Chapter 9: False Hope
Exiting Vacuum
The dull, monotone voice of the Valour's A.I. welcomes the trio as they step through the airlock. What awaited them inside was best described as carnage. Sparks flew from busted fuse boxes and cables. Smoke and steam leak out of cracked pipes. Fires roared through holes in the deck, with the very floor pealed up like some fruit.
"Crap…and I thought we came down hard in the Kellion." Isaac quips before opening a comm channel. "Hammond, do you read? We've just gotten onboard."
"I hear you, Isaac. It's a mess in here. The poor bastards never stood a chance. I'm currently on the bridge, and it's a wreck. Trying to see if I can find out why they were here."
"Copy that." Closing the channel, Isaac pules out his Pulse Rifle and inserting a fresh cartage. "Well, on a military ship. Might as well use this."
"Looks like we can only go through the barracks. All the other doors are blocked off." Kairi points out with her Keyblade. True to her word, the other doors around them were either blocked off or broken. Leaving them with only one way to go.
With no other path open, the trio enter into the barracks, coming face to face with walls lined with small sleeping coats for one person. Sora and Kairi winced at the tight sleeping arrangements before a shadow sprinted across the far end of the room.
Way too fast for a normal Slasher.
"Isaac, I think there's a new variant here." Soora warns as the trio begins making their way through, passing by beds ignited by flames. Blood was splattered everywhere, with limbs, Pules Rifles and ammo littering the floor and walls.
To think that only one Necromorph could cause this much death…
"Great… Just what we need. A new variant."
"Isaac, we have a problem." Hammond suddenly interrupts. "The Valour is carrying a twelve-megaton warhead. The crash hit the torpedo bay hard. I need you three to handle that nuke right away before something sets it off."
"Handel? Twelve-megatons? You do realise none of us are nuclear engineers, right?" Isaac sarcastically replies, completely unamused at what Hammond is asking of him. While Sora and Kairi gave themselves concerned glances. What did they mean by 'nuke'?
"I don't need you guys to be. Just stabilize the warhead and get it away from the Valour. You haven't let us down yet, guys. I know you can do it. No one told you how to cut apart these Necroes, either. Just trust in yourselves."
With the call ended, the trio carried on through the barracks, dodging bolts of electricity from the destroyed floor. Silence fills the void as sparks and steam leak from the wall and ceiling. Reaching the end, the trio exit the barracks, finding more bodies lining the halls. Some with their heads missing. Others were gutted like fish.
If it wasn't for their helmets, they would be overwhelmed by the smell of blood.
"Hammond was right…They never stood a chance…" Sora whispers, pausing to look at one of the dead crew. The helmet was partly opened, revealing a single eye open wide in terror. Isaac was about to respond before a shadowy figure dropped in at the far end of the tight corridor.
It spasms and twitches as though it was glitching out in a video game before breaking into a full-on sprint. Faster than that, Slasher at full speed. Issac opens fire on it, but to their shock, the creature seemingly dodges every shot fired at it. And the ones that land ping harmlessly off the armour on its arms.
In desperation, Kairi blasts it with stasis, drastically slowing it down while Sora and Isaac aim for the exposed legs. The new variant falls to the ground in slow motion as Sora uses the Ripper to slice off one of its arms, the diamond-coated blades ripping through the armour.
"What was that?! Why was it moving so fast?!" Kairi asks as they examine the corpse. It was clearly one of the soldiers onboard, judging by the still intact armour. While Isaac went over it with a discerning eye, he noticed a small half-circle next to what remains of the RiG. And puts two and two together.
"Stasis units… These men must have had them integrated into their suits. When turned, it must have melded with them, but instead of slowing them down, it sped them up."
"And, how many soldiers did the Valour carry?" Sora asks. Isaac hums to himself as he thinks.
"If I remember correctly, around 67 at full capacity. But something tells me the Valour may have been understaffed. In comparison, the Ishimura can hold up to 1,332."
"So, we've been fighting against over 1000 Necromorphs?" Kairi asks, slightly intimidated by the number. It wasn't new to Sora. He DID have to fight through two waves of 1,000 heartless before. Even if the second one included Nobodies and Unversed as well.
"Basically." Isaac replies to Kairi, heading towards a nearby lift. Only for the power cell next to it to blow out just as he got inside. "Well, that fan-fucking-tastic!"
"Why don't we check the next room? There might be a power cell we could use." Sora points to said door leading to the Briefing Room. It was a gamble, but what else could they do? Stepping into the room, they find the far end crumpled up from the impact with the Ishimura, while a table displayed a hologram of said ship spinning in place while a battery lay nearby.
