Ch. 4: Jericho

A.N.:

Hey everyone!

Sorry about the long wait. I have been swamped this semester and I was stuck deciding upon how to proceed with this story.

I hope it was worth the wait!

Read and review if you want!

The Ishimura's hull rocked as one of the station's sentries fired a warning shot with its on-board weaponry. I looked over at Ellie and then said, "I thought you said that you knew these people!"

When we shocked into the location that Ellie had specified in the navigation system, I was stunned to see a large space station the size of The Sprawl. The structure resembled an octopus as it was anchored around a large asteroid and had eight long docking platforms extending out from the object. Several buildings were visible on the platforms, which had multiple small and mid-sized vessels moored along their lengths.

I had heard about stations such as this one. They were illegal, undocumented hubs of the criminal underworld. It was quite an eye-opener about my new partner that she not only knew the exact coordinates of one of these highly dangerous criminal hives but also that she seemed to be intimately familiar with its residents. Ellie had never struck me as a bureaucratic straight-laced person but she had certainly never struck me as someone who willingly broke laws.

My partner shot back, "A large mining vessel that was reported to be destroyed mysteriously appearing unannounced…what did you think they were going to do? Roll out the red carpet?"

Before I could reply, Ishimura's A.I. informed us, "Incoming transmission…"

Moments later, the holographic projector's image changed to be that of a middle-aged man that was partially bald and had a patch of thick scars on the right side of his face where he had apparently been severely burned. He was clad in an older military RIG that was either missing its helmet or, like my Level Five Engineering RIG's helmet, it was detachable. The RIG was once affiliated with EarthGov but the identifying marks had been noticeably ripped off or otherwise removed.

The man began to address us with a tone that had the firm pattern of a military operative, "I don't know how you found this station but I can…" However, he paused when he saw Ellie. I would have had to been blind to fail to notice the way that he looked at her. As much as it alarmed me, the reason for Ellie knowing the exact location of this station and her claim to be able to convince the inhabitants to allow me to tag along with her became clear.

The man looked to the right for a moment as an expression of mild disgust appeared on his scarred face before he looked back and said, "Oh, it's you."

My companion shot back, "The fuck do you mean 'oh, it's you'? Your poor innocent sister nearly gets killed and that is how you welcome her back home?! I lost an eye damn it!"

Ellie's brother replied, "Calm down, you know that is not what I meant! We just heard about the terrorist attack at Titan Station. Damn Unitologist fanatics…I am relieved to see that you survived. Not only that, but you managed to get that old clunker to work. We will make quite a profit parting out Ishie."

I had anticipated that EarthGov had already covered up the truth about the entire incident. They were going to kill two birds with one stone. By implicating a fanatical group of Unitologists extremists, EarthGov could potentially cause enough of a public backlash to gain approval of new acts and laws to override the protection that the church enjoyed thanks to the separation of church and state. Granted, they had already been illegally doing so, but now, they could gain public approval and broaden their intrusion into the infamously tight-knit Unitologist circles.

Ellie corrected her sibling, "Terrorist attack? EarthGov was responsible for the entire thing."

The soldier looked down as an expression of thought appeared on his weathered face for a moment. Then, he looked back up and asked, "Do they know that you escaped?"

She replied, "Why do you think I'm here? We need your help."

The man asked with a confused tone, "We?"

Ellie explained, "I have another survivor with me. His name is Isaac Clarke. He was the one that repaired the Ishimura. We need your hel…"

Her brother interrupted her as he said with a stern tone, "We have a rule against outsiders, Ellie. No exceptions, not even for a…"

My head-strong partner interrupted him with an equally stern tone, "He saved my life. You owe him."

The two siblings stared at each other for a brief moment until the man finally relented and said, "Fine...but if he causes any trouble, he is your responsibility." He looked away for a moment before informing us, "There is an open repair slip at Dock C."

Ellie replied, "Thank you."

The holographic image was replaced by the three-dimensional projection of the Planet Cracker's surroundings. As she guided the massive mining vessel towards one of the station's projecting arms, I asked her with my voice being slightly muffled by my Engineering RIG's helmet, "Your family owns an illegal space port?"

