Okay, back to this fanfic. Yeah, I know what you are gonna say: Why so long to update? Well, I got things to do, plus I was writing a Halloween chapter for my other multiverse fanfic.
By the time I post this though, Halloween would have already passed, but I am not rewriting it just because I missed a holiday.
This is a repost. The issues that happened from October 30 seem to have been solved.
Chapter 7: Twinkle, twinkle little star. (Dead space.)
"Pyrrha, we need to talk." The champion looked at her teammates and saw that Ren stood up and gestured them to get back several rows, they gestured her to follow them and Pyrrha did so. They went up a few rows before stopping.
"S-So, what did you want to talk about?" The redhead asked as she had a feeling what exactly they wanted to talk about.
Pyrrha had a nervous look on her face as she looked at Ren and Nora, the two giving her serious looks while staying several rows away from Team RWBY who looked to be having their own talk.
"Pyrrha, you don't need to be so nervous. It's nothing too serious." Ren said as he leaned on a chair as Pyrrha relaxed somewhat.
"We just want to ask: Were you ever going to tell us?" Nora asked, as Pyrrha looked confused.
"Jaune's transcripts. Were you two ever going to tell us? Or did you want to keep us in the dark about it?" Ren clarified, crossing his arms.
"W-well, it was up to Jaune. I asked him about it, but he said that he needed time to think." The girl replied as her teammates sighed and looked at each other. They wondered who should tell as Nora gave her partner a look and he sighed and closed his eyes.
"What do you think would have happened if he told us?" He asked, earning a look of surprise from her, which turned to one of contemplation.
"Well, I would imagine you two wouldn't have been so…well, accepting of him afterwards…or maybe you would? I don't know." She said as Ren gave her a look of understanding.
"Truth to be told, I think we wouldn't have. We didn't really have…good experience with people who lied to us." He said whilst looking away, peaking Pyrrha's curiosity.
"What do you mean?" She asked as Nora sat down on a seat next to her.
"You know, how we told you and Jaune that we are orphans?" Pyrrha nodded at her, "What we didn't tell you are the amount of…things that we had to do to get skilled before we came here. Some of which we really aren't proud of." She said as Ren sighed.
"And whilst we did those things, we kept getting tricked, backstabbed, lied to by different kinds of people. Some of which used our trust to make it seem like they would protect us," He said as he clenched his fist.
"And then they used us as a bait to lure Grimm or bandits while they ran away with some of our things stolen or would use us to make it seem like they did the job of killing Grimm." Nora finished for him as Pyrrha's eyes widened when she realized something.
"I see now why you said you wouldn't be accepting of him." Given how unskilled Jaune was and how they did most of the work, to the outsider it looked like he was using them to do the dirty work to take all credit.
"Yeah, we would probably stop trusting him if he told us, maybe for a long time." Ren said as he sat on a chair.
"But what about now?" Pyrrha asked, he raised an eyebrow at her, "What would you do now? With everything that we learned?" The two looked at each other, uncertain as Nora looked up.
"I say we give him a chance. Sure, he lied to us, but it's not like he was deliberately trying to get us hurt or using us. We aren't really saints either with the amount of things we did before we got here." She said as Ren shook his head.
"I agree with you Nora, we aren't any better but I'm not talking to him for a while or forgive him easily. It's been a semester since the team formed and while I understand his hesitation to tell the truth, us knowing this right in the middle of Vytal Festival and so close to the tournament isn't so easy to sweep aside." Nora nodded at him as Pyrrha breathed a quiet sigh of relief.
'At least it went well.' She thought as she imagined all the possible worse scenarios that would have happened. Unknown to her, some cards in the shelves glowed as she thought about them.
RWBY on the other hand had a different kind of talk. One that didn't seem to be good.
"So do you want to talk about it?" Yang asked her sister as her teammates stood around the reaper who looked uncomfortable at their gazes.
"About what?" Yang pointed at the empty screen.
"What Watcher told us about Rose, Ruby." Ruby had a confused look at that.
"I don't know why we would need to talk about her. I don't hear her in my head." She said, not understanding why they would want to talk about that.
"You don't hear her yet, Ruby. Watcher said that this might be a possible future." Blake said with crossed arms.
"And judging by how we didn't seem older and assuming this happened after the Vytal Tournament, it's safe to say that what we saw happened 6 months into the future at the very least." Weiss deduced with all the limited information they could gather from the previous viewing.
"And considering what Watcher said about Rose being your repressed emotions and something about internal battle, we have all the worries to have this talk now Ruby." Yang said as Ruby looked annoyed.
"Yang, there is nothing to worry about. We will prevent the fall, stop Cinder's plan and everything will be okay. Well, after we get Jaune out from wherever he is of course." The redhead said as the three now looked even less convinced. It seemed like Rose was right on something.
"That's the thing here Ruby. You can't just deny that something bad will happen or happen. We are worried here for you. Have you seen Rose?" Yang asked as Ruby shivered at the mention of her.
"I did and I am telling you there is nothing to worry about Yang. Rose is not in my head, it's just a possible future that we can stop, and I don't see why you need to worry so much for something that might not happen!" Ruby shouted at her sister and teammates.
"Ruby, this isn't something that you can just brush aside as 'possible future'. For all we know, this future is what might happen after we come back and Rose might as well be in your head as we speak. Mental issues aren't like Dust cartridges that you can just throw away and forget about." Weiss said, narrowing her eyes at her partner.
"Not only that, you are forgetting the fact that you are already doing what Rose is accusing you of doing right now. Don't you see? You are already creating her in your head and if these future events happen, you might be too late to stop her and you might snap worse than that version of Jaune dating Velvet." Yang said, frustrated at Ruby's denial.
"And besides, what makes you think we can prevent Cinder's plans?" At that question, the three turned towards Blake, who raised an eyebrow at all of them, "What? Don't tell me that you three honestly think we can stop her. She might have already done everything to ensure her plans work as we are talking here. Not only that, according to what we saw, these 'possible' events might as well be inevitable." The faunus said, not really believing that they can fully stop what might happen.
"Which is all the more reason for us to have this talk Ruby." Yang said turning towards her sister who kept her look of annoyance.
"Why are you so worried right now? You didn't seem to have any issues with me being the way I am before Yang, even after Breach. So what gives-?" Yang's eyes glowed slightly red as she clenched her fists.
