Wow this took longer then i expected. Sorry all.

Funny, i had all these epic (In my mind at least) ideas when i started. But every time i opened word and started typing *Snaps fingers8 Mind went blank instantly . /sigh Oh well, it came out, well in my opinion...

I have a feeling this chapter isn't going to turn out well though. And before anyone says I'm pessimistic, look at the chapter number :P Hope it's a good read regardless :D

Dead Effect

Chapter Thirteen

A headache…A really nasty one at that was the first thing that Isaac felt as his eyes cracked open. A weak groan followed as his head shifted upwards slightly, his blurry vision trying, and failing to focus on the room around him. A moment later his body fell limp and his head struck the metal deck with a thud, causing him to groan again. If he didn't know any better, he'd say he had a hangover.

"What the hell hit me?" He muttered as a hand moved to the side of his helmet. For a moment he toyed with removing it and examining his skull, it wouldn't have surprised him in the least if his helmet wasn't the only thing sporting a dent at this point. Though survival instinct overrode the desire to remove a piece of his rig. After all, he didn't want to expose even an inch of skin to the necromorphs.

As his headache began to subside, very slightly at least. Memories of the last few minutes, or hours he didn't know, began to creep back into his mind. The crew member, the tentacles that knocked him out. Tali shouting his name before he blacked out…

Tali!

His head snapped up again, and he couldn't help but cringe as a dull ache formed in the back of his neck from the sudden movement. "Tali?" He whispered quietly, his voice horse from lack of use, and he noted his mouth was dry, how long had it been since he last ate, or drank anything? That wasn't important right now.

His newly restored vision carefully swept the room, though he noted with a tinge of panic that he couldn't see her anywhere. Had more of those things turned up? Had she abandoned him?

He didn't dwell on it for long, he had to get moving before the necromorphs did find him, and right now he was an easy meal for them.

Ignoring his headache, and the desire to just sleep off the pain, he forced himself up into a sitting position and spared another glance about the room he'd woken up in.

Several cabinets lined one wall, one or two had been opened and the contents tossed about, likely in someone's haste to find whatever they were looking for. While the others remained undisturbed.

Shifting his gaze downwards, he almost leapt back a inch when he spotted a figure sprawled out on the deck a few feet away. At first his mind assumed the worst. Though closer inspection revealed it wasn't the quarian, but one of the Ishimura's crew. That did little to calm his nerves, but at the same time he was, somewhat relieved to note it wasn't Tali. At least there was a chance she was still alive.

Finally, he summed up the energy to pull himself upright, thanks in no small part to the table he'd been placed next to. Both hands came to rest on the counter top as a rush of disorientation and nausea struck the engineer.

His hand seemed to develop a mind of its own and slid a few inches across the counter, where upon his fingers closed around a small device and tugged it closer. After a few seconds, he finally lifted his head and focused on what he'd found.

His helmet tilted slightly as he studied the disk, a video log. How'd this get here? His gaze briefly shifted to the corpse next to him, before shifting back to the disk. Tali might have left it to explain where she went…Or maybe it would just be a security tape like the last ones.

After a few moments of silent thought, he tapped in a command on the device and downloaded the recording to his rig, and in turn the holographic systems in his suit activated and played back the log.

Static was the first thing he saw. Though as the picture resolved he cringed as a loud scream assaulted his ears. A female voice, a disturbingly familiar one followed a moment later. "Get him on the table!" She snapped, before the picture finally resolved into a clear image.

Isaac's heart skipped a beat as he recognized the woman whom had recorded the message. "This is Senior Medical Officer Nicole Brennan, transmitting ship wide. We need more help! We don't have the resources to deal with this many cases. Nobody will tell us what's happening!" The blond haired medical officer sighed, her eyes closing for a moment as she seemed to compose herself. "These wounds…we're not equipped deal with this many…"

A loud scream cut her off, and Nicole winced, before her gaze shifted away from the screen. "Hold him! Nurse, you hold him down! Christ!" Her gaze snapped back to the screen. "End recording!" And a moment after the screen froze.

