Chapter 6 : Environmental Hazard

The near future didn't look bright at all. There I was, unconscious, almost drowning in the putrid, unbreathable air of the Hydroponics Deck, in a ship full of nightmarish aliens several light years from home. And, to top it off, I couldn't even contact with my other two companions, one of which thought I was some sort of traitor that had kept information on them. Truth be told, I had requested info on their backgrounds, but that's another story...

I woke up with the noise of the tomato plantation's watering cycle, and coughing, aimed my Pulse Rifle ahead of me the best I could, just to find Isaac, clad in yet another RIG, this one even bulkier, looking at me.

- Isaac... Good to see you in one piece... - I managed to say, gasping for air. Seeing he was raising his hands to his helmet, I warned him. - Don't take... your helmet off... the air's rotten... I got a look... at it... it's huge...(1) you won't believe it... Shut itself in Food Storage... - I coughed a bit more, feeling dizzy from air loss. - The crew that was on this deck... I think they're what's poisoning the air. They've been transformed... I saw one of them, bloated, swollen.(2) They're poison factories... we need to take them out while we can still breathe... - I tried to stand up, failing miserably, and Isaac approached me, trying to help me. Right then my comm piped up, showing a videolog.

- Hammond! I thought you were dead! - Kendra had managed to contact me, at last. - You need to get to cleaner air! You're not going to be able to help Isaac in your condition. Isaac, I'm scanning the area now. He's right, there's something really big in Food Storage, but I can't get a good scan. Monitor readings are off the scale. Be careful!

With that, Isaac nodded, and looking at me one last time, went through the door to Atmosphere Control, leaving me in my sitting position. True or not, it looked like neither of them trusted me the littlest bit.

I felt very dizzy, but somehow I managed to stand up and go to the elevator, trying to go to another deck, to find cleaner air. In the tram station, I saw my reflection on one of the windows, and turned around to see my vitals. The RIG was flashing red, which worried me. I didn't have any medpacks, nor had I enough credits to buy one, so logic told me I should go to the Science/Medical Deck, and try to pick up any medical supplies I came across.(3)

When I arrived at the deck, I found it to be deserted, with severed limbs and blood everywhere. I could breathe better, but I still could smell the stench of Hydroponics' air. Odd enough, there were many candles lit on the floor, without any apparent sense. I saw a closed container, and lacking the necessary expertise to hack it open, I opted for the more direct approach. I slammed the stock of the Pulse Rifle on the door several times, until it popped open, thankfully revealing a medium medpack instead of the many variety of items that Isaac had found in other containers like the one I had just smashed open.

Instantly using it, I noticed the change. I could breathe better, and I didn't feel as hurt as before. A snarl snapped me of my thoughts, and when I saw I had a vent right above me, I tried as hard as I could to not be below it when the necromorph inevitably destroyed it and attacked me. Apparently, I hadn't been as healthy as I thought I was after the medpack, since when the vent was shred to pieces by the claws of one of the slashers that dwelled the huge planet-cracker we were trapped in, I lost my footing, and slammed on the floor. Right after that, the slasher that "opened" the vent fell through it, and I saw it wasn't one of those I had already confronted, being instead one of those late Captain Matthius had been transformed into. Its red eyes looked at me, and it quietly approached me, preparing to charge me on the floor. Panicking, I pulled the trigger with all my might, trying to aim at its arms to severe them. Alas, fate was seemingly against me, for the Pulse Rifle was empty. The (enhanced) slasher then charged me, and I struggled to throw it off me. I started pushing at its head with the rifle, desperately trying to avoid the obvious bite it was going to take from me if the opportunity arose. I managed to get my knee underneath its... belly? No, not belly, not anymore... Underneath its intestines, and push upwards, making it lose its balance and giving me the opportunity to get up. Without having the time to reload the Rifle, the slasher charged me again, to which I answered by slamming my weapon in its face, gruesomely blowing it away. I quickly ducked, since I remembered their instant reflex when their head was cut off: slash randomly. I took that time and reloaded the rifle, not failing to notice I didn't have any more rounds to spare, and after a quick thought, I tried to kill the blind slasher without using too much ammo. Remembering what Isaac had done sometime earlier, I kicked the slasher's legs, making it fall to the ground, then jumped on its arms, falling as hard as I could, to break them. Unlike I expected, it worked, and the satisfactory sound of breaking bones accompanied with another snarl told me there was one less slasher to worry about.

- Kendra, I'm in the Medical Deck, and... – I said on the comm, only receiving static as an answer – Damn, I'm on my own again.

As I gave up on contacting either Kendra or Isaac, I thought I couldn't go back to Hydroponics until the Leviathan was killed, since I didn't have a helmet with filters to purify the oxygen I breathed. That reminded me, whose voice was the one I heard before, and why didn't the owner show himself, staying in the shadows instead?

I looked ahead and saw the door to the Security Station where the store was, and went there, to see if somehow there was a discount on Pulse Rounds, or if, even less probable, I had enough credits to buy, at least, half a magazine. My counter was closer to zero than I deemed safe. Unsurprisingly, I couldn't buy anything, and the Safe was empty, so I was entirely on my own, with a nearly empty Pulse Rifle, also my only weapon, in an alien-infested ship, which, to top it off, was being poisoned courtesy of its own dead crew and another huge alien. The day couldn't get any better. A loud clank could be heard from a vent not far away, and I heard more snarls, and some high-pitched screams(4), deducing there weren't only slashers this time. Of course thinking that would trigger them...