"I don't want you to end up like Rose!" Yang shouted, surprising Ruby as she recoiled back in surprise at her shout, "Ruby, make no mistake. I am aware of how you want to deny some things. I know how you don't want to let your grief get the better of you and I didn't say anything about it before because I wanted you to be like that until you would eventually grow up. But if me continuing to do so results in you ending up like that…that…depressed drunk who makes Uncle Qrow look good by comparison, then I don't want that." The blonde brawler said as she took a deep breath and looked at her younger sister. Ruby looked surprised as she heard Yang's answer, a look of conflict on her face as she then looked down. Before she looked up at her again.
"Okay." Was all she said as her teammates looked slightly surprised, "I can't promise to change my denial, but I will consider your words." She said, as they looked slightly unconvinced but nodded nevertheless.
"You know, there is one thing that surprised me, Weiss." Blake suddenly said as her teammate raised an eyebrow.
"What is it?" The heiress asked as NPR came back to their seats.
"Well, your reaction to Jaune's transcripts. I expected you to start insulting him right away or yelling because of what he did." The faunus replied, surprising everyone as they looked at the heiress next. Weiss crossed her arms.
"Believe it or not, I was about to do so, but then I remembered," She pointed at Blake, "How did you get your transcripts Blake? You didn't go to any combat schools as well, which means you would have faked yours too." Blake had a neutral look for a few seconds before a tiny blush appeared on her face.
"I…wrote mine on a piece of paper and hoped they would not find out." Yang and Ruby snickered a little, "Still that doesn't seem to be the full reason."
"I was about to get to that." Weiss said as she then pointed to the screen, "See, if I were to go on a tirade about him that would be hypocritical on my part considering the fact that I have a team member who also didn't do the formal training at any combat school AND happens to be a terrorist. Technically speaking that would make you worse than him and I should be mad at both of you." She answered while listing things off with her fingers, impressing the others as Yang whistled.
"Wow, and here I thought you would start shouting that he should be expelled and all other kinds of crap. Seems like you grew up from being an Ice Queen that constantly berated Ruby." Yang said as she came up to the heiress of SDC and brought her to a one armed hug as Weiss had a slightly annoyed look.
"Would you stop calling me that Yang?" Weiss said as she broke free and adjusted her clothes, "Besides, I can learn from my past actions. Don't expect me to easily forgive him just because of this though. I am still angry at what he did." She said as they all nodded at her.
"Glad to hear that." Pyrrha said.
"I am glad as well." At the sudden voice, the seven turned around and saw Watcher floating while relaxing with a card in his hand.
"Wha-? When did you get here?" Ren asked as Watcher chuckled.
"Bold of you to assume I went out of this place. I was just really far in the corner while you were talking." He explained while pointing upwards to the ceiling where the top halves of shelves disappeared. They swore they could hear whistling from the darkness accompanied by weird noises.
"You call that a corner? Seems more like a sky without end to me." Yang said as she looked back at him.
"Well, this is the Infinite Viewing room. Emphasis on the 'Infinite'." He said before twirling the brown card, "But anyway, I brought a new world to watch. This one is different in terms of setting to the other ones you watched." He threw the card at the screen, watched it get absorbed and gestured to them to sit.
"Take a seat. It's time to see the horrors that lay beyond." Confused at his words, the seven simply shrugged and looked at the screen as the light dimmed.
A static screen appeared, which was then replaced by an image of…something for a fraction of a second.
Then words appeared, detailing a mission of sorts.
CEC Mission ER529
Status update…
Repair ship of Kellion en route to the mining site…
"A mission briefing?" Blake asked, wondering why this was so important.
"Mining site?" Weiss asked, wondering if this was some sort of Dust mine.
PRIMARY MISSION ASSETS…
…Jaune Arc – Engineering and Ship System Specialist…
…Penny Polendina – Computer Specialist…
…Sun Wukong – Chief Security Officer…
Nora giggled slightly as she saw Jaune's specialty.
"Heh, Fearless Leader is an Engineer." Ren and Pyrrha chuckled beside her, an Engineer would probably be the last thing that Jaune would want to be.
"Penny is a Computer Specialist? The girl doesn't seem so smart." Weiss said as Ruby had a different thought.
'Seems really fitting though.' Given what Penny was, it wouldn't be out of place.
"I am more surprised that someone like Sun is a security officer." Blake said as she took a sip of her drink.
Directive A: Locate Mining ship Ishimura…
Directive B: Repair communications aboard the ship…
TIME TO CONTACT: 3 MINUTES…
"Mining…ship? What?" Weiss muttered, a look of confusion at the two words.
"Maybe it's a bullhead that mines instead of people?" Yang offered, also confused.
"Or maybe it's a ship full of mining drones?" Ruby suggested.
"Maybe it's a ship where the ores are put and mined in?" Blake suggested.
"Oh, oh! Maybe it's a flying ship that tears a huge piece of land and mines it!" Nora shouted, starry eyed at the perspective while the others sweat dropped.
"That seems like the least likely scenario here." Weiss said as Nora deadpanned at her.
"Do you have to ruin people's fun Weiss?" The heiress sputtered at that as her team giggled at her face.
The mission briefing faded as the static background continued to show. Suddenly, radio cuts are heard as if trying to establish a connection.
"Jaune, it's me. I wish I could talk to you." The screen started backing away, revealing it to be not a static feed but a closed up image of a woman.
The group's eyes widened slightly as they saw the image, though she appeared on a poor quality screen and with a blue color, Ruby's face was still recognizable.
"Wow, it's you Rubes." Yang said, true this wasn't the first time they saw Ruby, but the first one wasn't so different from theirs, this one was different. She looked older, almost an identical image of Summer.
"Yeah." Was all the reaper could say as she looked at her other self, who looked a lot like Summer. Her eyes slightly drifted towards the chest part and she smiled, whilst Weiss huffed and crossed her arms.
"Is it me or does she look…scared?" Blake asked, noting the seemingly nervous look the Ruby on screen had.
"I am sorry. I am sorry about everything. I wish I could just talk to someone." Ruby looked around her, "It's all just falling apart here. I can't believe what's happening." She looked down and tried to recollect herself.
"Strange, such a little thing…" The static cut the video off.
"Well, that was-ominous." Yang said after the video ended.