"Nicole…" Isaac mutter,before silent for a long moment after the video stopped, his gaze never moving away from the screen. She looked no worse for wear, though how long ago had this message been recorded? And why was it here of all places? It was almost as though it'd had been placed for him to find upon waking up…

No, chances are it had been stored here for some reason. A coincidence, nothing more.

His hands closed into fists as he pushed the thought aside. She was still on board, she had to be! He had to find her before those monsters did…he had to get to her before it was too late.

What if it already was though? What if she was already dead long before he'd even boarded the Ishimura?

Isaac violently shook his head, ignoring the sudden flare of pain from his still throbbing head. No, she was alive, he knew it! And he wouldn't rest until she was safe.

With a flick of his wrist, the hologram vanished. And the engineer was plunged into darkness.

"Okay, this is it!" Jacob called out as the squad halted next to the second fuel pump. "Watch my back." A blue aura swiftly enveloped the soldier as he set to work reactivating the pump.

Zaeed and Mordin were silent while he worked, which was saying a lot for the doctor all things considered. Luckily for them it seemed most of the creatures were distracted elsewhere and they didn't see or hear anything, save the loud clang of the switch slamming into place. Followed by the dull hum of it activating.

The trio tensed as the sound reverberated throughout the ship. Though as the echo died away, they were surprised to note nothing followed. No inhuman wailing, no clanging of feet on metal, nothing. "Okay, now that's just creepy." Zaeed muttered after a moment as he lowered his weapon. "You'd think they'd swarm us after that, like last time."

"Creatures smarter then first appeared. Perhaps knew tactic would fail, waiting elsewhere to ambush a different way." Mordin pitched in, his pistol still firmly gripped in both hands as his eyes darted about the empty corridor ahead of them.

"For once doc, could you keep you're observations to yourself.' Jacob said, a heavy sigh escaping him as he snatched his shotgun from the deck. "It really doesn't make me feel better knowing those things are waiting around the next corner."

Mordin opened his mouth to respond, though wisely snapped it shut a second later and simply nodded.

"Okay, that's the fuel working again." Kendra's voice suddenly invaded their comms. Jacob knew he wasn't going to like this. "I've been running a system check. And the centrifuge is offline as well. Without it, we've got tones of rocks and asteroid fragments pulling us towards the colony. You'll have to get down there and reactivate it, and fast. We'll hit the planets atmosphere in less then an hour."

"Hold on a bloody second!" Zaeed cut in, Jacob threw him a glare, but didn't object. "What colony? First I heard about this, and why the hell is the ship loaded up with rocks?"

"Look, I'll explain everything later, just, fix the centrifuge and stabilize our orbit…Or it won't matter what I tell you as we'll all be dead before I can explain!" The trio exchanged glances, before the mercenary relented.

"Alright, but I'm holding you to that." He said dangerously, before switching his comm. off. Jacob simply shook his head, before setting off once again, he wisely chose to keep his unit online, after all they had no idea where the hell they were going, and Kendra did.

"No, no, n-Hmm…" Tali paused for a moment as her search finally turned up something, she hoped was useful at least. Strangely enough, for a medical deck it seemed to be quite lacking in medical supplies. She'd found more power packs for her cutter then anything else so far.

Finally she found a series of containers labelled as medical equipment of various. Some were painkillers, others were, what she assumed was an equivalent to Medi-gel. Though she had little idea as to whether that was true or not, all the labels were titles she didn't recognize. "It's better then nothing." She muttered as she tucked several of the containers into pouches on her enviro suit.

She couldn't carry much; it would slow her down otherwise. But at least it was a start, and once she got Isaac back onto his feet he could help carry it, and in turn hopefully explain what they would need and what could be left behind.

Tali hesitated for a moment, before she whipped around and set off back towards the door to the operating room she'd been searching. She hated the idea of leaving the engineer alone. But there simply wasn't time to wait for him to wake up. And she didn't know how long Shepard had left. Keelah she might already be dead.

