Ded Spess X Mass Efekt

Following a total communication blackout and continued unresponsive activity, a Cerberus Recovery Team was sent to investigate the remains of the MSV Ishimura as well as ascertain the success of Cerberus Operative Kendra Daniels. Operative Daniels was inserted into the MSV Kellion’s rescue operation to investigate the progress of the MSV Ishimura’s classified directive: to locate and recover Prothean artifacts as well as it’s secondary objective of skimming precious resources such as iridum, palladium, platinum and element zero from the ship’s hauls into Cerberus aligned interest groups and active projects.
The recovery team was unable to detect any distress signals or Cerberus dead drop signals within the proximity of the planet. However, a single Executive Shuttle belonging to the MSV Ishimura based on it’s designs and serial number, was located above the planet’s atmosphere along with a single occupant, alive but heavily injured and in a nigh catatonic state. Field review of the occupants RIG data drive revealed him to be Isaac Clarke.
Based on the data recovered field operatives were able to determine that Isaac Clarke was part of a Systems Alliance intergalactic mining company known as the Concordance Extraction Corporation, which has been one of many corporations who have dared to operate within the Attican traverse, though one of few who have had successful hauls. Originally a voluntary member of a emergency response unit onboard the MSV Kellion to the MSV Ishimura, sent to investigate the distress signals broadcasted by the Ishimura as well as the total communications blackout within. The very same team that included Operative Kendra Daniels. Looking through both audio and video logs of subject Clarke’s activities aboard the MSV Ishimura, it has been determined that an infectious outbreak caused by the mimetic signal emitted by a speculated Prothean or Reaper artifact was capable of altering local cellular lifeforms as well as DNA and cause hysteria, hallucinations and mutations not dissimilar to the effects that the Reaper Sovereign reported to have, as detailed in the files of the Saren Incident and Commander Shepard Investigation.
Currently Cerberus Recovery Team Alpha Victor Papa is enroute to Titan Station where he will be provided to the onboard medical and research staff. Once he has been processed, Cerberus Recovery Team Alpha Victor Papa will return to HQ for recuperation and further orders.
-END OF LINE-

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Testing of the [REDACTED] Artifact has proven interesting: as noted throughout the data logs of the [REDACTED] RIG, as well as the Cerberus operations team, the Artifact produces a ‘signal’ that is traceable and audible on several frequencies and various electromagnetic wavelengths. Testing on non-sapient subjects seems to cause mutations and accelerated evolution, as subjects were seen to physically change at a rapid pace. Each exposed subject exhibited similar if not identical changes. Experiments were conducted to see if these mutations could be reproduced with a high frequency, which was discovered to be the case with each subject that was exposed for the same amount of time exhibiting the same mutations.
These subjects were shortly thereafter being exposed were placed into cells for further study. Through prolonged study and surveillance it was noted that the exposed subjects exhibited abnormal behavior to the control group, those of whom experienced no exposure to the Artifact. The subjects exposed to the Artifact began splitting off into divisions, exhibiting social behaviors unlike that of the control group and seemed to form a “pack”. We continued observing them and comparing them to other groups of subjects that were exposed to the Artifact for longer periods of time.
Gradually we began noticing a trend of increased estrus periods, less time needed until full maturation and an increase in the number of young being born as a result. This is a noticeable trend of conforming to a K-strategy for propagation before changing to an r-strategy. This trend has a high correlation with changes of mating and maturation of the subjects and the amount of time spent exposed to the Artifact. It is theorized that the accelerated evolution is due in some part to the signal emitted by the Artifact. This hypothesis seems to be proven from brain scans of the subjects, with the subjects who were exposed longer to the Artifact having more higher brain activity overall with various regions of the brain seeming more developed in comparison to the control group.
Until further testing is conducted, especially in regards to how the signal affects multiple species as well as if this would affect the rate at which the young can mature. It is highly recommended that testing on human or other sentient/sapient beings.
He sat there staring and reading into the reports that filled the holoscreens of his inner sanctum, behind them a red sun shone in a nuclear blaze of glory. He was a man of patience, willing to wait for the right time to act. To strike when his enemies were at their weakest, to persuade and influence those when they thought of turning their back on Him, to build up a legion of faithful soldiers and like-minded folk who would see to it that humanity would survive the worst that the galaxy had to offer them.
He hated to play the long game when the worst was coming and He only had a glimpse at the power that intended to destroy everything he fought to preserve and protect.
It was enough to instill in Him a festering fear, that grew with every passing second. The Council had not heeded the words of Shepard and look where that left them? A ruined Citadel, a broken foundation, their cornerstone of security ripped out of their hands only to be saved by the one who had every reason not to.
A man of virtue, one that He could respect even with his idealistic morals.
A man whom he could put his trust in to do what needed to be done, to succeed.
Now that man was put back together, resurrected like the stories of old
Except this miracle was achieved by the hand of humans, not by divine intervention
One man who alone faced against the Avatar of Old Gods and claimed victory
But there was another threat, one that seemed to have all the trademarks of those vicious machines yet somehow none.
MAKE US WHOLE
Those words were a trumpet sound, heralding the arrival of something else. Something that forced his hand into taking drastic action.
Time was a luxury no one had except maybe the Krogan and Asari, but with new forces in play: every second counted.
According to current estimates by the Project Lazarus team, it would be a month or so until the completion of the project.
Good, but not good enough. The Reapers were one things and so were the Necromorphs but they had a more immediate threat to face.
All there was left to do was to bide, he checked his reports again: salvage teams out collecting alien tech to reverse engineer, an experiment in controlling the Geth, development of the shackled AI, the prototype exploration vehicle and further development of the biotic suppressant. The timeline had jumped and they were adapting better than he anticipated.
Those projects might have adapted and progressed faster there was the one contentious project that had not seemed to improve.
One project that would be experiencing…
Unforeseen consequences

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AwaKEnD. AWOke. I aM he wAs awAKed.
?WherE? who WAss Station. HeeRrrrr. Gone. Nicole? Ishimura. Kendra bitch. Make us Whole. niCOLE! AegiS. Broken. MaRkrR. Gone. silEnCE. Over. It was….
All…..
Over….
Nicole…… I remember…. I had this dream… I mean it wasn’t a dream…. I remembered a time… when….
“How you doing?”
“Good. The Ishimura is a great ship”
Better times…
“….you made me stick with it”
“You might be getting out of range of the relay..”
“Isaac…. Isasac….”
Isaac!
He returned back to reality, away from better times, to a shrink that talked like he knew him.
“….ead girlfri….. wh…. Her name?”
“Nicole” he answered, things felt far away. Like it wasn’t real. The shrink sounded like a real asshole. Sometimes asking questions, sometimes saying answers….
He had been sedated again…. The realization didn’t hit him as hard as he thought it should have….
It was why even when he was awake everything was….. “away”
“I didn’t want it to end like this.” She was here…. Oh, Nicole… He loved the sound of her voice, whenever he had down time he’d check his extranet mail and just listen to her voice….