Along with three more bodies lining the floors, covering it in blood.
"It's a massacre…" Isaac breaths. He grabs the battery with Kinesis. "Let's just find the core and get out of here."
"What about what Hammond warned us about?" Kairi reminds him as Isaac inserts the battery. Behind his helmet, Isaac winces. He hadn't forgotten about the nuke, but it still made him wonder why the Valour was carrying such a thing in the first place. The thought bounced in his head even as they entered the lift, only broken by a sudden video call with a certain person on the other end.
"Mr Clark? Hello? I must speak to you. It's Dr. Terrence Kyne, the Ishimura's chief science officer. I studied the Marker for the Church."
"I'm done talking to Unitologists." Isaac immediately shuts down. Not that Sora or Kairi could blame him, considering everything that has happened. But going by the look on Kyne's face, he wasn't ready to give up.
"But the planet won't rest until the Marker is returned—you can't leave!"
"Watch us." Isaac hits back before shutting off the comm. "I've had it with them." He mumbles as the door opens, revealing a collapsed hallway, two more corpses and a door with an exposed fuse. "The missile is being kept in here. Let go inside and deal with it."
Caution. Radiation hazard.
"Thanks for the obvious warning." Isaac grumbles as they enter the red-lit room. Missile tubes holding missiles lined the walls while in the centre, held in place by a connector, was the nuke in question. Panels were open on the sides connected to fuse boxes, indicating that maintenance was being done at the time.
Before they could get to work, though, a high-pitched yell echoed from the back of the room. Shambling out of the Darkness, an Exploder lumbered towards them, dragging its sack behind it. Normally, they would have shot the sack to explode it, but in this room surrounded by missiles and an unstable nuke, doing so would result in death.
Raking their brains in through, the Exploder crawls closer with an expression of glee. Eager to drag the three to hell along with it. Taking a gamble, Sora blasts the Exploder with Stasis, slowing it down and leaving its arm holding the explosive bag exposed. Rushing in, he swings his Keyblade at the arm, slicing it off as Kairi grabs the sack with Kinesis.
She gently places it down on the ground as the Exploder slowly falls to the ground.
"That was close." Sora comments.
"No kidding." Isaac replies, walking up to the control terminal. "Great, the emergency clamps are stuck. Can't launch it until power going to them is cut off." He points to the exposed fuse boxes. "Think you can take them out? I don't want to risk setting anything off with a stray round."
The couple nods to him, swiping their Keyblades against the fuse boxes. With the power to the clamps cut, Isaac was free to launch the faulty nuke away from them. And into deep space.
"Well, that takes care of that." Sora remarks at the closed bay doors. Yet Isaac was worried.
"This doesn't make any sense…" He mumbles before activating a comm channel to Hammond. "Hammond, we got rid of the nuke, but it doesn't make any sense. WHY was the Valor carrying it around in the first place if it was only on patrol?"
"Yeah, I'm worried about that too. If they had a target, the only thing out here is us... I'm looking through the files as best as I can. I've cleared a route to the engine room for you as best I can. Get that core and get out of here."
Ending the call, Isaac leads Sora and Kairi out of the torpedo bay and back into the corridor. Following the only path open to them, the trio heads towards the armoury before being ambushed by a Divider and Twitcher.
While the Divider was easily hit by a blast of Stasis and left open to Kairi's Flamethrower, the Twitcher, true to its name, twitched out of the way before slashing at Sora's chest. Sora's armour took the blow as the Twitcher retreated before it was hit by a blast of Stasis.
Frozen in place, Isaac blasts it with his Force Gun to remove the armour worn by the former trooper before Kairi swipes at it with her Keyblade. After making sure Sora was alright and a brief usage of a Medical Pack, the trio continued on towards the Infirmary.
Just outside, they find a trooper, still alive yet clutching onto his dismembered leg in shock. Blood pooled around him as he slowly bled to death. Just as the trio rushed to help him, he fell backwards, dead.
Moving past the fallen man, they enter the Infirmary, where a medical laser spiralled out of control. Scaring the floors as they span around in place. A Twitcher bursts out of a vent and charges towards them, uncaring of the laser and is sliced to ribbons as it passes through it. Shaking their heads, Isaac blasts the machine with Stasis as it covers one-half of the room, allowing them to sprint past and exit via the second door.
The moment they did so, Hammond called them on the comm channel. Surprisingly ecstatic.
"Guys, are you hearing this? It's Chen. There, on the Riglink! Did I lock him in alive?"
