Isaac's breathing sounded heavily in his ears. He followed closely behind Shepard's team, but only his own footsteps could be heard, echoing up through his suit. His flashlight played off the backs of the three in front of him, casting long, erratic shadows across the walls and ceiling. He breathed heavily, and looked behind him down the empty corridor. The station was quiet, but Isaac knew that would only last so long. This was the calm before the storm.
Garrus' voice came crackling through the coms. "There should be a maintenance room around the corner coming up. From there, we can reboot the power systems, and restore life support. Hopefully, we can also find out where they were storing that thing."
"Hold on," came Tali's voice, "There's something there."
Immediately, all four stopped, their flashlights trained on the end of the corridor, where the hallway split. A figure sat against the wall, slumped over, its head hanging down. Shepard held up a hand, then waved the team forward. Cautiously, they approached. It was a man, wearing what appeared to be an Alliance uniform. Blood stained the front of his uniform, and the wall behind him.
"I'm not reading any life signs, Commander," Tali stated.
Shepard knelt down in front of the man, sliding his rifle on to his back. Carefully, he tilted the man's head back, to get a look at his face. Garrus grunted in disgust, Tali let out a small gasp, and Isaac cursed under his breath. The bottom half of the man's face had been torn away, from just below the nose. His lower jaw was gone, along with his throat, and a portion of his chest, torn open down to the sternum. Shepard dropped the man's head and turned to Isaac.
"Did one of those things do this?"
Isaac shook his head. "I don't think so. If one of them had got to him, there wouldn't be this much left." He crouched down by the body, turning its head to one side. "Look at the scratches on his face. Those are from fingernails." He stood back up, turning to face the other three. "This was done by a person."
"Hold on," Shepard interjected, "A person? This station was filled with Alliance personnel. No one here would have done this to a fellow human."
"Besides," added Garrus, "how could a normal human do... That?"
Isaac exhaled, looking down at the body. "It's the Marker," he said, finally. "It drives everyone around it insane. They kill others, kill themselves. Not just here. It's going to keep happening, and it's going to happen everywhere. All the more reason to destroy it here and now."
The three Normandy crewmates looked at each other uneasily. Shepard placed his hand on Isaac's shoulder. "Don't worry, Isaac. We will destroy it."
Isaac shook the hand away. "Right. Which way to the maintenance room?"
"It's to the right, just a little bit further down the hall," Garrus answered. "Let's go."
The green light on the door flashed in confirmation, and the door slid open, revealing a small room beyond. There were a few lockers against the left wall, a small sink and emergency shower on the right, and a row of consoles along the far wall. The four of them filed into the room, Shepard and Tali entering first, Garrus and Isaac taking the rear, Garrus in reverse, with his rifle trained down the hall, until the door closed behind them. Tali immediately moved to the consoles, and knelt down, her omni-tool springing to life. Isaac began idly opening the lockers in an attempt to find anything useful.
"Alright, give me a few seconds, and..." Tali began, tapping at her omni-tool. "There. Backup generators powered up. Life support is back online."
Under their feet, they could feel a gentle hum begin, as the generators sprang to life. The vents hissed as atmosphere rushed into the room. Garrus and Shepard removed their helmets, as Isaac's folded back into his suit. At the same time, deep within the station, a distant screech sounded, soon joined by others. The sound reverberated through the station, slowly being distorted as it rang through the halls. Then, after several seconds, it stopped, the echoes of it fading away.
"Well," Isaac growled, "They certainly know we're here now."
Garrus looked at him in discomfort. "What do?"
Isaac ignored him and turned to Tali. "Where's the Marker?"
"I'm working on it," Tali answered. "Just give me a moment to activate the lights. Oh, you bosh'tet!"
"What's wrong?" Shepard asked.
"The lighting is fried. I can't fix it from here. Hold on, I'll see if I can reroute power to the emergency lights." She tapped a few times on her omni-tool, and small lights near the top of the walls flickered to life, bathing the room in a red glow. "There we go. Now, let's see where they were storing the artifact." A small, holographic screen appeared above the console. She looked at it, then groaned. "Of course."
"What now?" grumbled Isaac.
"It's in a lab on the other side of the facility."
"Well sure. We wouldn't want it to be easy, now would we?" joked Garrus.
"Come on, " Isaac said, hitting the door button as his helmet slid back out to cover his face. "We don't have time to waste."
The emergency lights did little to help visibility in the corridors. The eerie red glow they put off only served to heighten the tension. As they moved forward, a soft scratching sound could be heard emanating from the gloom ahead of them.
"Something's there," Shepard warned.
"Commander," came the voice of EDI through their coms, a touch of concern in the AI's voice. "I am reading no life signatures aboard the station."
"Then what the hell is walking around down there?" growled Garrus.
"It's one of them," Isaac hissed in response. He raised his plasma cutter, flicking the flashlight on.
Illuminated by the light, they could now see what shambled about just beyond the intersection of the hall. It was a horrible, twisted analogy of a human being, mutated almost beyond the point of recognition. Its arms were bent at an impossible angle, and two long, bone-like blades protruded from its clawed hands. A second set of small, emaciated looking arms grew from its torso, and its legs twisted and bent oddly, as it hobbled around on strangely shaped feet. As the light shone upon it, it turned its red eyes towards them, noticing the four living beings in its presence. It opened its mouth, letting out a guttural snarl, and began shambling forwards.
