Halo Reach AU/Dead Space crossover. The mission to destroy the Super Carrier succeeded, without Six or Jorge dying; the marines stayed behind with the bomb. In the aftermath, all of Noble Team survived Reach, and the war. A few weeks after the victory over the Flood and the Prophet of Truth, Noble Team is redeployed to investigate an ONI monitoring station that recently went silent. Noble Six volunteered to scout ahead by a day, but never returned.

Chapter 1

"Gotta say," Jun started, "this Prowler is damn nice."

The ship in question, the Red Horse, was previously under the command of an ONI officer with a taste for the finer things in life. Thus, unlike most ships which only contained the standard rations and arms, this one came pre-stocked with some dehydrated and freeze-dried food that tasted noticeably better than the usual ration bars.

In addition, there was modified ammunition including Shredder Rounds, Armor Piercing Rounds, and even a few casings of experimental Incendiary Rounds for Assault Rifles and a case of convenient Battle Rifles, which Jun in particular was eager to try out, having never got the chance on Reach.

Most of Noble Team just nodded, unable to disagree with him, but Jorge looked away towards their destination.

Emile, noticing this, sighed and leaned back against the window.

"He's fine, Jorge." he groaned. "I'm sure the Covvies just landed a lucky hit."

Jorge wasn't deterred. "What makes you think it's Covenant? I don't see any ships."

Kat spared a glance at the approaching "monitoring" station.

"And why wouldn't they just destroy it?" she added. "Even from here you'd expect to see some damage."

Emile shrugged. "Infiltration? I don't need to be told there's no way ONI would have something that big just to "monitor" shit."

Jun opened the fridge and retrieved his third bottle of orange juice, ignoring the stink-eye Carter gave him.

"I bet ONI was using that station like a prison. Or a lab. You know, running experiments on the Covenant?"

Emile nodded. "Yeah, that too. A prison break would explain it."

Carter sighed and crossed his arms. "In either case, not only are we dealing with a station the size of a city that's been taken over by an unknown number of Covenant, we likely also have a breach of the Cole Protocol."

Every member of Noble grimaced. That made their mission a lot harder.

Jun drained half his bottle in a single swig, savoring the flavor. "Remind me of the details?"

Kat pulled a data pad and looked it over. "Omicron Station, positioned over a frozen planet named "Jotunn". The intel we've been provided claims it's only used as a monitoring station, and it was recently being "modified" into a massive docking outpost."

Emile snorted. "Yeah, a massive fucking outpost out in the middle of nowhere. Not even the Covenant drop by this place. Is there even anything of value around here?"

To his surprise, Kat nodded. "Actually yes. Jotunn is home to a relatively small mining colony that makes quite a profit out of the resources they procure."

Carter leaned in. "What kind of resources?"

Kat huffed. "It doesn't say. Only that it's vital to supplying the UNSC, and Omicron."

"That's a lot of secrecy for a small mining colony." Jun noted.

"Above a "monitoring outpost." Emile added.

"Regardless, our top priorities are finding Six and reclaiming the station, or, if we have too, scuttling it."

Carter made sure there was no room for argument in his voice. His team nodded, and went back to their tasks.

"And so help me god, Jun, if you take one more bottle out of that fridge-"

Six could see the blur of the Prowler approaching from the airlock. Thank god the bulkheads were reinforced to withstand plasma blasts, or he might've made his final stand here.

Placing his EOD helmet back on his head, he ran through his loadout once more just to pass the time.

EOD helmet with a Command Uplink Module, and a gold visor.

Multi-Threat shoulder pads, the left of which had a massive gash in it.

Base security chest armor, with six grenades left on his chest and three on his belt

A UGPS on his wrist, which proved invaluable when it actually linked to the station AI.

A hard case on his left leg.

Heavy Grenadier knee armor, that spared his knees many a hard landing.

A steel and violet color scheme he was very thankful for right now.

A Grenade Launcher, with a tenth grenade in the tube.

And a plasma cutter; a mining tool he recovered from a cargo bay after his pistol proved completely useless.

