Huh? I have two reviews for my latest chapter of USG Colorado? It's been so long since I last got a review. … I … I feel stronger! YES! I FEEL POWERFUL!

Vegeta: It's over nine thousand!

Okay, back to seriousness.

Rafen of the blood: (I hate auto-correct) That's right! Thanks for reviewing! Just a little note, though: CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM! ... Please?

X-WolfHunter: Eh. I'm just ending it in style.

Log 11: Bridge/ Giovanni Brown

August 13, 2513

"This is Captain Giovanni Brown. I have a grave misfortune to announce. The acting First Mate, Jason Jacobs, was murdered in his sleep just last night," the captain morbidly announced into the recording system. "He was a high-ranking officer, so his body must be autopsied despite his previous wishes. If there's any chance we can find the murderer, then we must take it." It was quite ironic, actually. The man, while he was still the acting captain, had ordered that all autopsies would stop. However, protocol dictated differently than what he had set in action. The body had to be autopsied. "His body will be autopsied by the Head Medical Officer, Jacob DuFresne."

Giovanni lightly paced. Nicholas Helms, the new acting first mate, now held down the recording button. It wasn't even an actual job, because the recording software only took a press of the button to begin recording, not it being held down. But the captain insisted. Besides, Nicholas would be receiving a slight pay raise for being the first mate for a while.

Giovanni took a sip of his coffee and tried to think of something else. His eyes shifted toward the planet before him. "The White Marker is almost completely excavated. Not a moment too soon, either, sandstorms are moving in from every direction. We can probably actually set up some gravity tethers on the Marker already." He turned to one of the EarthGov Elites. "See if we can do that," He ordered. The soldier saluted and turned to make a brief run to the shuttle that usually went down to Jericho II, idle ever since the morgue had been deployed.

He took a brief sip of his coffee again. What else could he do besides pace and wait for a response from the soldier? He opened his RIG's communication system and tried linking up to Gregory Peyton, the Head Mining Official. The gruff face of the man appeared on the screen. "Captain?"

"Status report, Gregory. Any more casualties?" the captain asked.

"That's a positive, unfortunately. Several more, including the man we assigned to guard the morgue. Apparently, he was necrophobic. We weren't aware of this prior to assigning him. He shot himself in the head." The official rubbed the back of his head. "Something isn't right here, captain. I can tell something's up that I'm not seeing. People are disappearing right in broad daylight. I'm losing men, and I don't know where they're going."

Giovanni nodded. "Very well, then. I'm going to send down some Elites, to check everything out." He signaled, and then heard metal-on-metal clangs as the remaining Elites ran out of the Bridge to the hangar. "And what of the excavation?"

Greg sighed in annoyance and looked around him. From what Captain Brown could tell, the sky around him was turning into a sand-like color. "I'll be honest with you, captain. I don't think we're going to get another chance to get this thing out of the ground. There are sandstorms incoming, and this is the longest time period that we've observed that there hasn't been a sandstorm in. We aren't going to be this lucky twice, sir."

"So, what you're suggesting is…?"

"What I'm saying is that we need to hook on the gravity tethers to the Marker immediately. It might do some damage to it, but we don't really have any time to spare anymore." Peyton looked away at the sound of someone yelping in pain. "Looks like we have another murderer. Wish me luck," the man said as he saluted, pulling his pistol out.

"Good luck." Giovanni closed the link, and immediately opened a link with the Elite he had originally sent to the shuttle. "You're going to have some company. Wait for the others to arrive. Liftoff in ten minutes."

"Yes, sir."

"Good." He closed this link as well. He could feel the tension in the air. Something big was about to go down. He sipped his coffee, and waited for the worst.

Okay, we're really starting to get close to the finale. The next three chapters will end this story altogether (with a cliffhanger for the sequel, MUAHAHA!). Also, in case you haven't heard through the grapevine yet (Yeah, Captain. Sure there's a grapevine about you), yes, the sequel to this story is the collab I previously mentioned. It will be written with another author, X-WolfHunter, and his characters from the story Dead Space: Trio (read and review). He will call it Dead Space: Jericho II (curses, that's the title I wanted), and I will call it Dead Space: Title Currently Unavailable.

Read, review, and stay tuned for the finale! … Or else! … I swear, man, I'll find you.