“I really wanted to see you again…. Just once.” Oh Nicole…. Don’t say that… you’re hurting me….
“I loved you. I always loved you” loved….. oh yeah…. Right dead girlfriend…. Why’d it feel cold all of a sudden?
“Yes. Nicole Brennan. She was a senior medical officer stationed aboard a Resource Harvester class vessel”
“The Ishimura” ….n….no…
“The MSV Ishimura, yes. Part of a mining operation on Aegis VII. I understand communications went down shortly after their arrival. You were part of the repair mission”
He could feel it…. See it…
“A mission for which you volunteered, am I right?”
No, no, no….. Don’t make me remember….
“What did you find aboard that ship, Isaac?”
“They found something”
The answer came out unbidden, he remembered…. That terrible obelisk like twin snakes coiling around each other. Made from chitin of gruesome origin. He saw it so clearly and…. Someone too….
“What did they find aboard that ship, Isaac?”
“The Marker” closer….. he was closer…. Or maybe…. They. Were closer. He could make out the grooves of the Marker and he felt like her recognized that person… a woman….
“Did you have contact with this…. Marker?”
Closer and closer, he could make out the glowing glyphs of innumerable alien origins covering it’s shell. She was closer…. Too….
“It made you see things, didn’t it?”
She. Was walking towards them
“Things you didn’t want to see?”
He could see her face, pale, rotten, scarred, bleeding. She clambered onto the table as the Marker pulsated once more with an orange glow. Like a star….
“It spoke to me”
Oh…. No…. it Was. Closer. Glowing brighter and brighter
“What did it say to you Isaac?”
No, no, no, no he could hear her – It – Speaking through her voice. He could feel in his body those words forcing themselves into his flesh, carving trenches in his mind and polluting his soul.
“MaKE…… US…… wHOle!”
She was so close, her eyes and mouth were lit up like a beacon, he could only watch, his mind so shattered that he could not even feel scared of the unnaturalness of this vision. The Marker wouldn’t let him go. It forced him to see. Even though he was SURE he destroyed it on Aegis VII, it still haunted him.
“Isaac! Isaac! Can you hear me?” The shrink was so far way…..
Isaac felt himself staring into an infinity, of monsters made from men and women, of a great structure that stabbed the sky preparing it’s ascension, of people dying by the thousands.
Finally the sweet bliss of darkness overcame him
Only to reawaken as a bright light offensively blinded him and a voice….
“ac… Isaac, can you hear me?”
This wasn’t the shrink….
“Daina!”
Where, he turned to stare into the darkness
“I found Isaac Clarke! Repeat. I have him!”
Why was the power off?
“Great work Franco. Be careful, he’s been out a long time”
Fran… a long time….? Wha- How…. How long?
“Okay”
The “Not-Shrink” pulled him off a table – a gurney – Isaac felt weak… like his body was made out of cellulite and not a shred of muscle.
“Good, good. Steady, steady, steady. We gotta get you out of this straight jacket”
Straight jacket? Why would he…
“Wh- Where am I?” he managed to rasp out a croak, he sounded like a chain smoker who took sandpaper to the larynx. Like he hadn’t had enough to drink… but he felt…. “fine”.
He felt lucidity come to him, he could finally make out the features of the shadowlit room: it looked like a hospital with it’s sterile paleness and the smell…. Something was off about the smell…
“Alright. I know you’re confused right now. I can explain everything, but you gotta trust me, okay? Listen! You’re in terrible, terrible danger-“
A spike exited Franco’s chest and from behind him rose a misshapen creature…. That smelt rotten…. It sent a second spike through Franco’s forehead before leaving them alone.
Nononononono
Franco seemed to stand in shock before moaning and leaning into Isaac’s face.
Terror and bile rose up inside Isaac but he forced it down through the sheer force of disbelief. What the fuck was happening?
The corpse of the late Franco writhed in pain as a spiked limb protruded out of his shoulder followed by another out of his other shoulder. His neck stretched unseemly revealing ligaments and splashing blood on Isaac’s face.
It grabbed him and for whatever reason it screamed
Everything happened so fast, that it bewildered Isaac.
But he had plenty of time to react
Knocking back the person formally known as Franco with a hard shoulder check, Isaac began running as fast as he could in his straitjacket. He idly noted that a voice – a woman’s – told him to run. So he ran, moving through the hallways of a hospital gone to hell, closed off rooms burst open as other necromorphs leapt out of their ‘cages’. As he ran he heard a synthesized voice on the public speakers say “Evacuation in progress”.
He juked left to avoid a shambling beast that resembled a fucked up orange ‘sheet’ with tentacles and a mouth. It struck him that the ‘orange sheet’ was in fact skin. Horribly mutated skin.
“All Hospital Personnel are to evacuate the building”
Where was this building?
“Please consult your omni-tool for the nearest exit”
Just as he made it into a clear hallway, more necromorphs appeared. They came out of the ceiling and the walls.
Just like last time….
Relying on intuition, he felt himself “guided” him through several doors marked “To Secure Area”. He would have snorted at the irony but didn’t have the time as he was jumped from behind by a something. He wiggled and maneuvered his legs to kick back at what he recognized as a necromorph. Struggling, he finally managed to kick it off of him and witnessed it satisfyingly become smashed between the set of doors he had just passed.
He paused for a split second before getting back up on his feet and began moving. He felt weak and bet that if he could see his health management display it would’ve been low and in the red. As he began moving through the halls he found himself staring at two human soldiers. He noted that they lacked Alliance colors and uniform.
They in turn noted him and trained their rifles on him.
“Clarke! Command we have the subject in sight, moving to-“
The soldier was cut off from finishing his sentence as like the hand of providence a massive tentacle shot from the ceiling and into the man’s chest. Before lifting him up to presumably infect him and propagate the Necromorphs. The other soldier didn’t seem too shocked, and moved toward the vent aiming his rifle, he stared into the dark abyss only to find himself pulled upwards into the abyss via a spike into his skull, through his guts and out his poop hole. Isaac could hear the man’s scream echo in his helmet.
Carefully he moved on, cautiously avoiding a torso that happened to fall out the ceiling. As he walked he heard the public speakers turn on.
“This is Director Tiedemann to all project personnel. I want the key subject terminated and the facility purged and scrubbed. This is not a drill. Tiedemann out.”
He moved on until he came upon a peculiar room filled with holo-consoles, unmanned yet still active and a few streamed biometrics of who he presumed were patience until one of the holo-consoles caught his eye of a recording.
“Subject is Nolan Stross. Session one-five-eight.”
Keeping an ear out for the recording, he looked around the room to see if there was anything he could cut himself free with. Something didn’t feel right about the patient recording session. Eyes? Correction, eye? He thought he was in a psych ward.
“It was black. Deep black, and glowing red with symbols”
Isaac felt something
“The symbols… whispered to me”
Felt an itching in his brain
“And what did the symbols whisper to you?”