And he only had half a canteen of water and three ration bars as far as food goes. Against the Covenant, not bad. Against the Insurrection, piece of cake.

Against those things? Damn near worthless.

He was pinging his comms to try and get a sound, hell, even a signal out to the Prowler, but either they couldn't receive him or dismissed it as ghosts. He really hoped it wasn't the latter, or else he might kill whoever's captaining that thing.

It was only then, that both sides of fortune struck at the same time.

First, when something massive suddenly slammed against the bulkhead and dented it inwards. Six immediately gathered up all his supplies and secured it, then got his plasma cutter in one hand and put the other over the emergency opening button on the other door.

The one leading to the cold void of space.

Whatever was on the other side continued ramming the door for several more seconds, causing it to buckle more and more, until right when Six thought it would finally give in, it stopped.

The door was fucked though. The solid titanium, which was half a meter thick, had been pushed inwards so much the heavy locks were visibly pulled from their sockets to the point Six himself could probably pry open a hole big enough for him to crawl through.

Which was all the incentive he needed to punch that big red button and take a space walk.

The nearest airlock, based on his UGPS, was an hour's journey directly "down", on the bottom of the station where a maintenance hatch led into the engineering sector. A less than ideal location, given its proximity to several shuttle bays that had been welded shut from the outside, but it was his best option.

About twenty minutes into his walk, which was lengthened due to Six avoiding windows and ventilation shafts by several meters, his comms suddenly started to receive a signal.

It wasn't much, just an occasional blink that indicated someone had noticed him, but from what Six gathered it wasn't the AI, who was guiding him from his UGPS, so he assumed it was the Prowler.

Tapping a request into the input of his UGPS for the AI to help boost his signal, Six tried to reach the ship.

For a moment, static. Then, slowly, he could hear human voices talking over the buzzing.

"...ander...sig-al...it could...Six…"

He would recognize that accent anywhere. Getting a response from the AI that it had linked him to the station's comm array, he tried to respond.

"UNSC Prowler, this is Noble Six. I'm in a bad situation and need immediate assistance. Can you hear me?"

Thank god again, Noble Two answered, loud and clear.

"Six! What's your status?"

Six allowed himself a little smile. Straight to the point as always.

"I'm low on supplies and, if I'm being honest, completely outclassed. Listen, I don't fully understand what's going on, but I'm calling it: Omicron Station is FUBAR, and I think our priorities need to be finding out why."

There was silence on the other end for a few tense seconds.

"I relayed that to the Commander. He needs you to find a place for the Red Horse to dock safely, then meet up with us. Where are you?"

Six checked his UGPS. Half an hour away from the hatch. He consulted the AI about the landing bays. Only one was "secure", having no vents and no breached doors. Only problem was…

It was right under the god-damn medical wing. The place that, based on some logs he recovered, the enemy had originally broken out of.

But the only other option was to try and EVA to an airlock, and every one of them was even riskier, given they all led into infested halls with too many access points.

"I'm on the outer hull, moving to a secure location in Engineering. The only place safe for you to dock is right under the medical wing. But Kat-the medical wing is like ground zero for this outbreak. It should be locked down now, but whatever you do, do not go into Medical. Do you read me?"

The silence, although brief, was crushing.

"Yes, I read you. We'll have to investigate it later, but first we'll meet up with you. How soon can we come to you?"

'You may not make it half way.'

"I'll come to you. I can take some maintenance shafts and come out right next to the landing bay."

"What aren't you telling me Six?" Kat's tone was both curious and dangerous.

'Curiosity killed the Kat-'

Six quickly banished that unpleasant thought and instead tried to keep the nervousness out of his voice.

"The enemies are...not natural. I'd actually say worse than the Flood. Shooting them in the body doesn't work. I blew their heads clean off and they barely noticed. The best I could do was take off their limbs, and that in itself was damn hard. Not to mention I saw fallen IIIs around here."

"Well, that's scary, but I think we can handle it. So the enemy is smart enough to recognize a weakness?"

"Their armor was shredded, Kat. A Gungnir had a blade stuck right through his helmet."