"It's like she is trying to hide." Pyrrha noted.
The camera backed away again, showing Jaune sitting on a chair as he stopped the video. A strange suit on him, which had several metal pieces working like armor. In two seats in front of him two pilots controlled the vehicle he was in as a blonde faunus man with a monkey tail stood looking at a wall of text.
"How many times have you watched that thing?" Penny asked, as she came into view, wearing a pair of brown jeans with a pocket for small instruments on her thigh, a red long sleeved shirt with a green jacket over it.
"Why is it only showing the back of his head?" Pyrrha asked.
"Forget that, what kind of bullhead are they in?" Weiss asked, noting the interior.
"And what's with the weird tunnel they are flying through." Ruby asked, noting the weird tunnel like fog in front of the bullhead's screen.
"What's with the suit that he is wearing?" Ren wondered, it looked to be a bit outdated compared to the military armor he saw some Atlas soldiers wear.
"Guess you really miss her. Don't worry we are almost there." Penny told him as she looked ahead of the bullhead, "You will be able to look her up once we are on board." She took out a small pad and began to tinker with it.
"Sounds like you two have a lot of catching up to do." Sun went next to the pilots.
"Oh ho ho. Looks like Jaune is dating Ruby in this world." Nora said, putting a handful of popcorn in her mouth. On her seat, Ruby blushed slightly which Yang noticed and a smirk came up to her face.
"Well, he better treat her right. Cause my other will probably kick his ass if he doesn't." Yang said teasingly as Ruby gave her an annoyed look.
"Not funny Yang." The blonde simply chuckled and patted her sister's head. Pyrrha scowled in her seat, wishing to see a world where she ended up with Jaune.
Suddenly, the tunnel disappeared and revealed where they actually were.
Space.
Now, the seven were shocked, they had expected to see a sea with a ship in the middle of it or a bullhead crashed into reefs. They didn't expect to see outer space.
"Oh Brother Gods." Weiss muttered as they saw the vast expanse of outer space.
"I can't believe it. They are actually in space." Blake muttered, for some reason she felt a chill go down her spine as she looked at the screen.
"So they are in a spaceship? That's awesome!" Ruby exclaimed, excited along with Nora and Yang at the prospect of seeing what space had.
"Alright everyone we are here." Sun said as they saw the various debris floating around, "Synching our orbit now." The pilot did so as Penny came up to the pilots.
"All that trouble for a chunk of rock." Penny remarked looking at the debris.
"Deep space mining is a lucrative business miss Polendina. Aegis VII is a gold mine according to the reports. Cobalt, silver, silicon, osmium." Sun listed as he turned back to the planet.
"Deep space mining? Wait, they are mining other planets?!" Weiss asked as Watcher nodded.
"Yeah, you might be surprised by the number of worlds where humanity has traversed the stars and mined and colonized planets. This is one of them." He explained.
"Well, why mine other planets? Did something happen on Remnant?" Pyrrha asked as Watcher sighed.
"Desperation. Humans and faunus of this universe's Remnant have completely drained the planet's underground resources. Dust ran out seven centuries ago while the fossil fuels, like oil and gas-discovered shortly after Dust ran out-have been completely drained four centuries later. Facing extinction and the destruction of civilization, humanity made spaceships and began the process of space mining. First asteroids, then meteors, small moons and finally planets. At these times you gotta admire the human drive to live, even if it costs the complete destruction of several planets." Watcher explained, leaving the seven wide eyed.
"Wow." Was all Nora could say, the others following suit.
"Now where is she?" Sun asked as he looked at the debris, as the ship moved slightly to the left, revealing their target.
"There she is. We have visual contact." A giant space ship floated over a planet, blue beams coming out of the underside and holding a rock chunk the size of a continent.
"Holy shit! Look at the size of that ship!" Yang exclaimed, shocked at the size of such an object.
"It's bigger than any bullhead that Atlas ever made. It may even equal Atlas itself!" Weiss said, completely shocked. The size of the entire vessel makes even the biggest bullhead look like a toy plane in comparison.
"So that's the Ishimura. Impressive" Penny said looking at the impressive ship.
"USG Ishimura. The biggest planet cracker in her class. And it looks like they already popped the cork." Sun said, noting the huge, cracked ground beneath it.
"So these planet crackers are basically space mines?" Blake asked to which Watcher nodded.
"And this Ishimura is the biggest one they have? Cool." Ruby said, starry eyed at the prospect of seeing a spaceship.
Penny looked at the ship and noticed something wrong about it.
"Why is it so dark? I don't see any running lights." Why would a spaceship turn off all the lights? Especially when it's a planet cracker.
"Corporal, take us closer to the vessel. And stay away from the debris, we are here to fix their ship not wreck ours." Sun said as the pilot steered the ship away from closing debris and got Kellion closer to Ishimura. He then pressed the communications button to establish connection.
"USG Ishimura. This is the emergency maintenance team of USG Kellion. We are here for your distress call. Come in Ishimura." Suddenly, weird babbling came as a response, confusing the team as Penny shook her head.
"You will need to boost the signal." She said.
"Yes we know." Sun said, getting a look of annoyance from Penny, "Boost the signal." The pilot did so, "More."
"Never heard of total communications black out on one of those things. You would think with a thousand people on board, someone would pick up a phone."
"That's suspicious. Why WOULD a ship with that many people not respond to the signal?" Pyrrha asked, wondering why no one in the ship would respond.
"Maybe the power went out?" Ruby suggested.
"On such a huge ship? Seems very unlikely." Blake replied, not seeing the possibility.
"Terrorist attack?" Weiss suggested, Blake frowning as she thought about it.
"Maybe."
Then, the signal came in and the reply was very incoherent. It sounded less like human speaking and more like a gurgling of a monster.
"What is that?" One of the pilots asked, wondering what the sound was.
"It's a busted array like we thought. Sounds like they are having problems with the encoder. You get us down there and Jaune and I can fix it. Give us 48 hours max." Sun nodded at her.
"Alright you heard the lady. Take us in, let's see what needs fixing." The pilot nodded at his superior and pressed a few buttons on the interface.
"I don't know about you guys, but I have a bad feeling about this whole thing." Blake said, still feeling the chill down her spine.
"Yeah, this whole thing seems fishy." Yang said as Blake raised an eyebrow.