The man he identified as Stross fidgeted, for a second until he regained some semblance of composure.
“…it was just a shard – it was just a shard… but it put so much stuff in my head…. So much shit in my head …. There’s no more room…. For anything. I can’t remember what she looks like…. Why can’t I remember what she looks like?”
He felt like he was missing something that he had once had at one point….
“The symbols, Stross. What did the symbols tell you?”
But now….
“They tell me it wasn’t my fault… I didn’t kill them… They didn’t deserve this and I didn’t deserve this! Fucker!”
This WAS a psych ward… the straitjacket was the first clue, recorded patient interviews… the smoking gun.
The video ended before repeating
But what the fuck was he doing here?
He knew who he was, where he studied, who his parents, he remembered someone that he loved but couldn’t put a name or a face together, he’d been a systems engineer for a company.
Why the hell wasn’t he in space then?

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2185 CE
Ezra Shepard rubbed the sleep from his eyes, the recent recruitment of Jack (a.k.a. The Convict) had gone swimmingly. Not only had they been forced into a shootout with at least a hundred Blue Suns infantrymen and automated defenses, culminating in an escape from a structurally unsound ark ship and made it out by the skin of their teeth before Council rescue ships and armed escort fighters arrived.
The aftermath had been thankfully less painful, Jack’s abrasive attitude notwithstanding, and was over soon enough giving Shepard some time to think over their next COA. He looked over the dossiers as well as two new missions before he was interrupted from his musings as the sound of EDI’s voice echoed from a nearby console:
“Commander, your presence is needed in the communications room”
He breathed deeply, he was notified again on his omni-tool that The Illusive Man wanted to talk with him. Not unheard of, perhaps he had a new lead on the Collectors? It was probably a new assignment though whatever it would involve was a mystery. He made his way to the Communications Room, where the hologram of The Illusive Man sat patiently, though subtly stressed.
“Shepard. I’m sure you have received the files concerning Cerberus’s alternate endeavors and are familiar with our efforts to help humanity and have always been about protecting them from all potential threats” The Illusive Man drummed his fingers, irritated at recent events that have come to pass.
“Would I be right assuming that something went wrong?” The discontent in Shepard’s voice was telling of his tiredness. How many times had he been forced to clean up and contain the messes from the efforts of those wishing to do ‘good’? He already had enough to deal with, and needed time for some R&R before prepping for his next mission.
The Illusive Man took a drag of his cigarette, breathing in the nicotine and tobacco before letting out a wisp of smoke. His face betrayed nothing, but the drumming of his fingers had stopped. “Something wrong can be fixed Shepard, always. I require your unorthodox experience in dealing with a situation on the civilian space station of Titan Station. A total communications blackout, all attempts at hailing them have failed.”
That woke Shepard up
“Is it the Collectors?” The sand fell from his eyes and his mind was already mentally prepping an anti-synthetic combat kit, along with team formations. Titan Station, technically Titan II named after the moon of Saturn. It was large urban center built mainly for and by humans, though it wouldn’t surprise him if there were a few aliens, probably spouses or partners. Other than that, he had nothing.
At this The Illusive Man took another drag of his cigarette, cautiously judging the merits of revealing what they had there.
An additional little carrot on a stick wouldn’t hurt.
“Potentially. A recovery team from Titan Station recovered the remains of a Planetharvester, the MSV Ishimura, outside of Aegis VII within frontier of the Attican Traverse. The crew of the ship were missing or killed, though by what remains a mystery.” The Illusive Man stared into the eyes of Ezra, appealing to the man’s bleeding heart. A surefire way to incite him to action.
“Cerberus intelligence revealed that there was something else that was recovered but was deemed classified. We believe that what they discovered a Prothean or Reaper artifact, which may have broadcasted a Reaper indoctrination signal. I’ll be sending you our files concerning what they found and the Ishimura Incident. This requires our immediate response, plot a course to the Kepler Verge and get your ground team ready.” Shepard nodded as the hologram dispersed, leaving the room shrouded in darkness.
As he walked out, he remembered the last time he got involved with a Prothean artifact: Eden Prime and the race to stop Saren, what had ultimately led up to both their deaths. He absently checked his omni-tool as a little bling! Sounded from it, notifying him of the files sent by The Illusive Man.
There were psychiatric video logs of sessions with several patients, in varying states of lucidity and catatonia. What he could gather from these sessions was that mental deterioration of cognitive functions occurred. Some of these patients who were lucid mentioned the same thing: a darkness, a black thing, symbols and signs that glowed and whispering. These lined up with his experiences with indoctrinated individuals and backed up by Cerberus’s files. But something was missing, he trusted The Illusive Man to have humanity’s interests but at the same time… if he knew anything about those in power, they’d be willing to hide things from their own people if it proved dangerous enough.
Not that there was much he could do now, he thought.

/running TitanStat_Tech.ip
Welcome [EZRA SHEPARD]
What would you like to know?
> Titan Station
> Concordance Extraction Corporation (CEC)
> RIGsuits
> Stasis
> Kinesis
> Stores
> Terminals
…selected >Titan Station
Titan Station II is civilian space station designed and built by the Concordance Extraction Corporation, it is a sister of the Titan Station I, a research station within Earth’s solar system. Colloquially known as The Sprawl it originally was a mining platform-cum-colony, designed to extract minerals from the local asteroid belt for relative self-sufficiency while being semi-independent from the influence of the Systems Alliance and Citadel politics. To further deepen it’s purpose as independent and free, the miners of the Sprawl had to manually mine from asteroids using specialized equipment designed and provided by the Concordance Extraction Corporation.
Titan Station II is not unique in it’s nonlinear structure: being built from an asteroid body where conventional terran-based mining takes place along with where the municipal government buildings are situated. This area is known as the Government Sector which is connected by three crossover tubes to the Public Sector. Here is where a majority of the Sprawls inhabitants reside, living their lives in the thriving metropolis free from the political clout of the Citadel.
Due to the sponsorship of the Concordance Extraction Corporation, many unique technologies developed and manufactured on the Sprawl are available nowhere else in Citadel or Alliance space!
CLASSIFIED INFORMATION – Do you wish to read this?
[y/n]?
…reading input
…reading clearance level
…processing
…Access Granted
The original purpose of the Titan Station was to provide a sovereign entity and place of operations for Cerberus through their bought-out shell company known as the Concordance Extraction Concordance. Here experiments considered unethical or denied by the Systems Alliance as well as the Citadel territories could technically be conducted without much legal fallout. The location of the station near an asteroid belt in the orbit of a gas giant and nearby moon make it ideal for resource harvesting. This ‘frontier’ of Citadel space would also allow ample opportunity to deal with potential interterritory threats such as pirates, slavers, geth and what else may be in wait in the Terminus System.
Here alternative technologies that relied minimally on mass effect fields and element zero was also developed, which was perpetuated by the lack of element zero harvested in nearby celestial bodies. Such technologies are RIGsuits, stasis energy applications, kinesis modules and experimental FTL drives.