Not to mention he'd heard the snarling and thudding of an Operator near the Crew Quarters. He didn't see it, but it's armor still registered as friendly, and he was very familiar with those sounds.

Fifteen minutes to the hatch. Is something watching him? How did he get this far without encountering one?

"...I'll take that into consideration. But we're still coming to you."

"Kat-"

"This isn't up for debate Six. You need help, we're the help. Have some faith, eh?"

He swallowed, hoping she didn't hear it.

"Okay." he whispered.

"You sure you're holding up?"

He could see the hatch, but out of a sudden urge he spun around, certain he'd felt the gaze of a predator on him.

But there was nothing. Absolutely nothing. Just dead-

"Not really." he forced out. "But I'll manage."

In a tone that clearly stated she would bring that up later, Kat instead asked where they should meet up.

Again Six consulted the AI. Funny, he didn't even know it's designation. It never mentioned it. Didn't seem to have much personality either.

It was an ONI AI. Could he really trust it?

The AI responded with secondary Crew Quarters, almost perfectly halfway between Engineering and Medical.

'Of course I can. It's just an AI. And I'd be dead without it.'

"Secondary Crew Quarters." he echoed.

"Three minutes."

Six raised his plasma cutter and turned, scanning the area for whoever said that.

But nothing was there.

'It's space, I couldn't hear them if there was. Get it together Six, you're a Spartan.'

"Alright. You got a map?"

"My UGPS is linked to the station's AI. It's been damn helpful in getting around safely."

"The AI is online? Good. We'll begin docking now. Stay in contact."

Six reached down and pulled open the hatch, feeling a brief push from escaping air.

"Got it."

"What's the word?" Jun pried. "Sounds like you had an interesting conversation."

Kat sighed and leaned back from the consol. "Using Six's words, Omicron is FUBAR, and taken over by an unknown enemy we have next to no information on, other than they are extremely difficult to kill."

Emile started sharpening his knife.

"How difficult?" he asked.

Noble Two closed her eyes and tried to picture what Six said. Even if he didn't give the enemy a physical description, everything she came up with wasn't pretty.

"Damage against their torso seems to be completely ineffective. As is decapitation."

Emile paused and looked. Suddenly all eyes were on Kat.

"Uh…mind repeating that?" Jun asked. "It sounded like you said blowing their heads off doesn't kill them.

Kat sighed again. "I did. Six said the only way he could put them down was dismemberment, and that was quite the task."

Jorge grimaced as he had a good idea of what Six probably looked like by now.

"This is going to get messy." he stated.

Nobody argued.

Kat glanced at the station again, scanning the exterior for any orange specs, but she didn't find anything of notice, except that now she was closer she could see most of the landing bays were sealed shut, and locked.

"It gets worse." she started.

Emile huffed and let his head roll back and thunk into the wall. "Of course it does."

"The enemy seems to be armed primarily with melee weapons capable of breaching Spartan III armor."

Carter narrowed his eyes. "To what degree?"

The image sprang into her mind. Six was always light on the details, but it left more to her imagination.

"Six found one in full Gungnir. One of the enemy's weapons was impaled through his helmet."

Carter sighed. "Okay, shoot the limbs and don't let them get close."

Eager to change the subject, Jun asked "How are we going to link up with Six?"

Kat used the holographic display to show the exterior of the station. "Our entrance is right under Medical. Six is currently space walking towards Engineering. We're going to meet up in the secondary Crew Quarters. The station AI is online and currently assisting Six, so it should assist us as well."

Jun nodded, then paused and asked "Why is Six space walking to Engineering? Are the elevators down or something?"

Kat glared at him through her helmet. "If I had to take a guess, I'd say it's safer than moving through the inside."

Jorge nodded. "If the enemy is incredibly resilient to conventional weapons and armed with melee weapons, then the enclosed halls of the station would be a death trap."

Carter studied the hologram. "Finding Six is our priority, but we should investigate Medical. I want to see if they are any records of this unknown enemy."

But Kat shook her head. "Actually, Six was adamant we avoid Medical completely. He didn't specify, but he said it was "ground zero" for the outbreak."