Either way, they'd need the medical supplies, and that was what she'd ultimately chosen to do. She'd left her combat drone to watch over Isaac, though somehow she doubted it would be enough.

Satisfied she'd found everything she could, and unwilling to wander any further away from her unconscious companion. Tali swiftly darted out of the operating room and set off back down the corridor.

She'd only gone a few steps when her Omni-tool abruptly lit up the display swiftly flickering between orange and red to get her attention.

Frowning slightly, she tapped in a command and the display changed to display information on her drone. And most notably, the fact that several systems were failing. "Oh no…" Without pausing to think, the quarian broke into a run. She'd only been gone a few minutes, what could have happened in such a short span of time?

"Come on! Jeeze who designed this blasted elevator?" Kasumi snapped as she paced back and forth in the Normandy's agonizingly slow elevator. Naturally, Legion simply remained in place, his head plates shifting slightly as his single optical unit followed the thief's movements.

"Constant motion not recommended. Unit recommends conserving strength for task ahead." He stated after a few moments. His naturally monotone voice doing little to help calm the woman's nerves.

"Easy for you to say." She muttered, though despite her words she halted and crossed her arms. "You don't have emotions. Therefore you don't get impatient." The thief sighed heavily as she spared the geth a glance, the only response she received was a subtle arching of its head plates as it seemed to contemplate her words. Though Legion decided against answering, she was right in a sense, it didn't have emotions to hamper it. But that didn't mean it would openly agree.

Finally elevator stopped, and Kasumi paused to ensure her rebreather was on properly before the door opened. She disliked using them, but the risk that the hangar had been cracked open was very possible. After all if something was trying to access the ship from the outside, there wasn't a great deal of options. Hack the bay doors open, or remove it entirely.

She really didn't want to think about what kind of creature or weapon could cut through Silaris heavy armour. After all, they were about to come face to face with it…

Banishing the thought, she collected her pistol and spared a quick glance towards Legion, whom simply shouldered his assault rifle and stepped out into the hallway beyond the doors.

As the thief followed, she noted with a measure of relief just how, quiet the area was. Admittedly there wasn't normally crew down on this deck. But she'd expected alarms, some form of enemy force waiting for them.

Instead she was met by the same corridor she always encountered when coming down to engineering. She didn't dwell on it for long; instead her gaze swept the hanger bay in search of any obvious threats. Legion had somehow already made it halfway across the bay and was crouching behind the Hammerhead, while Kasumi instead favoured to just use a stack of storage crates that had been left by the elevator.

Kasumi peered over the crates a moment later. Surprisingly the place seemed, empty. They'd received warnings about a breach, but there didn't appear to be anything down here, had the sensors malfunctioned?

"Joker, there's nothing down here…Are you su-" She was cut short as something slammed into the ship, the loud clang accompanied by a earth quake like impact that sent Kasumi crashing to the deck. "Oww." She groaned before picking herself up, out of the corner of her eye she could see Legion using the tank to pull himself up as well.

"Damn it! Something massive just struck the ship. Barriers are down, I think you've got incoming!" Joker shouted over the intercom, much to Kasumi's annoyance.

"Why the hell are we still here?" She hissed as another reverberating clang shook the ship.

"Something has locked the ship in place. We cannot escape until it is dealt with." EDI calmly informed them a moment later. The thief sighed heavily of course; nothing was ever easy was it? She was silent for a few moments, before her eyes widened as the words sunk in.

"What could possibly be holding the ship in place?" She spared a glance towards Legion, whom offered a slight shrug, clearly as perplexed as she was. There were possibility's, docking clamps, some form of tractor beam perhaps. But the fact that it only seemed to activate now was rather worrying. Something was determined not to let the ship escape.

Her thoughts were pulled away from the subject as a loud bang erupted from the opposite end of the hanger. "Warning, hanger door damaged, breech imminent." EDI warned, luckily she'd planned ahead and had a breather unit on already, legion of course didn't need to breath so he would be fine if the hanger suffered a decompression.