Furthermore research into salvage from the [REDACTED] and what occurred during the [REDACTED] was considered the main objective after the discovery of the Reaper threat.

…selected > Stasis
Stasis is a field of science and technology based on advanced quantum physics. Much like biotic applications of mass effect fields, it renders both organic and inorganic matter immovable, although in the case of stasis it instead creates localized time dilations. This technology is applied to both industrial and medical uses. In the case of industrial applications, it’s time dilation effect can be applied to slow down equipment that experience malfunctions and therefore temporarily restraining the hazard. In the case of medical applications, it’s time dilation effect is used on patients from stasis gurneys to minute stasis fields which can halt microscopic activity for surgeries.
CLASSIFIED INFORMATION – Do you wish to read this?
[y/n]?
…reading input
…reading clearance level
…processing
…Access Granted
Stasis was initially a pre-existing effort by Cerberus of creating a device that create time dilation in order to see if time dilation could occur artificially. With some experimental efforts and further development derived from [REDACTED], there were plans to develop a support device that could be used to suspend the animation of wounds or be used similarly to barriers in the field. Of which there are several variations (marked as developmental versions), with very early commercial builds being used by the Titan Memorial Medical Center, as a result of successful testing of the suspended wound animation with a powered source. Due to Cerberus’s intervention and influence over Titan Station, very few people outside of Cerberus were aware of how this technology worked or were allowed to study it’s mechanics.

…selected > Kinesis
Originally it was an effort achieve a mass effect field without the use of element zero, relying on an alternative method akin to quantum levitation. By distributing a burst of zero point energy that can manipulate dark energy to produce a mass effect field. It exploits electromagnetic forces to create a field around an object in which the dark energy field is contained in. Current technologies are at an industrial size and require connected powered supplies. Modular kinesis devices at the current stage of the project, are only able manipulate small objects.
CLASSIFIED INFORMATION - Do you wish to read this?
[y/n]?
…reading input
…reading clearance level
…processing
…Access Granted
Development on the project was slow, even with the aid of various [REDACTED] files on quantum physics. However after the [REDACTED] occurred and study on the [REDACTED] began, exposure to the [REDACTED] in some individuals allowed them access to information somehow stored in the [REDACTED] much like some [REDACTED] such as in the case of [REDACTED] during the year [REDACTED]. By using the information stored, construction on a [REDACTED] device allowed access to a clean energy supply and new technologies.

…selected >RIGsuits
RIG (Resource Integrated Gear) suits
“Commander, ETA in 5 minutes”
“Alright, copy that Joker, on my way to the Hanger

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What the hell was going on?
Necromorphs were crawling all over the place, how the hell did that happen? Titan Station… For some reason he hadn’t heard of it, yet it seemed like a civilian installation based on the lack of military officer corpses although the rather brutalist architecture notwithstanding, it seemed homely. Definitely familiar enough to know it was a CEC installation, and only they would be crazy enough to bring it back to a civilian station. Presumably they had rescued him and based on some survivor logs he found scattered over the place Unitologists were here too.
Unitology, now didn’t that bring a sour taste to his mouth. The fucking “benign religion” that had sprouted after the Mass Relays were discovered and element zero had been harnessed. They believed that those with biotics were “the chosen of Altman”, it’s founder who was waiting with them beyond the Milky Way Galaxy having been ‘uplifted’ by the “Prothean Remnants” or some crock of shit like that. It was a scam, pure and simple, human greed taking advantage of those foolish enough to believe the shit they were selling.
Fuckers ruined his mom, she had joined up with the group and attempted to undergo a ritual of some sorts that ended up with several shipments of red sand and many of the – let’s be honest – cultists having died from a lack of continence of their recently acquired biotic powers. From then on he was on his own. Organized religions were the basis of what would become modern morality but fuck, were they outdated.
Shaking his head of irrelevant thoughts, he finally found a STORE which he activated. A pleasant digital voice identified him and began updating it’s inventory with profession appropriate equipment: an engineering suit and a plasma cutter. Shit… he still had to pay for the suit, of course the CEC wouldn’t cover that under ordnance expenses.
He stepped into the ‘iron maiden’ of the STORE’s suit kiosk and waited as the STORE took apart the straitjacket replacing it with a sealed hazardous environment suit and began attaching exoskeleton pieces onto the suit with a variety of mechanical and motorized seals and biometrically specified pieces. He felt…. At peace.
It was always strange to transfer from unsuited clothing to suited clothing but it’s design was made to be practical. It felt comfy, familiar, especially with a lack of bloodstains, it took the edge off just a bit. Storing 4 small health kits so as to have some inventory room in the suit, he finished his selection before making his way out…
Into a depressurized vacuum
It was a strange thing to admire the beauty of destruction but as he walked through the vacuumed corridors in varying states of OSHA complied safety, he had to admit: it was beautiful in it’s own way.
The Marker really had fucked him up
It also helped that it was juxtaposed with outer space and the structure that was Titan Station: it was beautiful with it’s gleaming lights and high rise buildings. It was ironic that Tartarus had been opened, it’s occupants unleashed to wreak havoc. He would’ve laughed, if he wasn’t so aware of how bad it could get.
When he entered a giant room, most likely a lobby of sorts, with at one end a huge window that revealed the exterior of the Station in all of it’s majesty. He sighed.
He just knew for whatever reason when shit hit the fan he was going to go flying out of it.
It was then a fucking huge Necromorph clambered over a shuttle at the end of the room and made it’s way to Isaac. He saw that it looked like a “brute”, except fuckhuger and lacking a fourth leg. It’s arms also weren’t as heavily armored and seemed thinner.
How the fuck did it move?
His question was immediately answered by this three-legged “tripod” leaping an outrageous distance and knocking over one of the support columns.
Fuck, it was kind of fast.
He snorted, he had faced bigger, badder and bitchier things before. This would be no different: If he could stop one Necromorph infestation, then he could do it again and this time:
He knew what he had to do: Run around it like a little bitch, Stasis it and dismemberment.
Hopping backwards, he blasted it with a stasis charge before shooting it’s arms. He noticed that his hands seemed to be shaking a bit more than usual. He’d probably been in stasis for a while, he had exhibited some of the symptoms of stasis reactivation syndrome, it wouldn’t have surprised him that atrophy had set in even with the advanced technology of the 22nd Century, time was still an enemy no one could stop.
He had missed a few times before reloading, managing to get it with one more stasis charge before backing away to the end of the lobby where he saw a Stasis recharge station. The thing roared at him before taking a leap, to which Isaac managed to run away in time. It’d be fucking stupid to goalie leap out of the way, never mind rolling. Especially in this suit, recovering from a roll was not something he was trained to do. Nor was it going to be comfortable, regardless of how specified the suit was to his being: flesh pressing against the metals integrated into the RIG was not a comfortable experience.