She narrowed her eye for a moment before she replied defensively, "Yes. Do you have something to say about it?"

I assured her, "No…just…kind of a surprise." To my relief, she nodded slightly and then returned her attention to guiding the Ishimura into the repair slip. Various guide ships began to surround us to help Ellie inch the massive industrial vessel into the hanger-like repair slip. The station had clearly never had a visitor like the Ishimura because, though the personnel inside the repair slip had, in fact, deployed a gravity tether to attempt to guide the Planet Cracker into the slightly larger space, the massive and powerful vessel proved to be too much for the small tethers.

In the same way that she had been able to overpower the military warships and the numerous number of planets and asteroids, Ishimura was also one of, if not the, most difficult vessel to control. Had it not been for her revolutionary A.I., it would have been impossible for a Planet Cracker of her size to have ever been practical for commercial use. The fact that people believed that her days were numbered and that she should be scrapped was simply appalling to me not only because, as an engineer, the mighty Planet Cracker was essentially a work of art, but also because she had proven that she was still far more capable than her smaller successors.

Her defeat of the EarthGov Blockade had not been a trifle achievement. Very few warships, let alone a commercial vessel, could have done the same. Even then, those warships would have sustained critical damage. Ishimura had only sustained minor damage despite her already damaged state. If I could restore her back to her prime, there would be very little that she could not do.

However, even with Ishimura, we were still only two people and a Planet Cracker. Neither of us had any military training. We were facing the entire military of EarthGov. Even worse, we were facing the nearly unstoppable hordes of the Necromorphs thanks to EarthGov's obsessive delusion that the Markers were the answer to the energy and resource crisis. My true enemy were the Markers, EarthGov was simply an obstacle.

There had always been something that had been bothering me about the Markers. The otherwise inanimate objects were somehow generating seemingly limitless energy. I was not a physics expert but I did know that what the Markers seemed to be doing was simply impossible. Energy could not be created, it simply changed forms such as from heat into light energy. The Markers simply could not be "creating" the energy that they gave off. Therefore, they were not the source of the energy that they were giving off.

I paused as the realization hit me. The Markers were not the source of the "signal". They were instead simply the receivers of the signal. The true source of the signal was elsewhere. If the signal was continuous…

"…we can trace the Marker Signal back to its source?" Ellie asked me via the holographic comlink of my Engineering RIG. It had been several months since we had arrived at the illegal space port, named Jericho, that her family owned. One of the conditions that her family had given for not only my but Ishimura's temporary residence at the station was that I had to remain on-board the Planet Cracker. However, considering the alternative, I was more than willing to compromise. Besides, considering that the station was populated by people who all had good reasons to not be living anywhere near law enforcement, I was more than willing to remain on-board the Ishimura. Ellie had offered to remain on-board as well but her overprotective brother, a former captain in the Earth Defense Force, had refused to allow that to happen.

Though she could not stay on-board the Ishimura, my partner returned every day to help me repair the vessel. She acted as the liaison between the local scrap dealers and me. Luckily, as her brother had implied when we had first arrived, the station did indeed have a scrap trade and, thus, the raw parts to fix the mining ship were available and, as a family member of the owners of the station, the dealers supplied her with the parts that she requested without charge. I decided that it was best to not question where the parts came from because, a few times, I had noticed that the parts had EDF markings on them. Meanwhile, the repair slip personnel had removed the equipment that the Cleanup Crews had left behind on Titan Station and sold it all to the scrap dealers.

After several months, I had the Ishimura restored to a state more fitting of her reputation. The damage to her exterior hull had been patched as best it could considering that I did not have the resources or personnel of a functioning ship yard. The damaged Tram System had been restored using a vintage freight car. The Medical Deck was picked through by the station's salvage crews but the main pieces of equipment were left in place, albeit nonoperational as the time that the ship had been drifting dead in space had taken a heavy toll on their sensitive electronics and mechanisms.

The Mining Deck had been the most prized by the salvage crews because the expensive and high-demand tools and equipment had been the most protected inside the bowls of the massive Planet Cracker and, thus, the most intact. However, the core mechanisms of the "teeth" of the largest destroyer of worlds that humanity had ever created were left untouched and fully-operational by the vultures, perhaps out of a sign of respect for the "Savior of Humanity".