"No, Hammond! It's the Marker trying to trick you! Don't listen to it!" Kairi pleads with him.
"Kairi, I know my own team. And I know it's him! Chen, come in!" The call ends shortly after, with disturbing implications for the trio.
"Damn it, the Marker's crawling into Hammond's mind. We need to link up with him and snap him out of it." Isaac curses, slamming a new Plasma pack into his Cutter. Kairi follows suit by placing a new canister into the Flamethrower while Sora replaces the Ripper Blades used in the Ripper. Before the trio make their way into the Cargo Bay. Where they find the escape pod from the Ishimura. Covered in blood with three dismembered corpses surrounding it, no weapons in sight.
"Guess we found the escape pod. Why did they open it?" Sora whispers as they pass it by. Continuing on through the bay, stacks of cargo lining the path as the broken floor sends sparks of lighting up to the ceiling.
They continue on, passing by corridors filled with flames and debris before coming to the one door still working. Where Hammond contacts them again.
"Guys, I've got the logs and…I can't believe what I'm reading."
"What's wrong, Hammond?" Isaac asks as Sora and Kairi gather around him.
"Just before coming here, the Valor docked at a station and picked up corpses. I've looked at the security of the morgue, and…the corpses turned into more of those Necromorphs."
"Why did they pick up corpses before coming here?" Sora asks aloud. It didn't make any sense unless there were Unitologists spies onboard who knew about the Marker. But that didn't explain if they knew the bodies would turn.
"That's not all…I've read the munitions log. It wasn't just a nuke. This ship came loaded for war. It's a seek-and-destroy mission!"
"A what?" Kairi asks quietly. The implications of that statement fall heavily on them.
"They wanted us dead from the start…this whole repair mission was nothing but a front!" Isaac shouts, furious that they were thrown away like tools. "This isn't a patrol! Someone knew about this! Someone high in Earthgov!"
"And we were dead…the moment that we arrived…" Hammond's voice was just above that of a whisper. They couldn't blame him. He had just found out he, Chen, Johnston, Kendra and the trio were all sent here on a suicide mission. All to cover up what was happening on the Ishimura.
"This reeks of Unitologists bullshit." Isaac grumbles, closing the comm. "Let's get that core and get out of here. I've had enough of this…"
"What about Nicole, Isaac?" Sora asked as they approached the engine room. Isaac freezes in his tracks for a moment before turning to the couple. His face was hidden by the helmet.
"At this point Sora…I'm starting to think that she didn't make it…" he sadly replies. The couple's hearts sink at hearing him say those words just as they enter the badly damaged engine room.
Jets of flame rush from ruptured pipes while the power leading to the lift is knocked out. Using the little ice magic they could summon, Sora and Kairi sealed up the ruptures, granting them time to rush past before they melted from the heat. If they could use the more powerful versions of their spells, the ice would have stayed for far longer.
Especially when it came to the central area, where a large blast of fire rampages through the centre every few seconds.
Timing it just right, the team sprints past the blasts of fire before finding more ruptured pipes lining the wall towards a circuit breaker. Repeating the same method of freezing the holes, the group reached the breaker as Isaac routed power to both the lift and fire suppression system.
Above them, the sprinklers activate sending a cascade of water raining down on them. The fires from the pipes are extinguished, though the flames in the centre refuse to be put out. Waiting for the flames to die, the trio sprint past before retracing their steps back to lift, heading up to the higher floor.
Standing on the catwalk, surrounded on both sides by roars of engines, they find the chamber holding the Singularity Core. With easy breaths, the group walked towards it, relieved that their mission was almost done.
Unknown biohazard detected. Lockdown initiated.
"What?!" Isaac yells as a glass door seals off the room. Just as Hammond stumbles in front of it. Delirious and confused. "Hammond!"
"How did he get there?"
"Never mind that! Where's the Necromorphs?!"
"Another malfunction—half the Ishimura's in the red… Someone get the door open…" Hammond mumbles, his voice echoing through a speaker above them. Just as a vent falls behind him, Chen drops down. Hammond spins on his feet, Rifle aimed before he stops himself. "Chen? Christ, what did they do to you?" He asks, completely ignoring that Chen is a Necromorph.
"What's he talking about?"
"The Marker's blinding him! Making him think that's really Chen!"
Necro-Chen stands up, its back briefly touching one of the prongs holding the Singularity Core as electricity shoots through it. Hammond, seeing his supposed friend in pain, turns back to the team with pleading eyes. "Help me get him to the Kellion!"