He blasted it with a stasis charge and missed. He tried again and managed to score a hit on it’s arm. It was then he noticed small pods that glowed on it’s arms. Contradictory to most creatures in the natural world where something shining, glowing or overall bright in color were used to ward off predators or attract prey, Necromorphs – being wholly unnatural – ironically had glowing spots which indicated their weakness. It was an unnatural phenomena that Isaac was all to happy to take advantage of.
Making off at least 3 shots, he sighed in relief as it seemed that it was enough to hack off it’s left arm. It fell, unbalanced to the floor of the lobby, before it began pitifully hobbling it’s way after him. It was kind of funny and Isaac took some amount of glee in seeing his enemy – and the pain it represented – so pathetic and incapable. But he wasn’t going to take any chances, so with a final blast of stasis he fired onto it’s remaining arm where it fell off, the Tripod released a cry of agony before falling limp.
He tilted his head, he doubted it’d be that easy. His gut told him that the damn thing was lying in wait to try and get him with a surprise attack. Too many corpses suddenly jumping up and trying to shank him had taught him that.
Aiming his juryrigged plasma cutter at the Tripod’s tail, he fired on it wherein it suddenly began to wriggle and spasm, swinging it’s tail which managed to cut into Isaac superficially. He absently picked up a semiconductor that had been embedded in the flesh of the Necromorph that he assumed must have gotten stuck in it during it’s reanimation and rampage throughout the Station. He mumbled a command and felt the sweet relief of medigel being splurted into his wounds. One of few things that the CEC had taken with them, as it’s origin as a human developed first aid application made it ‘acceptable’ to bring with the admittedly xenophobic colonists.
“Jeezus that thing was angry. Daina? I’m out of the hospital.” His communicator crackled with static before the voice of Daina replied “Okay, the tram station is just beyond the apartment blocks.” Making his way to the stasis recharge station, he charged up his stasis module interjecting “Hang on. I need more answers.”
“How long have I been here?” He needed to know, who knows how things have changed, who knows what the hell had been done to him. It was strange he could remember everything that had happened before he destroyed the Marker but…. After that and how he got to Titan Station was absent.
“Two years. Tiedemann found you floating in space near Aegis VII brought you here for study.”
Tiedemann, huh, he had heard that name whilst making his way through the complex.
“Why can I remember anything?” He grimaced at the answer Daina gave him “The Marker you found imprinted your brain with a self-replicating signal. The longer you’re awake, the more the signal spreads. It’s killing you Isaac.”
Of course, the Marker was killing him, whatever intelligence that the Marker had, had sought its own vengeance. Killing its destroyer would be the sweetest revenge along with making its destroyer’s efforts to stop it, meaningless. As he made his way through a doorway and walked down a hallway, Daina continued
“Tiedemann tried to keep it in check with memory suppressants.” Not only had Tiedemann “rescued him”, he experimented on people with… something to do with the Marker, maybe exposed them to Clarke’s Marker Signal – somehow – and had sedated him to make him forget anything they did to him. Tiedemann was going to give answers once he found him, and he would fix whatever the fuck they got wrong. A small voice in his head whispered the possibility that it was Clarke’s fault that the Necromorphs were here. But he shook it off, focus.
“You said you could fix it, right?” Like it or not Daine was his only hope
“Only if you reach me in time.” Well fuck “Tram station. Get moving.”
Obviously, he couldn’t trust her but what choice did he have?
He made his way through a musty maintenance corridor, which he scavenged for supplies, finding several credit chits along with a power node. He made his way through a maintenance vent, Snake crawling through it until he made his way to it’s exit. Turning around he gave a sigh of relief: not only was there a STORE but a BENCH and an audio log. No Necromorphs aside from a corpse.
Which he stomped just to be sure
He listened to the audio log, it didn’t give him much besides that the CEC didn’t tell their employees jack shit about whatever and the comms had been down for a while. Isaac entered the STORE and took out a couple of health packs from his Safe before applying them. He could see on his HUD that his RIG-Spine glowed dark green. Before setting through the door.
Which revealed several ships evacuating and a voice on the intercom, which he recognized distinctly:
Tiedemann
He was a Director, had enough power to order a martial law on the whole station. So obviously he was probably some sort of mayor or government head of the station. That explained the man’s influence and access to resources. Didn’t explain the Necromorph infestation or the fact that…
He spotted a corpse, which he stomped and much to his unexpressed disappointment: there wasn’t anything of value that he could use. Turning around, he saw an inactivate walkthrough, which he activated. Isaac then realized a slight error in his plan with the appearance of a Necromorph corpse ‘awakening’ and sprinting at him, full pelt. He threw a stasis charge and hacked off it’s limbs with his makeshift plasma cutter.
He stomped on it and out popped a plasma energy canister. Attaching it to a cable, it’s ionized gases were siphoned from the container into the integrated ‘fuel tanks’ of the suit before the container was ejected from the siphoning port. He reloaded his cutter, first thing on the agenda once he hit the next STORE: Get an actual plasma cutter.
Spotting a node-room, he opened, raiding it of it’s bounty before moving on.


Meanwhile somewhere in the depths of what laid beyond the Terminus System
A Reaper flew through the universal medium
Communicating with its others
I [SENSED] something
A familiar [SOUND]
Part of an [ANTHEM]
An [ANCIENT] command
Our Progenitor had once [INSTILLED] unto [US]
…and [ANOTHER]
[OUR BRETHREN]
[ANOTHER] [OLDER] than [US]
[WE] were [COMPLETE]
[THEY] were not
[WE] [THOUGHT] [THEM] [ANNHILATED]
But [REMANTS] remain
[SCREAMING] into the [VOID]
MAKE US WHOLE
If it hadn’t transcended past such things, it would have shuddered

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Onboard the Kodiak, Shepard broke down the entry plan: A single team would go aboard the station via the government sector. Once there, remain in contact with the Normandy acting as a temporary comm buoy – due to local communication buoys being inactive – which would act as an eye-in-the-sky and access the station’s extranet systems and download any information relevant to the mission and patch it through. From the Government Sector’s docking terminal, they would investigate and speak with onboard personnel, inquire about the state of the Station, what they were up to, assess the situation and go from there. SOP: the mission was the priority but the rescue of civilians – if possible – would supersede that directive. Keep the collateral damage to a minimum, salvaging or commandeering of field resources and ordnance that prove an asset was approved.
“Commander!” The pilot said over the intercom “An SOS is being broadcasted from the Public Sector, transmission is linked to an onsite terminal. It’s on loop, so whoever broadcasted it may or may not be there. What’s our COA?” For Shepard it was a simple decision. His plans were put on hold however as they received a hail from the Government Sector, a man’s voice curtly cut through the speakers “Unidentified Cerberus vessel, Titan Station II is under martial law by order of Director Tiedemann. Turn your vessel around or you will be fired upon.”