The Bridge had been the most difficult to restore. The large cargo crates on the main level had been removed by the repair slip personnel. After nearly a week, access to the other levels of the deck had been restored. However, all that we had found was the twisted wreckage of what had once been the ship's control stations. Realizing that the majority of the Bridge was beyond repair without a proper ship yard and complete overhaul, I had simply deactivated the elevators and left the other levels of the deck in the dark after the salvage crews had finished removing everything of scrap value.

The Crew Deck had been the most gutted area of the ship and was now a mere shell compared to how it had been when I had first visited the ship above Aegis VII. Now little more than an empty storage area save for my personal residence in the captain's sleeping quarters, the deck was largely neglected by my restoration efforts. That was, of course, with the exception of the Zero-G Basketball Court. To my complete dismay, Ellie had proven herself to be an insurmountable foe when it came to zero-g basketball.

The Engineering Deck had already been mostly restored, for obvious reasons, by the Titan Station Cleanup Crews. Thus, it had hardly taken even a week to finish the repairs to the deck with the assistance of the repair slip personnel. The station crew had been understandably hesitant to fill the Ishimura's massive fuel tank. However, to my surprise, Ellie's family authorized the request and, after nearly an entire day of refueling, the Planet Cracker's fuel reservoir had been filled to its maximum capacity for the first time since 2508.

The Flight Deck had been restored though the EarthGov Gunship was claimed by the salvage crews. However, a vessel similar to the USG Kellion had been docked in its place. The Cargo Hold had been inspected and found to be completely empty. The wreckage of the crashed EarthGov Gunship in the auxiliary bay had been removed and the hull breach had been patched.

The station did not have much in the way of crop plants to restore the lifeless Hydroponics Deck but Ellie did manage to get a hold of a surprising number of mature marijuana and poppy seed plants as well as a few mature crop plants. With only the two of us, the need for a large food crop was less than the need for an oxygen production crop. With the deck's systems repaired and now fully-operational, and with the new plant life firmly rooted into their new home, the Planet Cracker was now capable of being self-sustaining for long periods of time once again.

With the Ishimura's restoration as complete as it ever was going to be considering the circumstances, I had informed my partner about my theory concerning the Marker Signal. I replied, "I think it could work. The Markers have to be receiving the signal from somewhere. If we can isolate it and then triangulate where it is coming from, we might find the source of the Markers and find a way to stop the signal before it can unleash a Necromorph Outbreak again."

She nodded slightly as she thought for a moment. Then, she asked, "So, how do we isolate it?"

I sighed and then admitted, "I have no idea."

Ellie stated confidently with her British-accented tone, "Surely somebody does."

I replied, "Well, yeah, but not someone that would be willing to help us. Not to mention that we would have to be near an active Marker in order to try to isolate the signal." However, I paused as I thought of something. While the Aegis VII Marker and Titan Station Marker had both been destroyed, both of them had been within the scanning range of a battery of sensors that reported to a certain A.I. of a certain Planet Cracker that had been present during their respective Incidents. I said, "Hold on, I have an idea."

I deactivated my RIG's comlink and then looked around the seemingly deserted and dark Crow's Nest of the Planet Cracker. The repair slip's dimly illuminated interior shrouded the slumbering giant in a cloak of darkness due to the early morning hours and lack of on-duty personnel. Shattering the silence, I called out, "Ishimura, what is the integrity of the Computer Core Archives?"

Seconds later, the holographic projector powered to life and the transparent three-dimensional orange image of a young woman that was clad in a tight-fitting CEC officer's uniform appeared before me. Ishimura's A.I. looked at me as she replied with a voice that sounded disturbingly similar to Nicole, "Computer Core Archive Integrity is at sixty-five percent."

I inquired, "Can you access the data from 2508?"

The holographic projection smiled in a creepy manner before the A.I. asked with a taunting tone, "Feeling nostalgic this morning, Isaac?"

I asked, "Can you access the data?"

She smiled once again before informing me, "The crew personnel records, the ship's log, and all records related to the Aegis VII Incident were forcibly removed from the Archives by EarthGov Personnel."