And this was proven correct a moment later as a loud screeching sound filled the hanger and forced Kasumi to cover her ears. The sound increased in pitch for a moment, before another bang accompanied it. Once the noise died away, the thief risked lifting her head once again.

Sure enough, the door had been buckled inwards and tore open, giving free access to whatever was likely outside. "What the hell could have done that?" Kasumi gasped as she studied the buckled and dented hanger door. "That door is at least ten feet of solid metal!"

Her question was answered a moment later as several tentacle like appendages began to creep through the newly opened door and began exploring the interior of the hanger. A moment later several humanoid like creatures joined it, though they weren't searching, the first instantly spotted the woman and with a snarl broke into a charge right towards her.

"The sooner you can get us out of here, the better!" Kasumi snapped into her comm. as she opened fire, the first shot easily snapped the creature's neck from the force, but did little to slow its advance.

Before it reached her, a well aimed burst of assault rifle fire ripped the creature to shreds and caused it to slam into the crates Kasumi had been using for cover.

Despite the situation, the thief offered a brief nod to the geth, whom simply adjusted his aim and resumed firing as another of the creatures leapt towards him. Kasumi swiftly rejoined the fight as well, her pistol tearing holes in whatever creature that fell into her sights.

Sadly for every one she shot, another replaced it a moment later. She couldn't help but cringe as another burst through the hanger door and stumbled towards her, this one was larger then the rest or at least its stomach was. And Kasumi felt a wave of nausea as even a brief glance revealed the damn things insides appeared to be, moving.

Had she not been busy fighting to keep the damn things at bay, she might have lost her breakfast at the very notion. Though even with that distraction, it was hard to keep her focus solely on dealing with the creatures.

It was made even more difficult with the realization that they just wouldn't die. Even after removing their legs, they'd simply drag themselves forward, clawed hands and scythe like talons tearing into the bulkhead as they desperately crawled forwards inch by inch. Removing the arms simply led to the, stumbling about and trying to bite whichever of the two they came close to. In the end she was rapidly burning through her clips in a vain attempt to hold them back.

And judging by the steadily growing pile around Legion's feet, he wasn't fairing much better.

Kasumi jumped back abruptly with a surprised gasp when a scythe blade ripped through the crate she'd been sheltering behind to reload. The sickening monster having somehow avoided the worst of the barrage and came within striking distance, or perhaps it was another and she hadn't seen it...

Either way, the creature offered a loud growl as it swung again, this time she was to slow, and her pistol clattered uselessly to the deck in two pieces a moment later.

Stumbling back, the thief swiftly pressed her now bleeding hand to her chest while fumbling for her SMG with the other.

Just as it prepared to strike again, and Kasumi's back struck a wall. A bullet struck the side of its head and sent the creature reeling. A moment later, a second round struck it, and as a result it collapsed into a heap.

With the danger passed, Kasumi swiftly yanked her weapon from it's holster and brought it to bear on the fresh wave of creatures assaulting the hanger. "Damn it, we can't keep this up much longer!" She cursed, if the Normandy didn't get underway soon…

Despite her best attempts, the thief noted with slowly building anger that she really wasn't doing much good anymore. With her right arm injured, she was almost blind firing with her left, and without the second hand, her shots were quite wild and inaccurate. Though considering just how many of the damned things there were, accuracy wasn't really a problem at the moment.

What was a problem, was the creatures were reacting to their continual resistance.

A inhuman howl pireced the constant blood crazed screams of the monsters, and the barking of weapons fire. Kasumi was almost forced to clutch her ears again at the terrifying sound. Though she was distracted a moment later as one of the massive tentacles reared up, the very tip of its clawed appendage scraping against the roof of the hanger as it prepared to strike.

The thief's eyes widened as she realized where it was aiming. "Legion!" The geth snapped around, his head craning back as it realized to late what was coming. A second later the tentacle slammed into deck hard enough to buckle the solid steel plating.

Kasumi could only stare in horror as it withdrew, the Hammerhead that Legion had been using for cover looked like crumpled paper, and the robot was nowhere to be seen.