“Titan Station II, this is Commander Shepard of the independent vessel Normandy SR2, we are here to investigate the complete loss of communication between Cerberus and the Station. We attempted to contact you from the Normandy but it seemed that channels weren’t open. I request immediate docking clearance to respond to a distress signal being broadcasted from within the Public Sector. And if you don’t provide me immediate docking clearance, we’ll have an interesting discussion with your immediate superiors, the Director and The Illusive Man. Shepard out.” Closing the line, he checked his equipment once more: Geth Plasma Shotgun, M-8 Avenger Assault Rifle, M-5 Phalanx Heavy Pistol, M-4 Shuriken SMG, and a M-100 Grenade Launcher to finish off his arsenal of weapons strapped on his person. It was one hell of a load to bear – even with the enhanced tensile strength internal framework of his armor amongst other things – and he was acutely aware of the effect it would have on his Combat Powers cooldown period, he’d have to requisition improved piezoelectric actuators to be installed in future armor pieces though he supposed it would have to do for now. He took note of Miranda’s and Jack’s loadout bearing the M-5 Phalanx Heavy Pistol, though Jack – he noted – had an M-22 Eviscerator, another one of the late additions to the Normandy’s armory after the mission on Freedom’s Progress.
The Kodiak shuddered, klaxons blaring, the sound of several ‘somethings’ pelting the hull could be heard from the interior. They were being fired upon, which was all but confirmed by the pilot crying over the intercom “Taking hits! Engaging evasive maneuvers”. The occupants of the shuttle steadied themselves, blind to their pursuer and potential executioner. The shuttle swerved, making drops and turning corners as fast as it could. Before the pilot confirmed their safety and began slowing down.
As the Kodiak finally stopped moving, the transport door swung open and the team touched down, Shepard with first booth boots on the ground scanning the room visually and ready in the universal firing position. Jack was out and ready with her shotgun ready, her eyes glaring about for any reason to shoot….
Or to simply just Slam someone into a fucking wall until they looked like like bitchy virgin’s vagina after her first time fucking herself with a nailbat – Her words.
Moving on, Miranda was out covering Jack’s flank. Looking cautiously around the complex, she was taken aback slightly by the brutalist interior design: the place looked dull with the floor being an ugly pantone-almost munsell, the interior lighting was subdued – at times crackling or cutting it out for periods at a time – and the juxtaposition of the few colorful signs and advertisements made everything feel off…
Like a horror movie…
“Shit Shepard, I thought you said to ‘Prepare for a shitstorm’ not it’s ‘A fucking ghost town’”
Shepard had noted something was missing and Jack’s quip filled in the missing piece in the puzzle: A thorough lack of military personnel – or more likely security forces – setting up barricades and standing guard to ensure that civilians kept to their homes. It would be the first thing in any leader’s mind to stymy fear, rumor-mongering or doubt through enforcement and action or at the very least appearance of taking action. Enforcers would be assigned to different sections of the Station, patrolling and keeping the peace, while the more heavily or specially equipped members of the security forces would be sent in to key areas where dissent was occurring.
Perhaps it was some sort of coup d’état? It WAS primarily a civilian station after all – Cerberus activities and cells notwithstanding – it wouldn’t be out of the question that someone might have found out something and started a rebellion. The status of the Titan Station II being considered a Sovereign Colony though did change what possible factors would apply. It was well known that the Sovereign Colonies were filled with people who were sick and tired of the Council pussyfooting around when it came to humanity’s place amongst them. They were also just as tired of the rules and conventions of law that governed the Systems Alliance, thus seeking their own place to call home. It was common practice by the Sovereign Colonies to create propaganda against the Council as a xenophobic, fearful triumvirate who wanted to control all the other races; while the Systems Alliance was seen as an ass-kissing, pathetic, weak footstool when it came to standing their ground as a race fit to be part of the Council. Hell, it had been confirmed by intelligence that a disdain for the Council and the Systems Alliance was cultivated subtly by the Sovereign Colonies. Ironically this hadn’t at all stopped them from trading with either forces.
It was a long leap in logic but perhaps the situation that had called the Normandy’s crew here, was a direct result of whatever happened to cause the martial law to be enacted. Receiving an information packet from the Normandy about the layout of the Station, Shepard and company headed into the Transport Hub to find it eerily empty. Checking his omni-tool’s triangulation of the transmission with orientation of the Hub, he found himself shortly standing before a door with capitalized letters glowing from the holo-projector: CEC Main Facility.
They found it barren and dirty, somewhat understandable based on what information they had received from the info-packs: the CEC Main Facility led to where the mines were, with the “mining dust” being carried in via transference from the mining RIGs. The team walked through the doors to find themselves in a compression/decompression room, their bodysuits adjusting to the change in air pressure with a small, mechanical hiss. After a few moments the door leading into the Facility opened: It still maintained it’s industrial, dirty appeal with a ramp leading to an industrial sized door. Going through that door they were met with an area that led to 2 doorways: one marked “Workers Entrance” and the other was unmarked.
Tucked away in a corner Shepard spotted a STORE and a terminal he could link his omni-tool to – surprising considering that the firmware of the CEC was different to the Alliance’s own – and traced the distress signal further inside the facility. Not only that but he found that there were several RIG signatures moving through the complex, and slowly the number of signatures lessened. Activating the commlink he spoke through the terminal’s audiophone:
“This is Commander Shepard responding to your distress signal, my team and I are here to help. Tell me where you are and how to find you.” He heard a gasp of surprise before a trembling voice, a man’s voice, responded
“Oh thank goodness! T- This is Kaleb from Shift 1, there’s 30 of us working in the mines. We…. Oh god… um” Kaleb audibly gulped here “I just… you wouldn’t believe me… but Shift 4…. They’re attacking us! I mean… their dead! I I- I don’t know what the hell is happening but our Dead co-workers are killing us and some of them have turned into monsters… all we’ve got are mining tools… we figured out that you gotta… you gotta cut off their limbs…. It’s the only way....”
He trailed off in nervous laughter
“Some of us should already be up there, the rest of us: down here. We’re trying to get to the Workers Elevator. A lot of us are dead and….” He was interrupted by an unsettling noise, something distinctly animalistic but definitely not one that any of them had heard of. “Oh no… THEY’RE HERE! EVERYONE QUICKLY WE GOTTA- UP THERE! SHOOT THEM! SHOO-“ the transmission cut off, the sounds of terrified cries, mining tools discharging and that inhuman roar rung out before cutting out.
Shepard looked between his backup, Miranda’s face caught between distress and frustration whilst Jack’s confrontative glare and scowl brought to mind her propensity for violence and her thirst for blood. Her fingers tapped lightly against the trigger guard of her shotgun, she was probably eager to get some action. He placed his back against one side of the door, Miranda took position similarly though opposite of him. Counting down, he opened the door; the group went through it to find no one was on the other side. Scanning the room, they were alerted to the Worker Entrance, the sign blinking between subdued peach to a warning yellow.