Emile gave her a deadpan look. "Our entry point is right next to ground zero."

"It is the only secure entry point, Noble Four." A female voice said.

Each Spartan jumped as the hologram winked out of existence and was replaced by an aquatic, monstrous creature.

"Greeting, Spartans. I am Leviathan, the Smart Artificial Intelligence assigned to Monitoring Station Omicron."

"Smart AI?" Jun wondered aloud.

Leviathan nodded. "As the title implies, I am significantly more advanced than any other AI in the UNSC. It was for this reason I was tasked with preventing an outbreak on Omicron; however, I was clearly unable to do so."

"We're aware of what Smart AI are capable of. But what do you mean, "outbreak?" Carter demanded.

"Six said the same thing." Kat added.

Leviathan only nodded again. "While I'm certain Noble Two will have already figured out, Omicron is not here to monitor the system. It is here to monitor Jotunn."

"What's so important about a small mining colony way out here?" Jun asked.

Leviathan seemed to sigh, though without a clear reason. "It's not the colony, it's what the colony found. An artifact, alien, but not Covenant. Something far older than the Covenant, in fact, and very different."

Emile held up a hand to interrupt her. "Are you an ONI AI?"

Leviathan nodded.

"And you're just telling us this, honestly?" his voice was laced with skepticism.

"Lying to you would only be a detriment in this situation." Leviathan explained calmly. "You are certain to discover this for yourself, sooner or later. The more you know, the sooner you can help me regain control of this station."

Emile crossed his arms and muttered something, but nodded for her to continue.

"As I was saying, this artifact was definitely not of Covenant origin. It appeared to be made from red and black stone, and glowing runes were etched into the surface. Even now I am unable to translate them."

Leviathan paused for a moment, her form flickering, then continued.

"For two months it was kept at the colony, as we were not sure of what it's function was. In those two months, paranoia and mania seems to settle into the colonists overnight. It began with unusual hostility towards UNSC personnel or even each other. Doctors started to receive increasing reports of nightmares and "voices". Some of them even began to hallucinate friends and family who were lightyears away."

"Well, this sounds just great." Jun snarked.

"Quiet Three." Carter ordered.

"During the last week it was at the colony, there was an abrupt rise in murders and suicides. Mostly from the miners themselves, others from guards. I do not wish to go into detail, but the methods in which this occurred was… disturbing."

Leviathan's avatar shimmered, as though she shivered.

"After that the commander of this station, whose name I cannot reveal, ordered the artifact to be brought onboard for study. Scans performed at the colony seemed to indicate that the artifact could produce an unusual form of energy via unknown means, and seemingly without limit."

"That sounds too convenient." Kat said.

Leviathan shook her head sadly. "It was, but we didn't realize until too late. The artifact was dubbed "the Marker" as was the project, and research immediately went into understanding how a glowing rock could produce limitless energy. And, as we soon discovered, it wasn't. It was merely receiving it. Thus, the commander changed the direction of the project into following the energy trail back to where it originated."

"How far did you get?" Kat asked.

Leviathan "shivered" again. "Nowhere. Because the Marker wasn't just a rock absorbing energy and storing it. It was releasing it as well. Into the crew."

"I don't like where this is going." Jun said.

"The energy had a strange...signal, hidden in it. This signal seemed to affect humans differently based on their intelligence. Simpler marines became paranoid, eventually insane like those on the colony. Officers would hallucinate, eventually killing themselves. Certain doctors and most of the Spartans would have visions of the Marker's runes, and be compelled to write them down on any surface they could find. And a rare few actually understood them."

"I'm tempting fate here…" Jun started, with everyone sans Levithan glaring at him. "...but how can this get worse?"

The AI didn't meet his gaze. "Because of how the signal affected the dead."

Emile huffed. "Let me guess, zombies?"

She nodded. "Definitely undead, but not like we think of them. When the signal contacted dead cells, it revived them, and began a rapid mutagenic process. Limbs were twisted, bones lengthened, broken, and reformed into talons and bladed weapons. The process was incredibly fast, and predictably violent, with the increased metabolism causing the blood in their veins to boil and burst."