"Really Yang?" Yang raised an eyebrow in confusion before she rethought her answer.
"What? That wasn't a pun, it did seem fishy." Blake narrowed her eyes but looked back on screen.
"Gravity tethers are engaged. Automatic docking procedures is a go." One of the pilots said as he switched the tethers.
Suddenly, the floating debris hit the side of the ship, shaking the people inside as the panel began to spark.
"What the hell?" Sun exclaimed.
"Sir the autodock malfunctioned. We are trapped, we are gonna hit the hull." The ship shook as it tried to get inside the Ishimura.
"Hit the blast shields." The pilot pressed a few buttons, "The guidance tether is damaged. Switch to manual." Penny looked at him in shock.
"Inside the magnetic field? Are you insane?" Switching to the manual wouldn't be a good idea given their situation, "Abort!"
"No! We can make it! Corporal! You heard my order!" The Corporal pulled a lever and switched on the blast shields, blocking the view as an interface appeared. Ahead of them, gates opened.
"The gravity is too strong!" The corporal said, barely holding the steering ship. The lights flickered as the ship crashed and a blinding light appeared, the sounds of something crashing following suit.
"Well, that went wrong pretty fast." Ren commented.
"I hope they are okay though." Ruby said.
"Worried about your boyfriend Ruby?" Yang teased, causing a slight blush to appear on her sister's face.
"Yang." Ruby whined as her team giggled slightly at the girl's face. Pyrrha though had a slight frown as she looked at the red reaper.
The lights blinked for a few seconds before the camera showed the ship again. The screw inside coughed slightly as they got up from the emergency landing.
"Is everyone okay?" Sun asked, looking at the screw.
"What? What the hell were you thinking?! Were you trying to get us killed?!" Penny shouted at him, her green eyes glowing slightly in the dark, which Jaune noticed.
"That's weird. Why would her eyes glow?" Yang asked as Ruby had an idea as to why but chose not to say anything.
"Maybe it's just from the lighting?" Pyrrha said.
"I just saved our lives, Miss Penny. Had we boarded at that speed and distance we would have smashed at the vessel's side." He turned to the pilots, "Corporal, status report."
Jaune bent down to take something and sat back up with a helmet on his face.
"We've lost comms and autopilot. We will need some time to fix it." Sun nodded at that.
"Alright, let's get some help from the flight deck to help us out." Jaune stood up from his seat as Penny took out a touchpad and went to the blonde.
"Hold still Jaune. I am synching everyone's RIGs with the ship." The empty vertical bar on Jaune's back began to fill with liquid, first red, then yellow before finally turning blue as it reached the top. In the background, the bars on Sun's and two pilots' back also filled up to the max.
"Okay, we are done. Clean bill of health for everyone."
"Are those…health bars?" Ruby asked, baffled by the bars.
"Why would someone need a video game styled health bar on their backs?" Yang asked, confused by the health bars.
"Those are RIGs." Watcher said, as the seven turned to him.
"RIGs? What's that?" Watcher took out a picture of a RIG.
"Resource Integration Gear. It is an integrated health management and strength augmentation system which assists the user on previously impossible and dangerous tasks."
"Why would they make something like that though? Seems like a wasted invention." Weiss commented.
"Well, originally it served as a medical monitoring system for the elderly, though later it became much more common among civilians after seeing how invaluable it is."
"Really? What use would a health indicator be?" Blake asked, not seeing the big deal with it.
"It shows the user's state of health and how much damage they can take before they die. Aside from that, they can also show 2D videos or messages that one received as well as store oxygen in the event that the user ends up in a space vacuum. Furthermore, they can be sync with the person's workplace, be they engineers, military or others, the system will tell if the person is dead or alive. It should be noted that some doors and places need biometric locks which the RIG provides and makes it so that it is impossible to enter a place without a certain person's RIG." Watcher said, impressing some of the group but leaving some confused.
"You will see later, okay?" they nodded.
"Alright, we still got a job to do. We are moving out." The two pilots stood up and began to leave along with Sun and Penny, leaving Jaune in the ship as the camera spun around showing his helmet.
Yang whistled at the sight of it.
"Damn, that's a nice looking helmet he got there." The others weren't so impressed.
"I don't know, makes him look slightly goofy if I'm honest." Blake said.
"The helmet looks like a beetle." Nora said, drinking her soda.
After a moment, Jaune turned around, exited the ship and onto the Ishimura's deck where he saw Penny look at Kellion and have a deadpan look on her face.
"You didn't lose the power to the Port Booster. You LOST the Port Booster." Jaune turned to look and saw that she was right. The boosters looked busted, broken and torn.
'That would need extra time to fix.' He thought seeing the damage done.
"Unbelievable." Penny said, her palm meeting her face as she couldn't believe their situation.
"To be fair, if I was in her shoes, I would be angry too." Weiss said.
"Yeah, it's easy to understand her." Blake said.
"Why is Jaune not saying a word here?" Ren wondered, curious as to why Jaune remained silent through the whole thing.
Nevertheless, Jaune turned away and walked towards the ship's entrance all the while the announcer repeated the same message every time someone new came in.
"Welcome, CEC Employee to the USG Ishimura. The Ishimura was the first Planet cracker-class vessel and is now the oldest serving, with sixty-two years of continuous service. It holds the record of highest number of planet cracks, with thirty-four to date and highest dead weight of refined product at fourteen trillion kilotons and counting. Whether you'll be joining us aboard the Ishimura or strengthening the extraction work force on the colony, the captain and the crew would like to welcome you and we hope your stay is a pleasant one. Concordance Extraction Corporation: 'Powering Humanity for the Future'".
"Sixty two years. Very impressive." Weiss said awed by the amount of decades the Ishimura served.
"Thirty four planet cracks? Damn. Remnant is gotta be loaded with resources if this ship did that many planet cracks." Yang commented, sipping her soda.
"And it's only one out of who knows how many Planet Crackers. Taking the mining time into account, this would mean Remnant would probably never run out of resources." Blake said, blown away by the sheer usefulness of the Planet Crackers.
"Not that many. In fact there are only five Planet Crackers." Watcher said as they turned to look at him.
"Wait, what do you mean five? Aren't there more?" Nora asked as Watcher shook his head.
