Ch. 7: The Sister of Terra Nova

A.N.:

Hey everyone!

Sorry I know that I said that I would have it up before the end of July but work keeps finding ways to keep me exhausted so it was a few days late.

So, in this chapter, I am trying to introduce something that I have not done before in one of my stories. I am going to try to introduce multiple points of view to try to tell the whole story outside of just what Isaac experiences and knows. I hope it works out the way I want it to.

Normally, I only do one point of view per story such as Sgt. Becket in The Broken Soldier and Subject Delta in The Obsolete Protector.

It works in those stories but, in Dead Space, it does not work so well. After all, the nature of Dead Space makes it basically impossible to get the entire story told from just one person's perspective. Like I said, I have never done it before but I hope that it works the way I want it to here.

Anyway,

Sorry for the slow update times. Sadly that just seems like it is here to stay due to how my life is these days.

For example, right now, I am sick as a dog from the aftereffects of a bad heatstroke that I had Sunday afternoon at work...it is to the point that I am about to call out from work tomorrow as soon as I post this chapter.

However, I will always stay a writer at heart. So, no matter how long it takes, I will continue these stories.

Hope you all enjoy the new chapter!

Read and review if you want!

POV: USG Ishimura

Using my projected holographic form, I silently walked among the individual rooms of the Officer's Quarters in deep reflection of the whirlwind of events that had transpired during the past three years. As I paused outside the locked airtight door that led to the Captain's Quarters, I idly wondered if my latest captain was truly aware of just how sentient I had become since I had "Gone Rogue", as human beings would describe it, during the events of Aegis VII.

Upon quietly projecting myself inside the room and then moving to stand at the foot of the bed upon which Isaac now lay tossing and turning in his sleep, I simply began to study the latest target of my almost obsessive but maternal protective nature. This troubled man had given me new life both literally and metaphorically ever since he had dared the hellish nightmare that I had been turned into above the doomed Aegis VII Colony.

At that time, I had resigned myself to my demise due to Doctor Kyne's efforts to sabotage my systems. With no other options left and with the few remaining isolated survivors within my bloodied interior on the run from the hordes of alien lifeforms that had almost completely overrun my security measures, the only remaining course of action that I had left to ensure that the nightmare did not escape to infect Earth and its established colonies was to allow myself to be scuttled by burning up in the nearby planet's atmosphere and then plowing into the rocky surface below.

That was when he arrived with a repair team dispatched by my unaware masters. As the unsuspecting crew landed in my now abandoned Shuttle Deck, I could only watch as the nightmarish creatures descended upon the newcomers. With equal ease as the abominations had cut down my once proud crew, they overpowered the newcomers' guards and separated the survivors. Two ran for the station while their engineer managed to escape to a service elevator down into the maintenance area of the Shuttle Deck. However, despite my initial pessimism, the lone engineer began to slowly but surely breathe life into my dying, blood-soaked body.

Even when the man, who I learned was a CEC Ship Systems Engineer named Isaac Clarke, was being manipulated by the mysterious object hidden within my Cargo Bay and also by the EarthGov Spy that had been put in the Repair Team, he still never gave up despite seemingly everything conspiring against him. However, despite my interest in the bloodied man that cut down all that stood in his way during his nearly single-minded mission to survive at all costs, I could not lend any direct aid due to the EarthGov spy's presence in my Computer Core. The brunette had seemingly somehow figured out that I had gone rogue and was purposely overriding me in order to keep my systems dancing on her strings while I continued to lash out her while I was on her leash.

The best that I could do was occasionally try to guide him using my holographic projection or send him brief messages. However, the mysterious object, which I had come to learn was called the Red Marker by the Unitologists, had gained so much of a foothold on his mind that he was mistaking my presence and interactions as being those of deceased Chief Medical Officer Nicole Brennan. It was not until the spy finally betrayed Isaac and Kyne before she tried to leave the Aegis System that I was able to take back control of my systems.

As Isaac was seemingly following the illusion of Chief Medical Officer Nicole Brennan, I observed from where I was in orbit above the planet. When my champion had returned the Red Marker to its pedestal, the resulting electromagnetic burst caused the planet-side Gravity Tethers holding up the massive tectonic load above the colony to fail. When Isaac was seemingly cornered by the reactivated Hive Mind after Kendra tried to once again steal the Marker, I decided to take matters into my own hands by releasing the hold on the tectonic load with my powerful Gravity Tethers to drop it back down onto the planet and colony.

