Chapter 5 : Lethal Devotion
There I was, on the Tram to Hydroponics, wondering what horrors I might encounter, and if I'd be able to do what I promised both Isaac and Kendra I'd do. It wasn't a happy thought at all, so I tried to think about something else, which didn't do any good, either, as I thought we should have stayed on the Flying Deck and repaired as little as we could of the Kellion, and then we should have got the hell out of this ship. As that thought didn't do anything to boost my already low morale, dropping it more instead, I decided to focus on the task at hand, which now was to stop – or slow down – whatever was poisoning the air in the whole ship...
- I've reached Hydroponics – I said on the comm.
I didn't get any response, only static, so I decided to pick up the Rifle from the seat where I put it and exit the tram, trying to figure out what was exactly poisoning the air. I quickly noticed the putrid stench, and I had to resist the urge to retch.
- What the hell is that thing? - I wondered.
It was far worse than anything I've ever smelt before. As if the rotten corpses of the crew had an extra layer of putridity, and that extra layer had its own extra layer... What I didn't do was to even think the smell came from "breathing" necromorphs...
I shook my head, and opened the door to the elevator, riding it up. When the doors opened, a loud hiss startled me, and I quickly aimed the Pulse Rifle to whatever was in front of me. It turned out it was just a tomato plantation's watering cycle initiating. I was getting paranoid, but who wouldn't?
I reached the Atmosphere Control without any problems, but with plenty of corpses around me. I saw the door to Food Storage was locked, and tried to unlock it, to no avail. Kendra had to help me there.
- Kendra! I need you to open Food Storage's door. - No response - Kendra? Are you there? Dammit! Now I cannot even communicate with them! - It was frustrating, and I was apparently on my own.
That room had definitely something to do with the problem at hand, I knew it - and in the end I was right. But then I noticed the holopad situated behind me(1), which showed the purity of the air on deck. It was flashing red, meaning critical levels of impurity.
- How convenient – I thought when I saw the door to Food Storage would only unlock when the air was pure again.
Since there was a door on each side of the room, I thought it would be good if I explored the Deck, while I tried to re-purify the air on the ship. I entered the one on the right, and another hissing noise startled me again. There apparently were leaks on the pipes, and to top it off, some cable was also failing, and its sparks ignited the leaking fertilizer.(2) Also, some more noises could be heard from the vents... I quickly searched for any vent, fearing the worse, when two – one directly above me, another one at the end of the corridor – popped open, finally making me shoot at them in panic. There were two necromorphs, a slasher (i.e. the ones with the bladed hands)... was it female?... and one of those twisted, gory parodies of a merman(3). I remembered the mermen, as I had dubbed them, were very fast, and I tried to hamper its movement by severing its hands, or at least one of them. But I couldn't forget about the slasher-woman, and thus simply ran away, trying to be as far from them as I could. Then, I started shooting, not releasing the trigger until I had managed to severe one of the no-longer woman's legs, making her – it – fall. I then concentrated on the merman, too late, if you ask me, since it was already airborne, and fell right on top of me, dragging me to the ground. I grunted in pain and effort, and tried to pull it off me with the Rifle. Somehow I managed to position it upwards and pulled the trigger, all the while trying not to be bitten by the necromorph. It worked, and I could stand up again after stunning it. A few more shots to the momentarily downed merman finally ripped its tail off, and killed it. I felt something explode at my back, making me lose my balance, and when I regained it, I realized I had forgotten the slasher-woman from before.
- What else can these things do? - I wondered aloud, quickly looking at the downed slasher and seeing it spit some kind of boulder.
I dodged it, and it exploded on the wall. I fired my Rifle, only to realize I was out of ammo. I quickly ran while reloading, and stomped on the slasher's head, managing to crack its mandible, thus impeding it spit anymore explosives. Finally, I managed to insert the Pulse Rounds – my last ones – into the rifle, and fired again at the slasher, severing both its arms, killing it.
Realizing I wouldn't go much further without any ammo, I went back to the shop, feeling the toll from the fight: they had not only hurt me, the effort had also made me breathe a lot more putrid air, and I was starting to suffocate due the progressive lack of breathable oxygen.
- Isaac? Kendra? Is anyone there? - I tried again on the comm, to no avail.
I couldn't buy much. I had very few credits, and could only afford a small medpack and fifty Pulse Rounds, so I had to ration them. I felt a backache, generated because of both my fall and the explosion, and wondered how bad my injuries were, since I didn't have a way to look at my vitals. When I managed to reach the door at the other side of the leaking pipes' corridor, after an elevator ride, I saw the room behind it was a greenhouse. Lots of vents, though, and that made me nervous. Very nervous. I encouraged myself, and took a few steps forward, when I saw something move across the aisle two of the plantations made. I think I was sweating. A shrieking behind me made me jump, and another necromorph popped out of a vent to my left(4). This was one of those gruesome babies with tentacles Isaac had encountered in the Science/Medical Deck before. Knowing how they were supposed to be killed, I saw the baby – now known as lurkers, since that's what they do... creep behind you and ambush you – raise its tentacles, ready to fire those tooth-like projectiles at me, but in my growing paranoia, however, I had a quicker reaction time, and pulled the trigger with all my might, aiming at them, successfully severing them and, with no damage inflicted to me, killing it. The earsplitting cry of pain the necromorph made made me cover my ears.