"No, see while Planet Cracking is a lucrative business, it's not really safe. The dangers it has are enough to destroy the whole business if it goes awry. Prior to Aegis VII there were six Planet Crackers, including Ishimura, but a gravity tether failure that occurred during one mining resulted in the destruction of the planet, its colony, three supply ships and the Planet Cracker itself. Useful as the business is, it still has the same dangers that normal mining has. Plus, Planet Crackers themselves aren't cheap either, the destruction of two or more of those ships would lead to Planet Cracking as a business going bankrupt and being abandoned altogether." Watcher explained, seeing the looks of wonder leave their eyes.
"So Remnant is doomed if Ishimura is no more?" Weiss asked to which Watcher nodded.
Jaune already heard the announcement multiple times and paid it no attention, instead going to the opened door where the others have entered, Penny following suit.
Inside, everything looked abandoned, several bags lay around, a few supply boxes and a drinks stand.
"Looks like power's down everywhere. Jaune, see if you can hack the door pad." Sun said as Jaune nodded and went to the door.
An interface panel appeared in front of him, revealing the door's panel and the locked function. He pressed a few buttons on the panel, rewired some things and eventually the door's pad turned blue with a hologram that had the word 'open' on it. He turned off the interface and pressed the hologram as the door opened.
"Huh, so that's how it works." Ruby said.
"Imagine if we had those RIGs, we wouldn't need to carry scrolls around anymore." Yang commented, thinking of all the possibilities.
"This RIG seems a lot more useful if it has this kind of function." Weiss noted.
Once the door opened, the lights of the room lit up, revealing another completely empty room. No workers, no security, no crew to greet them. Only shelves with bags, some boxes, some benches and closed doors.
Jaune raised an eyebrow under his helmet as he went to the center of the room, his crewmates following him, looking around the room. Penny stood next to a door, looking at the bags strewn about.
"Seems like everyone was hurrying to get away." She said as Sun looked confused.
"There should be security here." He muttered as Penny turned to him.
"Yeah, well there is not. There is no one here. I can't even pick up broadcasts."
"This is getting more and more suspicious." Blake said.
"Yeah, an empty ship in space with no crew around? Definitely suspicious." Yang muttered.
"And it looks like the terrorist theory isn't far off here." Weiss commented.
Ruby though had a different thought, her mind going back to what Watcher said about aliens during their first viewing.
'It's not impossible, but it could be aliens?'
Sun looked around again and saw a console on the other side of a reinforced glass.
"That security console's still alive. Jaune, log in and see what you can find." Jaune nodded, opened the door to the console and went to it.
"Penny, get that elevator back online." Penny looked at him like he was an idiot.
"The power's dead. I can't!"
"Then reroute the damn power!" Sun shouted back at her before he took a deep breath, "Look, if we cooperate, we can figure this out sooner than later." He told her before looking at Jaune.
"Jaune, put up the computer display." The engineer nodded as he pressed buttons on the console.
"Looks like Sun and Penny don't get along here." Ren observed.
"Makes you wonder why they are put in a crew together then." Pyrrha said.
Jaune pressed another button and a holographic display of the ship appeared. Red highlights on it to show the damaged parts as the Corporal leaned closer to look at it from the other side.
"Looks bad. Seems like she has taken a lot of damage." He said looking at the various red blinking parts.
"The trans system is offline. Moving around is gonna be a lot harder. At least power is back on." Sun said, shaking his head.
"Well at least some good news." Yang remarked.
"I don't know why but I can't help but feel like something is off here." Blake said, still feeling the shivers down her spine as well as the goosebumps.
"You are not the only one." Ren replied, feeling like something is wrong.
Suddenly, the lights and the hologram went out as the alarms blared in the room. Shutters closed the doors, preventing anyone from coming in or out. Corporal and his fellow officer held their guns in alarm, looking around the darkened room.
"What the hell was that?" Penny asked, her green eyes seemingly glowing in the dark like flashlights.
"Automatic quarantine must have tripped when the filtration system restarted. Everyone relax." Sun said as the crew relaxed slightly.
"Quarantine huh? Must be some sort of deadly gas if the terrorists are on board." Weiss said.
"I don't think it's the terrorists, Weiss." Blake replied, as plausible as the theory was, it just didn't add up.
A 'thud' from the ceiling however had the crewmates alarmed.
"What was that? Did you hear that?" Penny asked, her eyes looking around.
"I am not sure." Sun said with a gun in hand.
Suddenly, one of the fans collapsed, alarming them again.
"What the hell?"
"I don't know, something is in the room with us!" And it was, a shadow dropped down from the vents above, it stood up, concealed by the dim light of the room, it snuck up on one of the guards. Bladed arms raised high…
Before they began to tear the man apart. His RIG flat lining as the blades pierced his heart.
"Holy shit!" Yang exclaimed, not expecting a sneak attack, nor the dismemberment
"Dear Brothers! Open fire! OPEN FIRE!" Sun shouted as the other guards began to fire blindly, their shots missing due to the darkness in the room. Another creature appeared next to the other guard and killed him as Sun, fired at one of the creatures.
"Penny! Power! Penny!" He shouted at her as he kept firing.
"Come on. Come on." The woman muttered as she tried to override the panels. Fortunately, she succeeded.
"Got it!"
"Jaune get the hell out of there!" Sun shouted as he and Penny retreated to an open door behind them.
"The door's unlocked! RUN!" At Penny's shout and the destroyed vent fan next to him, Jaune ran away to the open door.
"Run, Jaune, run!" Nora shouted, spilling her popcorn everywhere.
Jaune saw the vents on his way explode as creatures began to pour in to try and get him. He simply kept running. He turned a corner and saw an elevator.
"Run Jaune! Get the hell outta there!" Penny said from her RIG as Jaune came up to the elevator and slammed the hologram to open it.
'Come on. Come on.' He thought as he heard the creatures get close to him.
The elevator opened as something struck him on his leg, causing him to instinctively kick back. He felt something collide with his leg but he paid no mind as he quickly entered the elevator and slammed the close door button.
The doors closed and Jaune sighed in relief, his health bar going down a bit.
"He is safe." Pyrrha said, somewhat relieved.
Suddenly, something sharp began to forcibly open the doors, blades visible as the monster tried to get to him.