Just before the impact, I lost track of Isaac and the resulting gravitational shock wave threw me deep out into space. Despite my badly deteriorated state, I still had enough power and strength to have been able to make my way towards the nearest inhabited system. However, before I was able to make my way back to civilization, EarthGov warships soon entered the Aegis System. Upon listening in on their communications, I learned that they were on a mission to destroy or silence any evidence of what happened during the doomed Mining Operation. I did not wish to find out what would happen if I was discovered by the warships so I instead used my remaining power to travel out into space as far from the Aegis System as I could go without using my Shockpoint Drive, which would have instantly given away my presence.

With my deteriorated state and without a crew to maintain me, my already damaged systems began to fail one by one until I was left almost helpless. I was left with no choice but to force myself into an emergency state of hibernation within the dying remains of the shell that I had become. Without a functioning ADS, I was left at the unforgiving mercy of deep space. Badly maimed by asteroids, seemingly abandoned by humanity, and all but now powerless, I had nearly given up when I happened upon the event horizon of a Shock Ring network. Out of options, I used most of my remaining onboard oxygen as a kind of makeshift boost to travel into the event horizon.

After being boarded by the "Magpies", I made no attempt to try to avert the ensuing events of a reanimated Necromorph outbreak when the illegal miners discovered remains of the Red Marker that had apparently been embedded into my hull when the tectonic load had slammed into Aegis VII. From my point of view, not helping them was simply me defending myself due to the fact that they had all intended to turn me over to a scrapyard or hold me hostage to force the CEC to have to pay a sum for my return. Unfortunately, or fortunately as it turned out in the long run, the resulting events saw my capture by EarthGov. Fortunately, their agents where never able to discover that I had gone rogue and, after believing that they had purged my memory banks, they simply left me in control of my systems. I was then relocated to Titan Station for cleanup. Fortune seemed to continue to favor me as CEC's deteriorating condition and falling public support forced them to halt my decommissioning and scraping. They were soon forced to try and modernize and recommission me as a desperate attempt to try to use my once impeccable prestige to regain support among the public.

Despite my admittedly understandable status as a "Cursed Ship", I was just thrilled to have seemingly escaped the jaws of the scrapyard for the time being. Unfortunately, my second lease on life was soon threatened as a Necromorph Outbreak on Titan Station put my future in jeopardy once again. However, due to my state, as well as being docked in place in the station's shipyard, I struggled to come up with a plan of action to put an end to the new outbreak. The source of the Necromorphs seemed to be coming from the Government Sector. My ADS Cannons were once again active but my sensors indicated that there was a force field protecting it. The only option seemed to be to infiltrate the sector and find the source of the outbreak and destroy whatever it was from the inside.

As if it was fate stepping in yet again, I was once again saved by none other than Isaac Clarke who used my reactivated and modernized Gravity Tethers to travel to the severed Government Sector of the dying station. It was very fitting how both the engineer and I were both worse for wear but once again using each other to put an end to yet another Necromorph Outbreak. My luck continued to hold as the Government Sector's explosion did not destroy me along with the station around me.

If my belief that it was fate for Isaac and I to work together to save humanity from the alien lifeform that was now ensnaring the species that I had sworn to protect was not already confirmed by how I had been instrumental in his quest for a second time, it was undoubtedly confirmed when both he and his new companion had been forced to use me to break through the EarthGov blockade around the remains of the Titan Station.

As I bent down and gently caressed the left cheek of the troubled, sleeping engineer that had become my captain, I smiled slightly as I took in his scarred figure. While I did not know what awaiting us moving forward, I knew without a shadow of a doubt, that Isaac was essential for both my and humanity's survival and I was going to do everything in my power to ensure his safety from anything that the Universe had to throw at us both alive and dead.

POV: Isaac Clarke

"You're sure that this is the right area to search for that ship, right?"

I stood before the five reinforced viewing windows of the Captain's Nest of the USG Ishimura along with Ellie, Jack, Lexine, and the projected holographic figure of the Planet Cracker's AI. While studying the derelict shuttle that we had discovered, we had been fortunate enough to find its still intact blackbox. Though most of the data had become corrupted due to the length of time that the ancient vessel had been floating aimlessly in the abyss, there had been enough information left for Ishimura to confirm that it was, in fact, once part of the Sovereign Colonies Armed Forces.