"Well, that's haunting my nightmares." Jun quipped.

Emile punched his shoulder. "Shut up. Can't be any worse than plasma grenades."

"The most common of these creatures, designated Slashers by the survivors, are the only ones Noble Six has encountered. They are only vaguely human, identified by their uniforms or twisted faces. Their names come from two long, scythe-like blades sprouting from their hands. Slashers are relatively weak, but numerous, and capable of intense bursts of speed to cover short distances."

"God damnit." Emile muttered.

"How many variations are there?" Carter asked quickly.

Leviathan shook her head. "Too many. Slashers alone have over fourteen subtypes, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Some of the creatures have developed ranged acidic attacks that rapidly melt basic armor and flesh. Much of the station's cameras are offline, but my sensors indicate creatures on the upper levels that are far too massive and heavy to be a common type."

Carter sighed, digesting everything he heard.

'This station is definitely FUBAR.'

"What's our window of operation?"

"You have fourteen hours before the psychological symptoms begin to arise." Leviathan replied. "If we cannot find a way to stop these creatures or the Marker in that time frame, then we must initiate the Cole Protocol. My extraction would be preferable, but this entire station currently poses a threat comparable to a Covenant Super Carrier."

And Noble knew all about those.

'Damnit Jun, you had to ask.'

"If I cannot be safely retrieved, then I must be destroyed."

Leviathan gave them all a while to think about that. Emile was the first to speak after a minute.

"If this magic rock makes people go batshit insane, even Spartans, are you telling me Six has gone loco?"

Kat was suddenly very thankful for her helmet, because she felt the blood drain from her face.

But Leviathan's shake of the head was enough to calm her.

"Actually, Noble Six have proved rather resistant to the Marker signal. Through sheer willpower, I believe. It would seem the paranoia has only just begun to set in."

Jorge, who had remained still and silent throughout her entire explanation, suddenly spoke up, with only one simple question.

"When do we board?"

Six clambered through the small shaft, barely big enough to squeeze his Mjolnir armor through, until he came to a grate apparently above a hub of some sort.

Kicking it open, he dropped down in a small monitoring station that had a clear view of the massive engineering bay. Glancing at the doors, he saw they were thankfully magnetically and physically locked down tight.

At a console underneath the window, four chairs sat with four bodies in EVA suits. One of them was partially transformed, but missing most of its limbs and head. Two more seemed to have shot themselves, and the third was merely slumped over.

When Six reached out to turn them over, it jumped.

The Spartan reached for his cutter with blinding speed, but whoever was in the suit shouted something muffled, and their voice wasn't garbled or snarling like the creatures.

Carefully, with his cutter in his left hand, Six grasped the EVA helmet firmly and pulled it off.

A young man with a shaved head and terror in his eyes held both his hands in the air while breathing heavily.

"Who are you?" Six demanded.

"J-John Miller, sir! I...I guess I'm the Chief Engineer." The man's accent was slightly southern.

Six lowered his cutter, but he wasn't fully convinced.

"You guess?"

To his credit, John didn't look away from Six's visor.

"Jacob Temple is missing and I can't hail him on any channels."

Six sighed. "Alright. What are you doing here? Is there no way to escape?"

John swallowed nervously and glanced at the corpses next to him.

"There's a whole row of escape pods on the lower decks, near the main engines. But this place is infested and besides...someone has to stay here and make sure those things don't blow us all to hell."

Six nodded, finding that both brave and reasonable.

However, "You don't look like you're doing too well."

The young man sighed and turned back to his consol. "I've got supplies, if that's what you mean. But it's not easy sitting here next to your dead friends, especially after they blew their brains out."

"And why did they do that?"

John stared at a diagnostic of the station, which was mostly intact. "They lost hope."

Six thought about that for a moment. Then he turned to leave.

John closed the screen and whipped around shouting "Wait! Where are you going?"

Six didn't even turn around as he keyed open the lock. "Reinforcements have arrived. They're docking near Medical, and I'm going to meet them in the secondary Crew Quarters."