Jaune's eyes widened as he saw a humanoid shape with a half destroyed head, protruding spine and organs come under the sparkling lights. Its limbs forcibly opening the door and succeeding as it stepped back to leap at him. Jaune braced himself for an attack.
Instead, the doors closed in on it just as it leaped, cutting its blades off and spraying the blood on him.
"That was…holy shit that was intense." Yang said, startled at the creature.
"Yeah. What the hell happened?" Blake asked, shocked at the turn of events.
"That thing didn't look human at all." Weiss said, shocked at its appearance.
"Was that an alien?" Ruby asked Watcher who hummed in thought.
"Yes and no." His answer had them confused.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Yes as in kinda alien. No because…well, it's best I tell you after the viewing."
Jaune breathed a sigh of relief as the elevator started going down. The lights flickering and his helmet's visor glowing as he recalled what happened.
'What the hell was that?' He thought as the elevator stopped and the doors opened allowing him to exit. The room that he entered was empty save for one body next to a table, a bench and some supply boxes.
Jaune grimaced as he saw the body leaning on the table, but his eyes wandered to the bloody writing on the blueprint on the wall.
CUT OFF THEIR LIMBS.
'Limbs?' He thought, his eyes looking down and he saw it. A tool lying on the table. He picked it up, recognizing the shape, it was not a weapon but it was good enough.
'The good old Plasma Cutter.'
"Plasma Cutter?" Ruby asked with stars in her eyes.
"Let's see here." Watcher took out a card and it stretched to fully show the weapon and the seven wowed as they saw it.
"Plasma Cutter also referred to as the Cutter is a hand held mineral cutter manufactured by Polendina Tools. It is the most primary tool that any miner has, offering unrivaled reliability in even the most dangerous work environment. Despite the name, Plasma Cutter doesn't rely solely on Plasma energy. Almost any type of energy can be used with the Cutter, provided it is inserted with a package or as a continuous stream." Watcher explained the description as Ruby wiggled in excitement at the thought of wielding the weapon.
"Wait, mineral cutter? So it's not a weapon but a mining tool?" Blake asked as Watcher chuckled.
"Any tool can be a weapon at the hands of a skilled person. I once saw a man kill three trained grown men with a mere pencil. A Pencil. And since Jaune here is an engineer who has experience using tools…" He trailed off as their eyes widened.
"He can use it as a weapon." Pyrrha finished.
'It's not much, but it will do.' Jaune thought as he inspected the tool, looking for any faults it may have.
'Just need some extra cell packs.' He thought, luckily there were several boxes around him. One of them sure has to have some energy packs. He went to one and stomped on it, breaking it, revealing an energy pack. He picked it up and then broke another box, revealing a different thing.
'A line rack. I might need it.' He thought, taking it and putting it in his inventory.
"Wait, where did he put them? He doesn't have a backpack or anything that might hold them." Weiss said, perplexed by what she saw.
"That's one of the benefits of Engineering RIGs, unlike normal ones, engineers can store items in theirs through what is known as digitization. A process in which an item is stored as data inside the RIG and can be taken out if the user wants to take the object out." Watcher said with the seven shocked at the existence of such technology.
"Damn, imagine what it would be like to have those RIGs. We wouldn't need to carry backpacks around for ammo." Yang said, Ruby and Nora's eyes wide and starry as they thought of all the possible things they could carry.
"Indeed, I can see why so many have RIGs now." Pyrrha said as Watcher chuckled.
'Maybe you will after all this is over.'
Suddenly, he heard the door on the other side bang, putting him on alert. He stood up, readying his cutter.
"HELP! HELP! Open the door! Open the door!" Jaune's eyes widened beneath his helmet as he heard a human voice, he lowered his gun and went to the door. Unfortunately, the door was locked no matter how many times he pressed the hologram.
"Please, HELP!" the voice on the other side got desperate as Jaune saw that the door was connected to the circuit on the wall. He tore the panel off and then punched the wires inside, shocking him slightly as it short-circuited, but the door was now open.
"OH GODS NO!" He quickly pressed the hologram but was too late. By the time the door opened, the person on the other side was killed. The creature on top of the body ate at the corpse, before its gaze fell upon him.
"Uh oh." Nora said.
Jaune pointed his Cutter at it and under the light of the room he saw the creature fully. Disgust filling him as he saw its body, the skin color was pale, torn and bloody in many areas. Its torso gaunt, ribs and spine protruding with the stomach torn open, showing intestines. Small arms in the stomach with the pelvis all, but non-existent. Its legs lanky and toes mutated, its arms long and angled in a disturbing manner, with blades protruding out of the palms. It looked like a horrible bastardization of the human body, especially with its head. The lower jaw was missing, replaced by tentacles, the upper jaw had fangs, the eyes missing leaving only sockets and the hair on top was soggy with blood.
"That is disgusting." Weiss remarked, the alien creature looked like it was trying to imitate a human but ended up botching.
"It looks like that Thing we saw before." Yang said, grimacing as she saw the open stomach.
"I just found a new nightmare." Ruby said, the creature looked like something that would come out of the bed to kill her.
"It's like someone tried to sculpt a human and made this abomination instead." Pyrrha said, the decaying skin made her slightly nauseous.
"Ladies and gentleman, let me introduce to you: the Necromorph." Watcher said.
"Fitting given how dead it looks." Weiss said as Blake looked at it closer.
'Strange. It almost looks like it…' her eyes widened at the thought.
Though disgusted at its appearance, Jaune nevertheless aimed his Cutter, the blue laser lights coming out as he pointed it at the creature. He pulled the trigger, firing at its chest. It staggered and Jaune aimed at its head, fired a shot and blew its head off.
'Got you.' He thought, expecting it to fall, instead to his shock the creature began to swing the blades wildly as if trying to hit him while blind.
"Oh you gotta be kidding me! It's still alive without its head?" Yang shouted at the fact.
"Looks like these things can't be killed the normal way." Blake said, her mind going back to the writing on the wall.
He took a few steps back, out of the corner of his eyes he saw the writing on the wall.
'Let's see if this works.' He aimed the cutter at the right leg, shooting it off as the creature fell. It still tried to get to him using its blades so he spun the weapon's blade 90 degrees and shot one of its arms off. The creature let out a roar before stopping completely, presumably dead. Jaune shot its other arm, waiting for a reaction.
There was none.
He walked up to it and kicked it. Still no reaction.