Their weapons armed and ready to bare, the door opened to reveal 5 workers dressed in similar uniforms, two of whom were wearing a slightly altered color palette indicating their duties. “Please don’t shoot us!” one of the men amongst the group said, his eyes much like the rest of them were wide eyed in terror – though whether it was due to whatever this Kaleb had encountered or the trio of heavily armed people was ambiguous – “I’m Commander Shepard, My team are here responding to a distress signal sent out by one of your colleagues, Kaleb.” One of the women nodded, “Yes! Kaleb Dalca, he’s the foreman of Shift 1. He messaged all onsite workers to evacuate immediately, w- we didn’t know why. We think it might be due to Director Tiedemann ordering a martial lockdown on the Sprawl, uh here’s the alert he sent out to all of us.”
The woman activated an anomalous device attached to her wrist that was not unlike an omni-tool, though instead of using the omni-tools orange hardlight interface, it used a cooler turquoise. Scrolling through the menu she finally found what she was looking for a played back the message
“All teams” It was recognizably Kaleb’s  voice that spoke “This is Kaleb, Xenogeologist from Langford Shift! There’s something in the facility, we’ve lost 3 of our crew, and can’t contact Shift 4” A different voice, a woman’s spoke up “Here comes the transport, everybody get ready in case there’s more.” Interesting, perhaps this hostile threat had taken out Shift 4 and when the communications were picked up by a monitoring VI, this had prompted Tiedemann’s actions to enact martial law. Made sense, wasn’t unreasonable for martial law to be enacted to ensure that civilians were kept orderly and calm through the show of force. Though that hadn’t explained the hostile gunship that had been identified as belonging to the local security forces. Seemed that this Director Tiedemann had a lot of explaining to do when Shepard found him.
“We’re abandoning our shift and heading back up. Everyone else is ordered to do the same.” They heard a strange rasping noise, almost animal-like, come out through the speakers embedded in the ‘omni-tool’ before the woman from before frantically yelled “Kaleb, it’s more of them! Shoot them! SHOOT THEM!” The transmission cut off. Shepard pondered….
“How long ago was this message sent?” The woman checked the message logs “About 15 minutes ago, give or take. Why?” Shepard’s face was a concrete block. “About 4 minutes ago, I was able to get a hold of Kaleb and he mentioned that he and the rest of the survivors were heading to the Elevator that I’m guessing you guys just came from.” The group turned to look at each other before nodding. Whatever Shepard was going to say next was interrupted as they heard a guttural noise, much like the one’s heard from the recording echo from beneath them.
Turning away from the group, the trio looked around to find the source of the noise. They were shocked to see two… misshapen humanoids climb up the railings of the Worker’s Lobby, still making that noise before screaming and bum-rushing Shepard’s team. “Jack!” The woman in question nodded “Got it!” before letting out a Pull, the creature was lifted, trailing bonelessly up in the air; Miranda responded in kind with a Warp, causing the creature to be violently propelled away from them, into the abyss.
Whilst Jack had responded, Shepard’s adrenaline secretor kicked in with time slowing down, he responded with a burst of fire into the head of the target. As he was doing that he analyzed it: the… ‘thing’ was terrible to look at, it’s flesh blackened like necrotized flesh with glowing ‘veins’ of neon-green casting the thing in an unnatural light. It’s human features juxtaposed with it’s strangely angled ankles, three toes, a pair of what appeared to be vestigial arms poking out it’s torso, it’s ‘arms’ were elongated, with additional joints ending in a wicked blade not unlike a scythe-head. It fell back and his perception of time returned.
It staggered back before letting out a defiant roar “Ya Allah!” One of the Workers cried “Concentrate your fire!” the trio of irregulars fired upon the ‘thing’ with a final headshot delivered by Jack’s shotgun. The thing fell over, the intensity of the situation defusing in pants of adrenaline. A moment of silence passed
“WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!?!” Jack turned around, fire in her voice and eyes glaring daggers into the eyes of the Station workers. “U- Uh w- we don’t know! We’ve never seen anything like it!” A woman stammered, Jack took the opportunity to menacingly walk towards her; a biotics wreathed her in a wrathful glow. Shepard diplomatically stepped between the two women intervening with a   musing probe “Do you think this was what Kaleb was warning us about?” the response was a mix of  shrugs, nods and collapsing onto the floor from shock. Looking over the 3D maps of the complex, he nodded.
“Listen up: My team and I are going go deeper into the facility to rescue the survivors. We’re going to use the elevator to go down the elevator. I You’re not going to like it but I’m going to need you to stay here and lock yourselves in.” Here he gestured to the Administration and Specialists Entrances “We’ll do this as quickly as possible. Try to find somethings to defend yourselves with once you’re down barricading yourselves in. I’ll be needing any access codes for the facility as well.”
“Why would you need access codes?” Shepard turned to face the speaker, before simply saying “To get through anything the system might do to lock us out. Okay people let’s do this.”
With that said and done, the access codes – along with verbal confirmations – were provided by the workers. His route may have to be changed, depending on whether or not the elevator would crap out on them. If so they could go through the Mineral Processing Plant which was closer to the ground floor and led to a secondary service elevator that was reserved for maintenance crews. This in turn would lead to the Specialist’s entrance which had access to every floor and utility system in the building.
They boarded the Worker’s Elevator, the door closed and they rode the elevator down in silence.

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Silence. Solace. Safety.
Isaac felt a smidgen of each as he stopped to catch his breath, looking out through the windows of the Unitologist Church: he could see the whole of the Sprawl and the focus of the view seemed to be a tower. Wouldn’t be unusual for a view but Clarke couldn’t help but feel drawn to the tower, though he chalked up to the clever architectural planning of the designers of the Sprawl. With the grandeur of the Unitologists and their integration of The Marker alongside the Mass Relays in their doctrine, he knew. Just knew that someone high up in the church had a lot of money or the ear of someone in the municipal government.
Tiedemann, Unitology, the Sprawl, Nolan, The Marker…
They were all connected.
He recalled his misadventure on the MSV Ishimura and the finale of the experience. In a silent moment, close to a solution to his problems he was reminded of what Kendra Daniels had said when she attempted to escape the Ishimura. She had said that “it was Cerberus’s mess to begin with”, what little news CEC allowed to filter through, it had mainly been highly positive about Cerberus’s endeavors. Praising their activities such as defending sovereign colonies from pirates, funding research that helped contribute to modern CEC technology and being a contributor to the development of the sovereign colonies as a whole. Of course, Isaac had the awareness to know that Sovereign Colony news outlets would have to be insane to talk bad about their investors.
News travelled regardless of how hard one tries to block it, the truth breaks free. He and some others of the Sovereign Colonies engaged with the pirate radio stations and secreted information when they had the time – and resources – to do so. His overall opinion of Cerberus wasn’t the fondest, he would admit: Their failed attempt at raiding the SSV Geneva of it’s antimatter was big news way back when, there weren’t many creative uses for antimatter by armed groups – besides bombs – and unsavory rumors about their alleged ‘illicit activities’ from the pirate radio and the steganographic messages he occasionally tuned to gave him some doubt on their ‘acts of good will’ in the Sovereign Colonies.