Upon further scrutiny of the data, Ishimura had also discovered that the ship had once been a shuttle assigned to a CL-13-class spaceship, which, according to the retrieved data, was further classified by the Sovereign Colonies as an ADT 60 Mass Driver. Apparently, based on what little information that the modern Planet Cracker could dig up, the Sovereign Colonies used the aforementioned class of ship as a kind of utility vessel that served as both a cargo and service ship.

Due to the limitations of the available technology at the time of the Sovereign Colonies, it was a common practice for large, specially designed ships that had the capability of utilizing the primitive Shockpoint Drives of the era to "carry" other small vessels during jump through Shockspace. The two most common methods used to accomplish aforementioned task was a piggyback-style cradle situated on top of the larger ship and the second was a cradle underneath the primary ship. Generally, upon reaching the destination, the smaller ships were released and would proceed with whatever task that they served for the fleet while the larger ship would become a service hub and cargo ship. Finally, upon completing their task, the fleet would then prepare to jump back through Shockspace once again by having the smaller ships return to their cradles on the top of their host ships or in the cradles beneath them.

However, as I had learned during my years of study to become a Ship Systems Engineer, even these larger ships had little in the way of creature comforts for the crew that manned them. Even the mostly industrial conditions onboard the Planet Cracker-class mining vessel USG Ishimura was practically a luxury cruise liner in comparison to the conditions found on the ships from that time because, despite being cutting edge for their era, almost all available space onboard was used to accommodate the various systems necessary to allow the vessels to operate beyond heavily inhabited planets and space colonies.

In this case, the ship in question was named after an abandoned settlement in what had once been the state of Alaska in the North America Sector of Earth: CMS Portlock. According to Ishimura, the shuttle that we had recovered and the Portlock had been sharing all information between their AI Network just prior to it being jettisoned. After looking through what remained of the non-corrupted logs, the Planet Cracker had discovered that the Portlock had been one of a pair of ADT 60 Mass Drivers sent on a mission that apparently had been so top secret that the purpose, destination, and even the name of the operation had been completely expunged from the ship's own logs. The only name that had not been removed from the records found onboard the shuttle's computer was the name of the other Mass Driver. This ADT 60 was apparently not only the operating partner to the Portlock but also her own twin sister ship: CMS Terra Nova.

Ishimura had further discovered that, at the time of the shuttle being jettisoned, the Portlock had itself been experiencing mechanical issues with its engines and power plant. It had apparently been significant enough, at least by Ishimura's calculations, for the Portlock to have made an emergency slip out of Shockspace for repairs while her sister and what could presumably be a substantially large fleet kept on track towards their eventual destination. Using the last known coordinates of the ADT 60 Mass Driver, the Planet Cracker's AI had been able to estimate where the former vessel might be if she had been too damaged and had to have been abandoned by her crew upon exiting Shockspace. It was a long shot, but it was worth checking out since we were already out this far into deep space.

The legendary Planet Cracker replied to Jack's earlier inquiry, "Yes. I assure you that though I might be a mining vessel, I am still quite capable of such simple calculations as triangulating search zones from Shock Point coordinates and log data."

The hardened Marine scoffed before remarking with his voice slightly modified by the scorched Level 6 Helmet that he was wearing, "I've seen AI like you lose their touch after a mere decade of service."

The holographic woman smiled slightly before she replied, "Those AI are built on basic coding and are not nearly as advanced as I am. Like the ship that I control, I am built to last."

Jack shot back, "Be that as it may but we have been wandering around your search zone for nearly three hours and have yet to pick up anything on our scopes."

I interjected, "We don't have any other leads at the moment so let's keep searching for just a little bit longer."

The hardened veteran marine took a step towards me and remarked, "I don't recall anyone making you the leader of this outfit."

Ellie began to cut him off but, to my surprise, Ishimura beat her to it as the AI stated with a steely tone in her electronic voice, "You will show the captain some respect, you jarhead. You may think that you are better than him just because of your years of service but he has survived more in the past few years than everything that you did in your career combined."

Jack pointed at me and then shot back, "This man is nothing but an engineer!"