With a growl, Garrus stepped forwards, raising his rifle. The shot rang out in the corridor, and the bullet struck the creature squarely in the forehead. It fell to the ground with a gurgle.
"Got it," Garrus stated proudly, lowering his gun.
"Not yet," Isaac snarled, shouldering the turian aside.
The creature made an annoyed sounding growl, and began writhing about on the ground, its bony appendages scrabbling on the slick, metal surface. Isaac took aim with the plasma cutter, its laser sights cutting through the gloom. Finding purchase on the floor, the undead creature stood itself up and began ambling towards the group, faster this time. Isaac took only a second to line up his shot and squeezed the trigger. The weapon flashed, and a bolt of ionized plasma flew through the air. It made contact with the creature's right arm, instantly searing through flesh and bone, amputating the limb in a spray of ichor. The creature recoiled momentarily from the impact, but continued to move forward, undaunted. Without hesitation, Isaac aimed the weapon lower, the head rotating, and fired another shot. This time, the bolt carved into the monster's left leg. A second shot tore the limb from the body, and the creature fell to the ground. Still moving, the creature attempted to raise itself back up, it's clawed arm propping itself up, still trying to reach the living. Isaac took two steps forward and raised the plasma cutter once more. The weapon flashed, and the monster's head fell to the ground, lifeless. The body twitched once or twice more, then fell still.
Isaac heaved a sigh, and reloaded the cutter, ejecting the energy cell in a hiss of steam. He turned back to the rest of the team.
"What the hell was that?" Garrus asked, almost shouting it.
"That," Isaac answered, "Was a necromorph. They're created by the Marker. Any dead bodies that are close enough to the signal it gives off become those things. They can't be killed just by shooting them. You need to take off the limbs, dismember them. That's the only way to put them down for good."
"Well, that's good to know," Garrus stated, looking glumly at his rifle.
"Dead bodies? You mean that used to be a person?" Shepard asked. Isaac nodded. "Javik's vision showed me it was bad, but I had no idea it was like this. It's like the Reapers' husks."
"Ugh. Could you imagine a necromorph husk?" Tali wondered aloud.
A sudden shiver passed through the three crew members. A feeling of dread settled upon them, as they realized the true implications of what was happening. If the Reapers, as much trouble as they already were, got a hold of that kind of power, it would spell disaster for all life in the galaxy.
"We've got to get to that artifact."
Shepard pulled his shotgun from his back. "Let's move."
From further within the facility came a piercing, inhuman scream. It was quickly joined by several more, and the sound of scrambling feet.
"Get ready!" yelled Shepard, as a blue glow began to envelop his torso.
Five necromorphs came screaming out of the shadows. Shepard was ready, releasing his power. A blue glow ensnared one of the lead monsters, lifting it into the air, then slamming it back down to the ground. The creature's body exploded on impact, unable to withstand the force, a large portion of its body smashing into the necromorph behind it, knocking it to the ground. Seeing an opening, Isaac threw out his hand, the glow of kinesis grabbing one of the minced necromorph's limbs, and tore the claw off. Immediately, he fired it at one of the other three still advancing, impaling it through the chest, sending it flying back down the hall. A shot rang out from Garrus' sniper, shattering the knee of one of the necromorphs, stumbling, and Isaac scythed off one of its arms with the plasma cutter. Above Tali, a glowing orb appeared in the air, turning to face the necromorphs, before firing two missiles into the last creature, blowing off both arms and a leg.
Only two necromorphs remained, one crippled, the other struggling to its feet. "Firing a concussive shot!" shouted Garrus. His gun kicked back as a blast of kinetic energy rocketed out of the barrel. It struck the crippled necromorph in the chest, flinging it backwards, while tearing off its head and remaining arm.
As the last necromorph got to its feet, Shepard was once again surrounded by a blue glow. In an instant, he slammed into the creature in a blaze of energy, knocking it backwards. Before it could even react, he then leapt into the air, this time a purple glow emanating from his body. Raising his fist, he blasted into the ground with a punch, releasing an explosion of energy, tearing the necromorph apart into rotten chunks. Slowly, he stood up as his barrier began to regenerate.
"That wasn't so bad," Garrus quipped.
"Try doing it on your own," Isaac shot back. "Besides, there are plenty more where those came from. How many people were on this station?"
"One hundred and twenty two," chimed EDI.
"See?" Garrus shrugged. "Only one hundred and twenty two. Nothing to worry about."
Isaac remained silent. True, that wasn't nearly as many as he had faced on the Ishimura, or Titan Station. And there were four of them. He looked down at the broken corpses. Something just seemed wrong to him. Even with all four of them working together, it just felt too easy.
"Uh, Commander?" Joker's voice greeted them through the coms. "We have a problem. Like, a big problem."
"What is it, Joker?"
"We've got multiple ship signatures heading for the station. It's Cerberus."
Well there we go. Finally managed to squeeze this update out. All it took was two nights of insomnia.
I will try my best to update this regularly. Now that I actually know where I'm going with the story, it should come easier to me.
And for everyone complaining about my mistake about Dead Space not having FTL, I have fixed that.