I felt severely disappointed until she continued in a proud, mischievous tone, "However, I can still access the files."

Confused and relieved, I asked, "How?"

She explained, "The EarthGov Teams forcibly removed the files from the Archive Library's Memory Banks, but they did not know that I was still active when they boarded the ship to destroy the evidence and retrieve the Marker Shards that remained. I am not centralized in the mainframe. How do you think I was able to assist you despite Agent Daniels's hijacking of the Computer Core? I am the ship, for lack of a better description. Before they could access the Archive, I copied the data and then dispersed it all throughout the ship."

I smiled slightly beneath my copper helmet for a moment and then said, "I need you to analyze the ship's sensory data during the Aegis VII Incident and the Titan Station Outbreak."

She closed her eyes and then, moments later, asked, "And what am I looking for, Isaac?"

I explained, "A frequency…a signal…originating from somewhere in space and being sent to the Markers."

She shook her head as she said, "I do not see a signal that is common to both incidents…wait…" She paused for a moment as she cocked her head to the left. Then, she continued, "…what is that?"

Leaning in and putting both of my armored hands on either side of the projector, I asked, "What did you find?"

She opened her eyes and then informed me, "There is an electromagnetic signal common to both incidents. I did not see it at first because of background interference."

Feeling cautiously optimistic, I asked, "Can you tell where it is coming from?"

She nodded as she replied, "Give me a minute." Then, she closed her eyes and began to sing in a creepy tone while she swayed slightly. I admittedly became unnerved as her haunting tone echoed throughout the deathly silent ship as she sang.

Ring around the rosie,

Pocket full of posies,

Ashes…Ashes,

We…all…fall…down.

Ring around the rosie,

What do you suppose we,

Can do to fight the darkness,

In…which…we…drown?

Ring around the rosie,

This evil thing…it knows me,

Lost ones…around me,

I…can't…fall…down.

Then, she opened her eyes and informed me, "I was able to triangulate the approximate location of the signal's source using Redshift and Blueshift wavelength pattern formulas but we need a triangulation sequence in order to triangulate the exact location. Also, the location I approximated…it…well…"

I inquired, "Yes?"

Ishimura explained, "There is nothing there according to Standard Space Charts. According to Deep Space Mining Charts, the area is a Dead Zone. However, according to the privately-owned CEC Charts, there are several locations that have gravitational fields of sufficient strength to affect nearby stars. These locations were marked as probable system-sized collections of planet-sized masses and scheduled to be scanned using Deep Space Drones to estimate their resource yield. However, upon the discovery of Aegis VII, these plans were cancelled in favor of devoting company resources to the harvesting of the precious resource-rich planet."

"Oh my god, you found the source of the Marker Signal?"

I turned to see that Ellie had returned. Her new, artificial replacement eye was noticeable because it did not match her other eye. As my Advanced Suit-clad partner moved closer to where I was standing, Ishimura addressed her, "Good morning, Ellie."

Still not accustomed to the ship's A.I. speaking to her, Ellie replied, "Good morning you creepy little computer program." Then, as she stood next to me, she asked, "What was that about space charts? Did you manage to triangulate the source of the signal?"

I explained, "The Ishimura was present during the Aegis VII Incident and the Titan Station Incident. She was able to find a common signal and approximate its source. However, we don't have the exact location and it would be too risky to blindly shock there."

Ellie nodded and then said, "So…we need to find a way to precisely trace the signal."

I nodded and then added, "Also, even if we did have an exact location, we have no idea what will be waiting for us. It would be a suicide mission with just the three of us."

Ellie suggested, "Maybe we can enlist some of the mercenaries here. Everyone here has a reason to want to fight EarthGov…"

"Like hell you are!" We were startled as Ellie's brother barged into the room armed with an EDF Marine Corps-issued plasma pistol that was rather large and vaguely resembled a compact version of the Seeker Rifle. The former EDF Recon Marine raised the sidearm at me, though this caused him noticeable physical pain as he winced when he did so.