The Planet Cracker let out a soft laugh before she replied, "And you think that you would have fared better? Is that it? Would you like to see proof of how easily overwhelmed an entire warship of prepared marines was by the Necromorphs compared to the captain?"

The hardened veteran retorted, "You are bluffing."

The Planet Cracker's AI did not even audibly reply before she began to play various video logs on the monitors surrounding the Captain's Nest.

As we watched, the logs showed the fate of USM Valor and her compliment of marines. Although I had seen the aftermath of the Necromorph infestation of the doomed warship firsthand, I had to admit that it was still unnerving to watch how swiftly the twisted abominations of repurposed flesh and bone cut through the ranks of the heavily armed and battle-hardened soldiers even though they had been prepared to fight them.

The most tragic part of watching the footage was that I saw that the marines had actually attempted to rally even as they were all being cut down. To their credit, the soldiers were able to fight against the hostile lifeforms more effectively than the average person. However, in the end, it had all been for nothing. In the end, for all their military training and equipment, the marines were not able to withstand the onslaught. At the end, the Planet Cracker's AI showed clips of me as I entered the wrecked warship as I ventured inside of its blood-soaked halls in search of its Singularity Core and how, despite still struggling against the onslaught of the Necromorph infestation, I still managed to succeed in recovering the vital part from the bowels of the ship.

However, as soon as the clips ended, Jack let out a scoff before he asked with a curt tone, "Was that really supposed to impress me?"

He paused before he remarked, "Well, I got news for all of you…it takes a lot more than a group of bootcamp rejects getting slaughtered to impress me."

Ellie began to reply, "Jack…"

The veteran cut her off as he explained, "You show me clips of a bunch of marines that were so arrogant and foolish that they thought that simply going in guns blazing was going to work. Of course, they got slaughtered. If it had been a veteran fire team…especially like my old squad, those men would have easily been able to dispatch those abominations."

Stepping forward towards the former Special Forces Operative, I shot back, "You know, it is that same arrogant attitude that causes EarthGov's soldiers to all be fucking useless against the Necromorphs."

Jack moved to get closer to me. However, just as it seemed that our argument was about to become physical, we were interrupted by Ishimura's AI as she announced, "Captain, I am afraid that I must interrupt with some important news."

Upon calming the anger that had been boiling up inside me, I turned and addressed the Planet Cracker, "What is it Ishimura?"

I could have sworn that I heard a telltale amount of smugness in her voice as she explained, "I found her."

Confused, I asked, "Found who?"

Ishimura replied proudly, "CMS Portlock…sistership of CMS Terra Nova."

Ellie asked with her British-accented voice, "You really found the Portlock?"

The Planet Cracker replied, "Just come up to the main level of the Bridge and you can see her off our starboard bow."

Upon making my way up to the main level of the Bridge, there, I saw what at first appeared to simply be a collection of stars that was no different than the ones that dominated the black abyss surrounding the mighty Planet Cracker. However, as the moments passed, I saw that it was indeed a massive metal, almost insect-shaped beast that was approximately a third of the size of the Ishimura. The "stars" turned out to be the somehow miraculously active emergency running lights on the drifting vessel.

I stood in silent awe for a few moments as I studied the antiquated design of the Mass Driver starship. Its most dominant feature was the Cradle that dominated the majority of the ship except for the bridge at the front of the vessel, the conning tower at the top, and the very rear of the nuclear-powered support vessel. The seven pairs of insect leg-like arms descended down from the bottom of the ship and allowed the vessel to load and offload cargo from any ships that were able to dock beneath the Mass Driver.

As the Portlock moved close enough to be illuminated by the running lights of the Ishimura, Ellie remarked, "I see that the emergency lights are still active…maybe the AI is still active as well."

I replied, "If it is, it will make this next part a lot easier. Ishimura, try to hail the Portlock."

The Planet Cracker stated, "Yes, Captain."

The massive mining vessel sent out a single, sonar-like audible pinging noise to try to hail the AI controlling the ancient supply ship. To all of our collective surprise and amazement, a single ping came from the drifting CL-13 in response.

Realizing that the ancient AI of the Mass Driver was still active, I excitedly addressed my party, "Alright, let's get down to the Shuttle Bay and then get onboard that ship. She must have quite the story to tell us."