped into the air, flying around with a care in the universe.

Just to remind him that happiness did not last forever, Nicole briefly commented, "The barrier between us is wearing thin, Isaac. Behind every tarp... a memory. Behind every door of the passage of time from my life to when I died."

Isaac angrily sighed and told her, "You're not going to break me."

Nicole replied, "Why do you keep insisting these unpleasant memories are somehow myfault? This isn't about the Marker, Isaac. This is about you."

The engineer shook his head again and flew off towards the next door, blasting away a few Lurkers in the area. Flying over a fallen tram car and picking up everything of value floating around, Isaac attacked a few more of the little monsters until they were gone. Eventually he reached the door to the Bridge and walked in with Alex. Now it was his turn to feel anxious about being there- for reasons he would explain to Isaac in a few moments, it was to him what the Flight Lounge and Medical Deck were for the engineer: the beginning of his pain.

However that did not mean Isaac himself had gotten a free pass- as soon as he walked near a window, the arm of a Brute appeared and made him shout, "Aah!"

Once again it proved to be nothing more than a mere hallucination created by the Marker and his own warped mind. Alex looked at him but did not ask what the dementia did to him, and instead merely moved along. Once they entered the Bridge proper, all of the boxes in the area told them it was going to be a different fight than last time. As they moved a little forward, a Leaper clambered up the railing near them to attack.

After that a few Swarmers appeared to disorient them as a Stalker moved in to finish the job. Unfortunately the tactics of the reanimated dead could only be planned out so far; Isaac blew everything up with a bomb from his Pulse Rifle and then impaled the Stalker with another spare broom handle. He immediately switched to tactics of his own and went on the defensive, laying down mines against the boxes and making sure there was no way to get to his location without him hearing a satisfying "Boom!"

A Puker decided to be a smart alack and launched its' bile bomb from all the way on the other side of the Bridge. Even so, Isaac's reflexes were too good and he caught it, waiting for a different Necromorph to appear as the Puker and another monster just then blew up from walking into one of the mines. Another Puker appeared and fell apart right when it was within range of the putrid pustule.

Once the room was clear, although Isaac swore heard the cries of Crawlers in the distance, he walked around and found a Workbench to upgrade his Javelin Gun, along with an audio log. It actually had to do with the audio recording snippets Isaac and Alex heard a while back- the man speaking explained the audio data needed to be expunged as soon as possible to avoid the "official" story of the Ishimura crew's fate, and the real reason they were out near Aegis VII.

Once the recording was over, Isaac went over to the Workbench and put every single power node he had into the Javelin Gun, making it a worthy contender alongside his other weaponry. Walking back out of the room, Isaac grabbed another wrench-like tool with his Kinesis module and prepared to impale any Necromorphs that reared their ugly heads at him.

As he walked forward, he happened to notice Alex kept looking back at a certain spot, to the point where Isaac stopped to ask, "What's wrong?"

Alex briefly explained, "That window over there was where I first learned I wasn't on Earth anymore, or even in my own time."

All Isaac could say was, "Oh. What happened next?"

Alex looked down and continued, "I was brought to my knees because of the truth and I thought I wanted to die. A Brute happened to find me and granted my wish. I flew out into space and thought- hoped- that would be the end."

Isaac wondered about that. He eventually asked, "But you're still here. What made you change your mind?"

Alex replied, "I hadn't made a difference in the world yet."

With that, Isaac and Alex made it to the ramp leading down to the Captain's Nest and took the open elevator down to it. As they descended, Isaac contacted his friend with a video screen, updating her with, "Ellie? We're almost at the Captain's Nest to activate the tethers."

Ellie nodded and looked at the computer screen. "Alright. The centrifuge looks spooled to full power from here."

Isaac sighed and said, "Great. Let's hope this works", then immediately added, "It'll be tight, you ready?"

Ellie nodded again and replied, "All set. I'll wait for your signal."

When the video screen went away, Isaac and Alex walked into the Nest to press the button. Located to the left of the Captain's Chair, Isaac decided to let Alex have the honor. The living virus pretended to warm himself up before he grandly activated the tethers. Holding the button down as per the instructions appearing on the screen, Alex watched with Isaac as the railings moved into position, shaking the whole ship from the friction.

Ellie came online through another video screen to excitedly shout, "You two did it! Get back here! The tracks are moving!"

Isaac responded, "No, just go! We'll use one of the escape pods and meet up with you there! Now go!"