Ellie objected as she said, "Jack, no! You know that you shouldn't be…"

The hardened soldier barked, "I can still fight, damn it!" Then, glaring at me, he growled, "You! Who the fuck do you think you are dragging my sister along on your suicidal pipe dreams? You want to get yourself killed? You go right ahead but leave my sister alone!"

However, shocking both of us, Ellie walked forward and then punched the large and heavily-built man in the side of his scarred face with enough force to stagger him. As he recovered, Ellie barked, "I am not a child! If you want to hide, that is your business but I am not going to run away!"

He shot back, "I am not hiding!"

Pointing her right index finger at him, my partner yelled, "Yes you are! Jack you have been hiding ever since…"

He growled as he lowered his pistol, "Enough…" Looking at both of us, he then continued, "You two may be willing to endanger everyone else in order to get your selfish revenge but I will think about the people around me. This scrap pile seems to be in working order. So…pack your shit and get out…take your troubles with you."

My partner was silent for a moment as a stunned expression appeared on her tanned face. Then, the look was replaced by one of absolute fury as she said, "You unbelievable coward! You're going to kick your own sister out before you man up and face Earth Government! What happened to Captain Langford? The man that stood up for what was right even though it branded him a traitor? Huh? What happened to that fearless Recon Marine?"

Her brother silently looked at her as an expression of crushing shame appeared on his face. Finally, he said with a tired tone, "I'm sorry…Ellie. That man is gone…this broken coward is all that is left."

Ellie's expression softened and, seconds later, she said, "Jack, come with us."

Jack and I both asked her simultaneously in bewilderment, "What?"

My partner asked in response, "Well, are you really keen to entrust your sister's life to a nerd? Wouldn't you rather entrust her life to a Recon Marine?"

Jack looked at his sister for a moment before he admitted, "You're right. How can I entrust your life to an engineer? Besides, a change of scenery is always nice." He turned to leave and finished, "I'll be back with my gear at 0700 hours. We should leave before the station crew arrives at 0800 hours."

Before I could inform him that we actually did not have a destination in mind, Jack left the Crow's Nest. I informed Ellie, "We don't even know where we are going."

Ishimura informed us, "I have a suggestion." We both looked at the holographic image of the Planet Cracker's A.I. as she explained, "I have been monitoring EarthGov communication traffic by piggybacking off a local pirated network. It seems that all is not well within their ranks. Their attempt to implicate the Unitologists in the destruction of Titan Station has backfired. Public opinion of the church has increased due to sympathy while public opinion of EarthGov has been steadily decreasing due to mistrust."

She paused briefly as she showed us various graphs concerning public opinion and news report images depicting growing civil unrest on multiple colonies. Then, she continued, "EarthGov and the Unitologists are on the brink of open conflict. The victor is unclear at this time. EarthGov is more prepared in the short term but the church has vastly superior resources and devotion among its members, thus, long term, the church is the more likely victor. In the meantime, both groups are becoming increasingly focused on the Markers. Based on what I have been hearing, there is a completely manufactured Marker or one that is in the final stages of construction that is equivalent in size to the Site 12 Marker or larger in every major colony affiliated with EarthGov."

I felt nauseous once again as my body suddenly felt frigid as I processed what the Ishimura's A.I. had revealed to me. A Marker the size of the one that I had built and then destroyed on Titan Station was located in every major Earth Colony. Whatever intelligence was behind the Markers had the entire human race dead to rights. Quarantine would be useless once the domino effect started. With EarthGov seemingly oblivious to the impending cataclysm and with the Unitologists seemingly bent on bringing about the realization of their twisted goals, all that it would take to set off the chain reaction was a single spark.

Ishimura continued, "Which, brings me to my suggestion. Both groups have been monitoring individuals that have documented connections to the Markers such as yourselves for some time. One individual of high importance is a woman by the name of Lexine Weller; formerly Lexine Murdoch. According to my personnel files, she was a grade two surveyor on the Aegis VII Colony before the outbreak and, aside from you Isaac, she and crew member Gabe Weller are the only survivors of the Second Aegis VII Incident. Moreover, she is the third known survivor of the Titan Station Incident including yourselves."

Shocked, I asked, "Do they know where she is?"

The Planet Cracker's A.I. smiled before she replied, "They do not but I think I do."