John paled. "Crew Quarters? There's no way it's not infested!"

Six checked his ammo as the door opened. Clear.

"The whole station is infested. Keep in contact with me via radio."

Without waiting for John to respond Six closed the bulkhead and locked it.

Seconds later, his radio fizzled to life, John's voice coming through.

"Alright, you're a Spartan and there's no way I can make you stay. But there's still some things you need to know."

Six activated his VISR, taking note of the broken vents and distinct lack of bodies, despite the blood trails.

"Go ahead." he replied.

"Okay, um, I heard from a medical officer a few hours ago that these things are called "necromorphs-"

"I haven't heard anything since I got here at 1300 hours yesterday." Six interrupted sharply.

"Comms are spotty inside the station. There's some kind of off signal in the air, almost like a jammer."

Sabotage? He couldn't rule it out, though it sounded insane that someone would jam communications during an outbreak like this.

"Alright, keep talking."

"Okay, the ones with swords for hands are called Slashers. They seem to be the most common from what I hear. There's another one that seems to be more passable for human called a Puker. A-apparently that one has some kind of acid attack."

"How strong is the acid?" Six inquired as he peered around a corner.

Nothing. It's too quiet.

"I-I'm not sure myself, but I heard over the radio a Spartan say it did a number on his armor."

"Fantastic." Six muttered. "How many Spartans were stationed here?"

"Uh…" there was the faint sound of John tapping a screen before responding. "It looks like...sixteen? I only ever saw five…"

'Sixteen fucking Spartans? That's three damn squads.'

"Keep going."

Another corner, still nothing.

"I saw something crawling on the walls in the engine bay. The-the top half of it looked human, but it didn't have any l-legs, just a huge tail, kinda like a scorpion."

"That's it?" Six pressed.

"That's all I know…"

"Liar."

"Who's there!?" Six spun around, fully expecting to see something right behind him.

But the hall was empty.

"What is it!?" John shouted worriedly.

Six growled and lowered his weapon. "Nothing. Thought I heard-"

Before he could finish, something screamed and slammed into him from behind, knocking him off his feet.

Only one thought ran through his head: 'If I don't get this thing off me, I'm dead.'

With all of his strength Six placed both hands and the ground and launched himself back, successfully dislodging his attacker.

He snatched his plasma cutter off the ground and raised it, only barely noticing the tail, and shot off both arms quickly.

The creature hissed and shrieked, but died. Six approached carefully and inspected it. Just like John said, the upper half was pretty human, but the lower half only consisted of a sinewy tail with a huge barb on the end.

Dead eyes, still filled with pain and hatred, glared back at him.

Six grabbed the tail and placed one foot on the creature's back, then with a sharp pull ripped it off the body for good measure.

"Spartan!?"

Oh right.

"I'm here. Met one of those scorpions you mentioned." Six responded.

"A-are you hurt?"

Six chuckled lowly, finding John's genuine concern a bit amusing. "No, my shields took most of the impact."

"Shields...huh, do you suppose your shields would protect against the acid? The other Spartans here didn't have shields from what I saw."

Six reloaded his cutter and continued moving. "Hmm. Maybe. Something to keep in mind. Do you think you can raise our reinforcements?"

Apparently blindsided by the sudden question, John stuttered "U-uh, maybe. You said near Medical. There's been a lot of interference from there."

Six came to a sort of decontamination chamber, which seemed to have lost power. Good, he didn't want to get stuck in a little glass box.

"It's worth a shot. They came in on a Prowler, so maybe they can contact other survivors from there."

"Al-alright. I'll try…"

John cleared his throat and opened a general channel.

"Attention any UNSC forces, this is acting Chief Engineer John Millers. Does anyone read me?"

They waited a few moments. Static.

"Try again." Six encouraged.

"Okay...Attention any UNSC forces, this is acting Chief Engineer John Millers. Please respond."

Very faintly, a male voice came over Six's radio. It might have been Carter, but he couldn't make it out.

"Can you understand who that is?" Six asked.