- If I get out of here alive and catch up to them, I call the mission off, I swear it. Enough of this shit. - I said to myself.

I opened the door to the Tram Station, and quickly ran away from it. There was where the vent had been destroyed, and three slashers were right in front of me. Luckily, this time the exploding necromorph was near them, so I quickly shot its orange-glowing arm, and two of the slashers exploded with the kamikaze (the exploding necromorph)(5). The remaining one charged me, and I dodged it somehow, shooting at its legs until I severed them. Then, I stomped on one of its arms, and the bone broke, with another snarl from the necromorph, and it stopped moving. I entered the Tram, and pushed the button to go to another Deck, but it didn't move. Cursing, I got out and checked the map of the ship, to see if there was another Tram Station in the Deck. When I saw I had to go through most of the Deck, I nearly punched the wall.

I reentered the Security Station, and went through the Imaging/Diagnostics' door, since the Tram Station was through there. It was very quiet, without any necromorph, only bloodstains and the occasional limb on the floor. A few corpses, too. The fact that I had grown accustomed to those sights was something to worry about. The lights flicked on as I passed near them, as if they had a motion sensor. When I reached the end of the corridor, I saw a bloodstain across the floor and going up the wall, as if someone had banged their head so hard on the wall to split it and slide to the floor. (6) I went through the door to my left, and I saw a Work Bench. I suddenly remembered the Power Nodes I had, and approached it, wondering what could I do with them. Apparently, it was simpler than I had thought it'd be. Using what little engineering abilities I had (because I had some, otherwise I couldn't have repaired that ADS Cannon's auto-targeting), I managed to insert the Power Nodes in a few slots the Pulse Rifle had, thus improving both its ammo capacity and its damage-per-bullet.

I continued through the small passage to the right, noticing the out-of-control stasis pod going back and forth on its rail, and the dead necromorph sticked to the wall near an elevator. I went through the door opposite of it, and found myself in another corridor, this one with a room to my left, the Chemical Research Lab and a barricade right in the middle. I opened the door and saw there was another one across the room which went back to the corridor, at the other side of the barricade. As I crossed the room, I noticed two stasis tanks at my left, one of them broken and the other with a corpse in it, floating. The few containers in the room, as well as a case in the wall, were open, signaling Isaac had been there recently. Maybe it even was where he had concocted the poison he was carrying to Food Storage to kill the Leviathan.

Anyway, I exited the lab, and further down the corridor, there was yet another door, this one leading to the Cryogenics Lab. The temperature difference was highly noticeable when I entered the room, it was freezing! I looked at my sides, and saw lots of pods with necromorphs inside. There were more vents in the room, and a few of them were already broken, so I crossed the room as fast as I could, and entered the control room, trying to avoid whatever necromorphs may enter the room through the vents, failing to notice the one right behind me. A loud clank behind me, however, made me realize my strategy hadn't worked as efficiently as I thought it would. One of the mermen leaped at me, knocking me to the ground, and started biting off the arm I had raised to cover my face. I punched it in the face, having discarded the Pulse Rifle in the fall, and kneed it where its stomach would have been if it were still human, shaking it off me. I quickly got up, and before it could recover, I grabbed its tail, pressed my boot on its head and started to pull the tail. I heard a crunching noise while feeling my foot stomp on something soft(7), and quickly let go of the merman's tail, proceeding to stomp on its tail until it came off. Although it stopped moving, I kicked it hard in the side and blew its arms off for good measure.

Finally, I got to the Tram, and threw myself inside it, punching the button, not even looking where I was heading. The important thing was that I had started to breathe better a few minutes ago, which surely meant the poison had successfully killed the Leviathan, detoxifying the Hydroponics' oxygen supply.

(A/N: 2nd solo chapter, in which the "I patched myself up" from chapter 8 is somewhat explained... Hope you liked it, and I await your reviews, telling me how much/little you liked it, what, if any, plot holes you identified or just simple grammar errors. Also, try to make it a constructive review, not just "Go **** yourself, this sucks", please.

1 He didn't actually see it in person, my bad. I forgot he saw the leviathan, so in this case, Hammond HEARD about it, via audiolog, instead of what he's canonically supposed to do.

2 That kneeling necromorph last chapter, the "undescribed" one.

3 OK, I'm not sure if those last two sentences have any sense at all, since I'm not sure about their structure. Please tell me if they're correct or not, and if the latter, tell me what the correct one would be.

4 Slashers and exploders, respectively. And yes, it was absolutely casual, not like I am trying to advertise that film or anything, heh...

5 As I commented earlier, the chance that he has the names of the necromorphs down to a T is utterly improbable.

6 Chapter 2: Intensive Care, anyone?

7 Meat Cello. The guy from the elevator in Chapter 2 of DS2 invented it, I just put it to use 3 years earlier in the USG Ishimura.)

I apologize I took this long to post this chapter, I don't really have any credible excuses, simply a mixture of "I don't know what to do" and "I don't want to do anything"...