"Hammond, that's not Chen! Shoot him!"
"Hammond! Look out!"
Hammond turns, seeing Chen charging at him before the scythed blades pierce his chest. He grunts, numb to the pain, as he glances at Necro-Chen, still seeing his former friend in his eyes. He could hear the trio screaming his name behind him, along with Blasts from a Plasma Cutter, Line Gun and Force Gun. Yet the barrier between them held under the assault, even as the glass began to crack.
"No…You're not Chen." Hammond grunts, grabbing the arms as Necro-Chen attempts to pull them out. "You're what killed him…" He glances over his shoulder at the trio, giving them one last weak smile. "Isaac…Sora…Kairi…Live for me!"
With one last cry, even as his RiG hits red, Hammond pushes Necro-Chen into the Singularity Core. The moment that Necro-Chen touches it, they both explode into bursts of blood. Painting not only the Core but the entire room in blood.
Quarantine lockdown disengaged.
"No shit…" Isaac whispers, walking forward. Sora and Kairi stood still, too shocked to move or even speak at Hammond's death. Even as Isaac grabs the Core.
Singularity Core removed. Re-routing power.
With a heavy sigh, Isaac joins the two just as Kendra contacts them. "I've just lost Hammond's vitals! They flatlined! What happened?!"
"Hammond's dead. Chen stabbed him in the shoulders, and Hammond drove both of them into the Core. It soaked in his blood…" Isaac looks at the bloody Core before hanging it onto his belt.
"Damn it…" Kendra mutters, surprisingly emotional over his death. But Isaac didn't forget about what Hammond told them, and he intended to ask Kendra about it. Right before an explosion ripped through the ship, knocking Sora and Kairi out of their stare
Warning. Cascade failure in all primary systems. Evacuate immediately.
"Shit! Without the core, the whole ship is ripping itself apart! Get out of there!"
"You heard her! Run!" Isaac yells before sprinting down the catwalk. Sora and Kairi chase after him just as more explosions rip through the room. Rushing down the corridor and into a lift, they move down to a lower level before continuing their sprint.
They find themselves cutting through a Mess Hall, where two Twitchers wait to ambush them. Only to be blasted by Stasis as the trio promptly ignored them in their mad dash to escape. Bashing open a fuse on the way out, they open a way to the Barrack's, where they spy a survivor in his own mad dash to escape the Valor vanish behind a bulkhead.
Whether he makes it out or not, they find themselves not caring to their shock.
Rushing into the Barracks, more explosions ripped through the ship as more critical systems began to fail while the electrical grid began to overload.
Finally, just as the explosions began to intensify and rush through the halls, the trio arrived at the airlock just as it opened up. Sora and Kairi throw out their Keyblades, forming into gliders as all three of them jump away from the Valour just as flames consume the airlock.
Sora and Kairi land on their gliders, with Isaac hitching a ride on Kairi's, as the two glide their way into the Central Array, just as the onboard A.I. begins to retract the main antenna and close the blast shields.
The moment the doors closed, and air returned, a muffled explosion rips through the room. The Valor was gone.
"Isaac! Sora! Kairi! Come in!" Kendra screams over the comms. Isaac shakes his head for a moment, clearing out the ringing in his ears.
"We're here! We're alive! Back in the Main Array."
"Thank god, I thought I lost all of you! Not only that, I tracked movement from the Valor before it went up. Looks like some of those things got onboard."
"Twitchers…annoying bastards. Anyway, I've still got the Core. We'll head to the Crew Deck shortly, but I'm going to give Sora and Kairi a moment. Seeing Hammond go out like that…it wasn't pretty." He glances at the two sympathetically. They were young in his eyes. They did not need to see such horror. Let alone the human body imploding like that. At least it was only blood that remained, a small mercy.
"Got it. I'll try and work on opening a way to the Crew Deck, along with every Unitologist and their Marker. Let's get that shuttle up and get out of here. I don't know how much more I can take."
"Right." Ending the call, Isaac glides over to the airlock, signalling Sora and Kairi to join him. The couple do, silently, as they enter back into the Ishimura's Array Control. "Hey, are you two doing alright?"
"Yeah…just shocked is all…" Sora replies numbly, sitting on a bench. "Just can't believe Hammond died like that…" Kairi silently nods before she leans her head on Sora's shoulder.
"You two take as much time as you need. Kendra needs to find a way in for us anyway." Isaac tells them as he sits down on a bench. He could feel his eyes were getting heavy as fatigue began to settle in. Perhaps a small rest would do them good.
When was the last time they managed to get some anyway?