"So removing the limbs works but shooting the head off doesn't? How does that make any sense?" Weiss asked.
"Maybe their brains are in the limbs?" Ruby suggested.
"Why would it swing its arms and run then?" Pyrrha asked, putting a hole in that theory.
"Maybe it just can't move and dies without them?" Nora offered.
Satisfied with the kill and armed with new information, Jaune walked past the corpse, into the hallway behind the door that he opened. He saw the body of the man he failed to save, shook his head and then kneeled down to close the man's eyes.
'Poor guy.' He thought.
Despite the grim setting, the group smiled slightly as they saw Jaune close the man's eyes. Seemed like even in other worlds, he was always a kind soul.
With that done, Jaune stood up and went down the hallway, turning a corner and keeping his cutter ready. He opened a door and came upon a different hallway, one path was barricaded, thus inaccessible and the other seemed to be empty. He saw something on the barricaded path, he knelt down and picked it up.
A credit card, worth 900. He tucked it away, figuring he will need it.
Quarantine or not, upgraded suits and ammo still needed money.
"Why would he need money?! What purpose would it serve on a quarantined ship?!" Weiss shouted at the nonsensical decision.
"Well there are stores around the ship, from which he can buy ammo for the cutter and upgrades for his suit and weapon. He kinda needs the money." Watcher explained, but they were unconvinced.
"That's still stupid." Blake remarked, the others agreeing
He stood up, a figure ran from the other side of the barricade, startling him. He stumbled back before calming down. He turned around and walked to the other path, being mindful of anything that might attack him. As he turned a corner, he found a blue glowing cylinder a few feet away from him. He walked up to it and picked it up, smiling as he saw what it was.
'A Med pack. Small one though, still useful.' He put it on his inventory, keeping it for later use.
"Even Medical kits are smaller and more compact. Lucky." Ren said.
"How do they work anyway?" Weiss asked Watcher.
"Several theories exist. Ranging from nanomachines that heal by repairing the damage and then being absorbed when no longer needed, to the cylinders having a serum that creates more stem cells allowing the healing process to be much faster. What is known however, is that the gel inside also has a sort of a painkiller." He replied whilst a Med Pack appeared on his hand.
"Medical science advanced so far." Pyrrha said.
He looked to the left and saw an audio log lying on the ground. Curious, he picked it up and pressed play on it.
"This is Russel. Listen up everyone, they are using the vents, that's how they get around the ship, stay away from the-
"Look out!"
"Get back! AHHHH!"
'Away from the vents. What a good idea! It's not like I am in a ship full of vents or anything!' Jaune sarcastically thought at the near useless info.
"Well at least the guy gave you some info, Jaune." Yang said to the screen as she took a bite out of a sandwich.
Shaking his head, Jaune went to the door, opened it and found himself in the transport control point. A shelf nearby, he opened it to reveal some plasma pack that he placed in his inventory.
Suddenly, his RIG showed a static video, which then revealed to be Penny, alive and well.
"Jaune! Jaune! I can't believe he made it." Jaune heard the voice behind glass windows, he turned and saw Sun and Penny standing next to the rails.
"Yay, they're alive!" Ruby exclaimed, putting a fist up.
"Looks like he is not alone." Pyrrha said with a smile.
"Jaune, we ran into more of those things. You okay?" Sun asked to which Jaune nodded.
"Now what?!" Penny shouted as the video feed turned to her, "What the hell were those things?! Was that the crew?!"
"Keep your voice down. Whatever they are, they are hostile and many of the ship's doors are locked because of the damn quarantine." He turned to Jaune.
"We need to get out of here but you must repair the tram system."
"You are crazy Wukong! You are gonna get us killed!" Penny shouted after hearing his plan.
"If you listen to me, I will get us all to safety. Now what's the situation with the tram system?" Penny created an interface from her wrist and looked up the tram system, then scoffed.
"The data board is fried, but there should be a spare one somewhere. And then there is a broken tram that needs to be repaired." She had a look of frustration on her face.
"Damnit! Everything is one the other side of the quarantine! We can't access them!"
"We can't but Jaune can."
"Seems like they are in luck then." Blake said, drinking her tea.
"Looks like Arc has a lot of things to do to get them to safety." Weiss noted.
"Jaune, if you can help me get to the bridge I can access the personal file and help you find Ruby." With that Sun cut the transmission as Jaune cracked his neck.
'Looks like I have a lot to do. This should be interesting.' He thought as he looked up the map that Sun gave him and began to move.
A few minutes later, Jaune had finished cutting up a Necromorph in the open space between rooms.
'I regret what I said.' He thought as he went to the corpse and stomped its leg off for good measure.
"Did we just skip ahead?" Yang asked, noting how the time seemingly jumped.
"I fast forwarded it slightly, you would be bored by what happened minutes before." Watcher said
He heard the sounds of an opening and closing door and went to investigate. He found a malfunctioning door.
'Now what?' He thought before he looked down and saw a device on the ground. He picked it up and grinned under his helmet.
'Just my luck. A Status Module.' He put the device on his forearm and saw it was still working. He looked at the door before shooting a beam of stasis at it, causing it to slow down.
"Wait, what did he just do?" Weiss quickly asked seeing the door slow down.
"Stasis is a field of science of technology based around quantum physics. I won't bore you and just say that it is capable of making a temporal field around an object and slows it down relative to normal time. It is used in many ways, from stopping criminals, repairing broken machinery or slowing down bleeding." Now the seven looked very awed. The sheer potential is something they could understand.
Jaune went through the door and kept walking to the trams, all the while passing through bathrooms, other rooms before eventually finding the two trams. Like Penny said, one of them stood atop the other, preventing it from going to the repairing.
He walked to the control panel and pressed one of the buttons, one of them however looked fried as was the hooking mechanism.
'Great, more work.' He thought before the sounds of someone moving through the vents alerted him. He looked to the side and saw several Necromorphs burst out of the vents. He aimed his cutter at them firing a reflexive shot which luckily hit one of the blades of one of them. The others either slowly walked to him or rushed at him.
He barely dodged one, shot its leg off, causing it to fall. One however grabbed him and brought its teeth to his shoulder trying to bite him.
"He is in trouble."