"H-hold on, that's on a secure frequency. I think we just intercepted a little bit. Uh, can you allow me access?"

"Yeah, one moment."

That was a big breach of protocol, but right now survival and communications were his top priorities.

"Okay, speak now. I can barely make anything out, but you should be able to hear them more clearly from your station."

John took a deep breath. "Attention UNSC forces, this is-"

"Who are you? This is a secure channel for Spartan teams only."

The man speaking sounded relatively young, but he had a very commanding voice.

"Th-this is acting Chief Engineer J-John Miller. I was provided access to this channel by a Spartan who, uh, d-dropped in on me."

"The fuck does that mean?" another guy muttered.

"Commander. Permission to speak with Chief Miller?" this man was a lot deeper, with an accent John couldn't quite place.

"Permission granted Five."

"Miller, describe the Spartan." Five commanded.

"W-well his armor was black and dark purple. I didn't recognize the helmet, but it looked kinda like a stormtrooper, with a gold visor and a little device on the side."

"That sounds familiar, but keep going." Five's voice was still commanding, but also calm and soothing, not like the first man.

"Uh, he had heavy shoulder pads, though one was pretty mangled. He also had some grenades on his chest, and a few on his belt. A-and what looked like a GPS on his wrist. I didn't really get a good look at him below the waist, but I think I saw some kind of metal case."

"That's definitely Six." a woman said.

"How long ago did you encounter him?" Five asked.

"J-just a few minutes ago. He can't hear you through his radio, but he can hear my side. Communications are busted inside the station."

"Oh, of course they are." Another guy, pretty young.

"Can it Three." The Commander snapped. "Alright Miller, did Six tell you where he's going?"

Even though they couldn't hear him, John nodded. "Yeah, secondary Crew Quarters. It's a thirty minute walk, but if the Trams still work he can get there in five minutes."

"Did you tell him that?"

John mentally cursed himself. "I assumed he already knew. H-he had a map of the station."

"Relay that to him anyways."

"Okay. Six, uh, Spartan. There's a Tramway on your next left that will take you directly to Crew Quarters."

His reply was immediate. "Thanks."

"Where are you right now?" Five asked.

John nervously looked out the window, watching all the little shapes moving around in the massive engineering bay.

"I've sealed myself in the main Engineering hub. I have enough supplies to last another day, and I can direct you to basically anywhere on the ship."

"The AI can do that." Three interjected.

John blinked. "The AI is still operational? I haven't heard a thing from it."

"One moment."

John waited in silence.

'It's okay. The UNSC is here. A team of Spartans. I'm not going to die.'

The corpse next to him rolled it's head back to stare with empty eyes.

"We all die John."

The engineer jumped, quickly leaning over and covering his face.

'No no no no no no. Go away.'

"It's okay John. We can die together."

'Nononononononono! Go away, you're not real.'

"Why are you afraid?"

"Chief Miller. The AI has reported that she's lost connection with most of Engineering, including your hub. But she is still fully operational and requests to know if any section of Engineering has been damaged?"

John looked up at the ship's diagnostics. "Uh, there's a hull breach around the shuttle bay. All of the lifepods are offline or destroyed."

The corpse wasn't looking at him anymore.

"Understood. Chief Miller, I am ordering you now to continue assisting Noble Six until we have linked up with him. Just stay alive and make sure he reaches us."

"Y-yes sir." John stuttered. The line cut out.

Something thunked against the glass. He jumped and looked outside the left door, seeing a female Slasher staring at him.

"There," it spoke inside his head, "that wasn't so bad. You shouldn't be so nervous. It's not very becoming of Chief Engineer."

John couldn't reply. Instead, he leaned over his station and cried.

Jeez that's a lot of words for a first chapter. At least for me. As you maybe can tell, the Dead Space half of this is a mash of all 3 games, as I don't intend to do a sequel, at least right now. This is also my first time writing a story about Dead Space or Halo Reach, so let me know if I got anything wrong with the characters. I'm aware that I'm also being rather quick about the reveal of the Marker, but there's a reason for that.