Luckily the abrupt attack had taken most of the creatures down as well. Though she noted with a chill that several were still standing, several more were beginning to stumble back to their feet as well. One had been almost entirely pulverized by the attack, though its head was still moving slightly as tendrils burst out of it's neck and carried it forwards.

Kasumi gulped as she ejected the spent thermal clip in her SMG and loaded another. Or rather, her last. There were a dozen of them still moving, and she had enough ammo for probably three, four if she was dead on with her shots.

The elevator was to far away…She could run, and besides, where would she go? Giving up the hanger meant they'd have full access to the rest of the ship if they didn't already.

With a heavy sigh, she simply brought her weapon up and watched as they slowly drew closer. The first one growled and charged, and Kasumi pulled the trigger.

Tali finally skidded to a halt outside the office. Her breath came in ragged pants as she swept the corridor, weapon at the ready for any sign of a threat.

Once she'd confirmed she was alone, the plasma cutter returned to her side and she sighed heavily. Maybe it had been a malfunction or something… Her gaze finally landed on the remains of her combat drone, the purple orb having been ripped almost in half by something swiftly put an end to her brief moment of hope.

Admittedly the drones were fragile, and she could easily fix it with enough time and equipment. But neither were things she had right now. Her eyes darted to the door next, and she barely suppressed a shudder when she realized the door had been unlocked. She'd taken steps to keep it closed until she came back, clearly someone, or something, had gotten in regardless.

Tapping the button, she kept her cutter loosely aimed at the door as it slid open.

Tali had expected to come face to face with some gruesome monster or another. Instead she was greeted by a pitch black room. "Isaac?" She winced as her voice echoed in the small room, the silence was almost unnerving.

Luckily she'd had time to aquaint herself with the finer points of her new weapon, and with a tap of a button the flashlight flickered into life along with the laser sights. The narrow orb of light wouldn't help much, but it gave her something to see by.

Glancing about the room, she was partly relieved to see it was more or less how she left it. Save the lack of lighting, A closer inspection however revealed one troubling fact.

Isaac wasn't here. The room was deserted.

A shiver ran through the quarian as she assumed the worst. Though she had no proof, there was no blood or remains. If he'd been killed they'd have left something behind, it seemed unlikely they'd drag him off alive.

Then again, they'd tried that with her…

Tali mentally cursed her mind for finding counterpoints to her attempts at rationalization. Chances are the engineer had woken up and gone looking for her.

A hand shifted to her helmet as she clicked her comm. on. Maybe she could find the right channel and contact him…

"Warning, Foreign contaminate detected, quarantine engaged."

Another sigh escaped her as she snapped around to face the dor, the now familiar snarling of a necromorph steadily growing louder. "Keelah…"

Yeah...On reflection it didn't turn out as well as i hoped. I had planned for Isaac to have a bigger role, but couldn't figure out what to do . So i decided to keep him out of the picture and give him a bigger role next chapter. Hopefully anyway. Jacob's team too kind of got axed. Again more planned, but for some reason when it came to putting it to paper, my mind just kept going blank. So fingers crossed for the next one.

So now Tali is alone, Isaac is missing, Legion is probably scrape and Kasumi isn't much better off. Plus the Normandy is being invaded by necromorphs...Fun...:P I must admit i screwed up with the last chapter though. I realized the cargo bays aren't all that big and wouldn't suit for what i wanted, luckily the Hanger was just what the doctor ordered, so, sorry for the slight alteration there...

Anyway, hope its a good chapter regardless. I wanted to do something special for my thirteenth chapter. I just get the feeling it wasn't special enough.

Update: Forgot to mention...I'm not entirely sure i got Issac right in this chapter. I couldn't really find much information about his relationship with Nicole. On one hand there was mention of a breakup prior to the game, and another piece of information suggested they were still together...So i really don't know what his feelings towards her would be all things considered. Though braving the Ishimura and all it's horros in a desperate attempt to find her certainly sounds like love to me :D