Jaune held it back and tried to shake it off, succeeding and as it let go, he punched it in the face with all his strength, ripping off its head as it staggered back. He backed away from them, shooting at their limbs, which was hard enough as they moved around. Still, he killed them and luckily he killed the final one just as he ran out of ammo.
Sighing in relief, Jaune took out a plasma pack and replaced the empty one in the Cutter. He then went to the panel and pressed a button enabling one of the hooks to catch the tram. He went to the other and did the same, however the hook didn't stay long, going back to its original position.
Frowning, he pressed it again and when it caught the tram, he used stasis on it, slowing down allowing him to go to the main hologram and press the button. It worked as the hooks took the tram and removed it allowing the one on top to move.
"That's one problem fixed." Blake commented.
"Out of who knows how many other problems." Weiss noted, causing them to frown.
"Jaune it worked! The trams are moving again!" Penny said through the RIG, "If you fix the main panel, you will be able to control the tram system. But hurry, I hear something crawling around here." She cut off the feed as Jaune went to a locker and picked up a node.
'A node, just what I need.' He thought as he exited the room and started heading to the maintenance room, all the while seeing a shadow of something moving through the vents above, putting him on full alert.
'Looks like there is more than one type of these freaks.' His thoughts were cut off when one of the vents in front of him exploded and a bipedal Necromorph with a tail came out, screeching at him.
'What an ugly bastard.' He thought, looking at its teeth and face as it ran at him. He quickly used kinesis on it, slowing it down, before shooting off both of its arms, it fell after the stasis wore off and he reloaded his Cutter.
'Ruby, I am coming. Just hold on.'
He had no idea of the nightmare that would await him.
Suddenly, the screen cut off and the lights flickered back on.
"What the?" Ren muttered before the screen came back on, this time showing a starry sky.
"Twinkle, twinkle, little star."
It showed planet Aegis VII.
"How I wonder what you are."
Slowly panning over to the Ishimura floating in space.
"Up above the world so high."
The camera zoomed in on the Planet cracker.
"Like a diamond in the sky."
The screen cut off to the darkness, as the creepy continued to sing.
"What-What is this?" Weiss asked, feeling a child down her spine.
"Ren hold me." Nora said as she clung onto her partner who held her firmly.
"When the blazing sun is gone."
The interior of the ship is shown, blood stains on walls and floor.
"When the nothing shine upon"
Writings on walls, strange symbols dotted around.
"When you show your little light."
A corpse lay on the ground, arm reaching out to med pack.
"Twinkle, twinkle all the night."
It then moved to the writing that Jaune found.
"Yang, I'm scared." Ruby whimpered as Yang held her sister.
"It's okay, Rubes. I'm here." Though she looked unfazed she was also creeped out by the song, especially since Summer sang it to them once.
"Then the traveler in the dark."
The screen suddenly jumped to a scene of a man shooting himself.
"Thanks you for your little spark."
It then changed to a scene of a woman slicing her neck.
"He could not see which way to go."
A scene of a man running from something.
"If you did not twinkle so."
A scene of a man stabbing his eyes with a screw, followed by images of people dying by killing each other or dying to Necromorphs in gruesome ways.
Ruby held on to her sister, the memories of her mother singing this lullaby to her when she couldn't sleep twisting into hallucinations of Summer cutting herself with her weapon.
Nora held on to Ren tightly as the man himself saw hallucinations of himself cutting Nora open with Storm Flower.
Blake and Weiss saw different hallucinations, this time involving their parental figures going insane and killing each other, the two girls gripped their seats as the intense images continued the display.
Pyrrha saw a hallucination of herself cutting Jaune's legs as he screamed, begging her to stop. She instead continued cutting them off, a golden ring visible on her ring finger as well as Jaune's.
"Though I know not what you are."
Suddenly, the images stopped, the scene now showing Ishimura in space.
"Twinkle, twinkle little star."
The final image showed a severed hand floating in space, pieces of metal plates still in place, the fingers visible.
The screen stopped, spitting the card out as Watcher caught it and the lights flickered back on. The seven stopped what they were doing and turned to him.
"What the hell was that?" Yang asked as Ruby shook slightly in her grasp.
"Seems like something interfered with the viewing and caused a glitch. We will come back to this world later. Right now, rest up." He put the card away for later viewing all the while looking at it warily.
"What were the Necromorphs? You said you would tell us." Nora said.
"An alien signal brings dead organisms back to life, horrifically disfiguring them and turning them into Necromorphs." He explained as their eyes widened.
"Zombies?" Ruby asked as Watcher shook his head.
"Kind of, they have a higher purpose than simply eat all humans around you." He said, confusing them.
"Let's wait till you recover, then we will watch the next one." He said and they nodded as Pyrrha sat still, the hallucination fresh on her mind.
"Oh Jaune, you will be mine forever." Pyrrha in hallucination said as Jaune screamed for mercy in an empty warehouse. The redhead champion's eyes watered as she gripped the seat tightly.
"Pyrrha?" She snapped out of her trance and turned to see Nora looking at her, "Are you okay?" Pyrrha didn't answer and shook her head.
"I'm fine Nora. I'm fine." She replied.
'That can't be me, can it?'
TO BE CONTINUED…
A/N: And done! The Halloween chapter is done, two days after Halloween (damn it). Well, I hope you like it.
I read a lot of reaction fanfics, yet none of them featured Dead Space, I mean it is one of the best horror games of all time and yet for some reason, no one does a reaction to it. I love the series because it presents one of the darkest sci-fi universes for mankind where resources are low, a religion wants to kill everyone, necromorphs killed all other alien species and leaves humanity as the last snack in the Milky Way Galaxy. Grimdark and bleak.
I also like the protagonist. Isaac Clarke isn't a Spartan like John 117 or a soldier like Commander Shepard in Mass Effect or a highly trained badass like Leon or Chris. He is just an engineer nearing his forties, using mining tools to survive and trying to find his girlfriend (in the first game at least). Guys like Chief and Shepard can survive because they are experienced soldiers. Isaac though? As good a chance as a rat in a room full of rat traps.
Going on a few theories on how inventory and Med Packs work, even if they sound ridiculous. I also kept Jaune silent like Isaac and I will tell you later as to why.
Also, to all my followers who live in the USA, I hope you are all safe no matter who you are, because it seems like things are about to go crazy this month.
Thank you for reading this chapter and I will see you all later.