Another thing passed right in front of me, quickly disappearing. I took a few steps, reloading my rifle, when I hit something with my foot. Looking down, I realized it was a gold Semiconductor, and quickly picked it up, since it meant the possibility of buying more ammo and medpacks. Another unidentified noise made me look all around, and I tried to calm myself down. I opened a door labeled "Greenhouse A", catching a glimpse of a kneeling necromorph, very different to what I had seen until then, and quickly felt unable to breathe at all. Gagging, I quickly ran in the opposite direction of the room, and when it closed, I could breathe again. It was the only moment I felt grateful for the putrid air of the Deck.
There was an audiolog near me, and I quickly picked it up, playing it.
"Hydroponics, this is Professor Heinrich Jagerwald reporting. Everybody's dead or in the process of dying! Something's found their way into Food Storage and is filling the whole deck with some kind of organic growth... a colleague theorizes it's an habitat changer... I don't know and truth be told, I don't care right now! The growth is not the problem, but the things it produces are... Oh my god, what's that? That thing has Hawley's coat! Shit! It is Hawley! It's the crew! The monsters are the crew! Oh my...! Why is it so hard to breathe suddenly? And this stench? Damn, that thing must be doing something with the oxygen production! You must... shit! No! No! Leave m...aaaaagh!"
After that scream, the audio cut, and I couldn't help but think the poor man was no longer a human. At least, his presumable death had given me the information I was seeking, the poisoner was in Food Storage. Now I had to do something to keep it from further poisoning the air. I tried using the elevator to the second level of the Greenhouse, and saw a locked door, and an unlocked one. When I opened it, I found myself in a cold room.
By then I was feeling tired, it was very hard to breathe, my eyes stung a little from the fertilizer mixed with the air, and I was nervous, because the room was full of vents. I saw something from the corner of my eye, and turned around, not finding anything there. Nervous, I commed the team again.
- Is anyone there? Repeat! Come in Isaac... Kendra, is anyone there? - I practically begged...
- Hammond! Where the hell have you been? - Kendra answered me, at last.
- I've reached Hydroponics. - I could finally tell them - It's bad down here, really bad!... can barely breathe! That organic matter is growing everywhere! My eyes are stinging... must be seeing things... I've been trying to contact you for a while, how is the poison going? - No answer. I had lost them again. - Dammit!
- Hammond, make us whole again
- Who's there? - I asked, frenetically – Show yourself!
The owner of the voice didn't show himself. Instead, the vents of the room – all of them – suddenly opened, and lots of necromorphs came out of them. These ones were different to the others: they were thinner, with most of their mass merged into one arm, which was glowing a dark shade of orange. I tried to shoot at them, and by accident I hit one of their bulky arms. The glowing appendage suddenly exploded, killing the necromorph and making me realize the danger they represented, since one hit may as well kill me, in my already weakened state. Quickly, and fearing the worse, I used my medkit, in an attempt of boosting my physical condition enough so the explosion didn't rip through my RIG and flesh and thus kill me. Thank God I did that the moment I did, because another one had popped out of the vent right behind me, and I suddenly felt a hit on my back, and heard an explosion,which knocked me over, and I felt my vision blacken by the second. I managed to sit, and from that position I pulled the trigger, aiming at their overgrown appendages as best as I could in my dizzy state.
When I recovered a bit, the air was almost unbreathable, and I tried to keep moving. In the next room, there was a Zero-G area (I could tell because of the floating containers), and another audiolog, which I played:
"This is Arthur Asimov(5), something's poisoning the air! It's not only the thing in Food Storage, there are some of these things in here which are making the air completely unbreathable! Beth went to Greenhouse A an hour ago and hasn't returned... something's happened to her! These things... it's like their lungs have come out, and when they exhale, the air is rotten! God, I have to get out of here..."
I couldn't continue, since I didn't have gravity boots, so I started coming back to Atmosphere Control, to sell the Gold Semiconductor and buy ammo and another medpack, since I felt really bad.
- What was that voice from before? - I wondered, since it sounded strangely familiar.
I couldn't dwell on it a lot, since when I opened the door to Atmosphere Control a necromorph was right in front of me. I barely managed to dodge its attack, and pushed it with my foot. I pulled the trigger and aimed for its legs. When they came off, I kicked it again, further separating it from me, and shot its arms, finishing it off. The 3,000 Credits the Semiconductor was sold for made me able to buy yet another medpack, and with the rest of the money I resupplied my Pulse Rifle ammo. I used the medpack right away, and then caught a glimpse of Kendra's conversation with Isaac, and took my opportunity and spoke while the comm lasted.
- … to make the poison. Now get back to the Chemistry Lab! - Kendra was instructing.
- Whatever you're going to do, do it fast... Can hardly breathe in here... - I difficultly said, hearing just static afterwards.
I went to the tomato plantation of the tram elevator to try and use the glass as a makeshift mirror and finally assess the damage, and when I was doing that, another of those exploding necromorphs caught me by surprise, and before I could react, hit me, making me hit the glass with force, hitting my head and finally losing my consciousness.
(A/N: And here we have Hammond's 1st solo chapter! Please, please review, since I don't know if it's very good, and would highly appreciate any constructive criticism. Also, I've put numbers on the things I believe deserve an A/N instead of putting them right there, as EcoSeeker247 had suggested me)
1 Well, it's behind him since he's trying to unlock the actual door, as Isaac opens them. Thus, the "Air Purity" panel is right behind him.
2 I think it's fertilizer, at least... (Hydroponics!) Also, OK, there's no fire at all...
3 Well, he can't dub every necromorph as it's scripted, since they never say their names in-game, can he?
4 Hey, the shrieking doesn't mean the vent is being destroyed. The necromorph could very well hit the vent before popping out of another one.
5 I don't know if you catch that one. Isaac's name is a mix from Isaac Asimov and Arthur Clarke, so why not do the exact opposite?