Although everyone appeared to be happy about their victory, those few directly opposed to their survival were naturally furious, and not merely because of the victory alone. Hans Tiedemann shouted, "Clarke! You idiot! Those gravity tethers will tear the whole moon apart! Cl..."

Isaac simply turned off his RIGlink and told Alex, "Time to go..."

They ran back into the room right before the Captain's Nest and nearly made it to one of the open escape pods before Isaac was forced into another hallucination. Nicole began with, "Where are you going, Isaac? Do you think-", but Alex was not having any of it and pulled Isaac through his hallucination, temporarily disrupting it in the process. Isaac immediately snapped out of it and sat in the seat with a cramped Alex right behind him.

The escape pod closed up and began configuring itself into the proper launch state. Once it counted down to zero, the pod blasted away from the Ishimura and roared through space, though of course no one could hear it. In the meanwhile, Isaac contacted Ellie again and said, "We're away! Ellie? Did you make it?"

She replied, "Isaac! We crossed the track... but we're coming in hot!"

Things proved to be far worse than that as Stross stated above the noise, "I just need you to see what I see, Ellie. I promise it won't hurt..."

Ellie told him, "Stross, put down the screwdriver!", as Isaac himself shouted, "Stross! No!"

Sadly neither he nor Alex got to hear the end of the confrontation as the RIGlink cut out right then. All the duo could do was wait for the escape pod to land and reach the Government Sector in one piece. Unfortunately they could not even hope to get that- the pod knocked into something and stated, "Proximity warning. Impact detected. Guidance system malfunction."

Isaac angrily sighed with, "Fuck", and as the computer continued, "All guidance systems offline", he went, "Oh shit!"

All he and Alex could do was follow the last bit of information the escape pod gave before they blew up- "Brace for impact."

They knocked into everything and soon everything went dark. Isaac tried to keep himself awake, but he seemingly went into a state of unconsciousness far deeper than his ragdoll reentry into the Cassini Towers. As the noises from the outside world lessened til he heard nothing left, the voice of Nicole- the real Nicole echoed in his mind. To counter this, the image of the fake Nicole appeared behind the Marker, looking down at her feet.

"Isaac, are you there? … You were right, Isaac! The Ishimura is a great ship! I am so lucky to be serving aboard her … You made me stick with it …"

Nicole then looked up at him and shouted, "YOU MADE ME DIE!"

Back to reality, Isaac woke up and realized he had survived the crash... somehow. He looked around for wherever Alex could have gone and soon saw the result- the living virus had switched to his Armor power and made a gouge in the metal floor with just his body. Isaac ran over to him and forcibly pulled the man out, hoping he was still awake.

Bringing him to his feet, Alex appeared to be still totally out of it, forcing Isaac to shake him a little to bring him back. It did not appear to work until Alex suddenly turned rigid, standing shakily on his own. He grabbed Isaac by the shoulders and hoisted him in the air, though not in the way that meant he was about to bring his friend to safety. Quite the opposite this time- Alex retracted his helmet and roared inhumanely at Isaac, making the engineer forced to headbutt him to get away.

Alex stumbled back as Isaac pulled out his Detonator Gun and defensively held it for dear life; fighting an angry virus was something he never thought that he would ever have to do again. The Blacklight virus stood up straight and continued growling at Isaac, yet something changed as his eyes flickered between bright orange, red, and pale blue. It took a few seconds for the last color to win out in the end, making the man stumble once more until he finally regained control over his own body.

Alex took a few breaths and looked around, wondering what happened. He then looked up to see an irate and yet afraid Isaac pointing his most powerful weapon at him. The living virus took a step back and raised his hands in submission, asking, "What just happened?"

Isaac slowly lowered his weapon to explain, making Alex sigh and then explain himself, "You're not the only one who's been fighting fucked up things. I was afflicted by the Marker too; everything got supercharged- my Consumption rate, my Biomass regeneration... and the number of voices in my head."

"I've been trying to fight it for the last three years", he continued, "but I don't know how long I have before it wins over. There has to be way- I know there is, but assuming I don't make it... I don't know of anything that could stop me."

Alex looked back up to Isaac and finished, "That's why I won't ask this next part voluntarily of you..."

Isaac raised his Detonator again but internally knew Alex would be too fast. He grabbed the man and began filling his engineering suit with Biomass, which made Isaac scream for just a few minutes... before he was cut off. Soon there was nothing but quiet.