But if that were true, surely someone from Citadel or Alliance space had information, evidence and a case against Cerberus that would have tarnished their reputation beyond repair? Unless of course the rumors of black ops and assassination for political gain were true then well… it would explain why no one really did anything. Though considering how big the CEC was for both Alliance and the Sovereign Colonies, it made sense that any action that could block access to their valuable resources hadn’t been made.
Finishing his moment of reflection, he gathered what nearby supplies he could find or use, before attending to a store’s terminal to see if he could access the intranet of the Sprawl. Finding that the connection was down due to the military lockdown. He shrugged, scavenging the store before moving on.
Moving through the doorway he spotted a woman before he was suddenly grabbed by two men.
“Daina?! You’re a Unitologist?” exclaimed Isaac, attempting to activate the powered exoskeleton’s strength augments to no avail. It made sense with how much Daina knew about the station, where to go, little tiny slipups about their operations on the Sprawl, not to mention secrets about the Unitologist church. “Of course you are. Why did I trust you?”
“Well, you didn’t have a choice, Isaac.” She began, matter-of-factly “I told you there was a cure, and you came running.” She still hadn’t bothered to face him. What a smug bitch. “Why are you doing this? Why can’t everyone leave me alone?” Even as he said that, he knew the reason.
“You’re a dangerous secret, Isaac. Cerberus won’t leave you alone because they’re afraid you’ll destroy their Marker.” She stated simply as though it was incredibly obvious. So Kendra hadn’t just been bullshitting, that was… “good” to hear; with so many secrets and lies being kept or fed to him, it was nice to hear that someone trying to kill him was at least honest. It didn’t explain why he was left alive when the soldiers had been explicitly told to kill all subjects.
If they didn’t want him dead…. What could he possibly provide for them?
It was Daina’s next answer that absolutely chilled him to the bone:
“After all, you did build it.”
How? He would’ve been barely lucid and probably wouldn’t make any damn sense if he had dementia.
“What are you talking about?”
“Well, that’s why we brought you here.” If they found him, he’d probably had all the logs from the Ishimura. They must have seen and read them all and they thought it was still a fucking good idea?
“To build Markers for us.”
If Cerberus was related to all this, maybe they were trying to weaponize it…. Or- or- use it as an exotic power source. Maybe it could’ve been used as leverage against the Unitologists? To drive their zealotry to new heights and make them the smuggest assholes this side of the Sovereign Colonies.
“To spread glorious Convergence to the entire galaxy.”
They HAD seen what it could do. They STILL went ahead and built one - well technically ‘He’ did - . They activated it ON PURPOSE. That explained why all those Unitologist logs were hinting at the Convergence: The Unitologists knew and hadn’t told anyone. They knew a Necromorph infestation would happen. They WANTED it to happen. Unbelievable
“You people are unbelievable.” It was just so… stupid. They were so caught up in their blind faith that they didn’t see anything wrong with their plan! “Just give me the fucking cure and let me go.”
She stared into his eyes, deeply into the eyes of the Architect – Their Architect – “Oh, we don’t want to cure you, Isaac! We need that precious little head of yours just the way it is.” He tried to struggle again, still the actuators hadn’t kicked in yet.
“Now would you escort Isaac to the shuttle and put him in stasis. The last thing we want is for him to die”
By the hand of Providence came Irony, as Tiedemann’s gunship appeared in front of them, rendering  Daina into giblets and viscera which then flew into the vacuum of space. For whatever reason the gunship fired upon one of Daina’s henchmen and continued firing on the lower levels of the church. He struggled with the other goon, managing to push him off into the vacuum. His visor activating, as he desperately tried to cling to broken floor of the room.
The floorboard came away, his heart skipped a beat before his hand reacted in time to grab onto the railing of the balcony. Pulling himself up, the suit’s strength actuators were on the damn fritz, with force of will he managed to pull himself onto the railing and jumping onto the revealed floor. He tore away the sealed hatch of vent and tumbled into it. His body catching on the vent’s length several times before he fell on a unpressurized room.
The room began to pressurize and as he got up he found himself facing a giant necromorph, it reminded him of Brutes on the Ishimura and he had time to think that he needed some heavier ordnance besides a plasma cutter before it roared at him. He got up and ran like hell, ignoring falling debris and what his ‘sixth sense’ – honed paranoia – told him was the necromorph’s appendage chasing him. He lunged forward in desperation and rolled onto his back, witnessing the debris that fell being crushed and thrown away. He spotted one of it’s limbs, glowing a sickly yellow, which he aimed his plasma cutter and blasted it several times.
The creature screamed like wraith and Isaac had to dodge out of the way before he was once again laying on his back as he stared into the giant creature’s eyes and spotted one of it’s appendages glowing sickly yellow. He managed to shoot at it before he found himself grabbed and swung him up and this time anticipating where it’s limbs would be, he fired once more on a visible tentacle and much to his relief it was dismembered.
He fell onto the floor of the room, still gripped by the “appendage” of his sudden “Ttrmentor”, he was swung against a maintenance pipe before being flung across the room. He saw stars, Isaac had to shake away his head to will them away, getting back onto his feet, his hand already gripping his plasma cutter. He stared down the hall and much to his dismay saw that the brutish necromorph was still ‘undead’. He blasted it with a stasis charge before turning around to see a door with a G.R.I.P. warning sign labelling it, with a quick application of his kinesis module he flung the door to the side and sprinted through.
Turning once more he shot off another stasis charge and ran in the direction of a windowed area where Tiedemann’s gunship flew into sight. Firing it’s machine guns, he felt the effects of vacuum as he struggled to get his grip on the edge of a floor girder. He was reminded of his pursuer as it came charging through, knocking away some containers. It stumbled forward, forcing the hapless engineer to let go and go flying outside.
As he floated he struggled, flailing his arms to grab a grip. Much to his fortune, he managed to grab onto the undercarriage of the gunship. He turned to see the damn Necromorph spinning towards the gunship. Before he could get hit, the man had to dodge, flinging himself one handed on the next ‘carriage’ as a flailing limb slammed into the hull of ship. Activating his thrusters he began jetting away he could make it
“GAH!” grunting, he once again felt a tendril wrap around his leg, turning to face the stubborn brute. His eye was immediately drawn to the red tanks – of what he assumed was fuel – and began firing on it. Let it be known: having little to no coordination or orientation made firing onto the tanks, a challenge. Missing his initial four shots, before finally shooting one of the tanks.
It was like staring into a star: pure blinding white light. Followed shortly by that invisible shadow that one gets after looking at a bright light for too long. He only felt that empty void of the universal medium, where up is down and left is right. His tactile void was soon replaced with a crashing through something – and falling onto his side. He could feel a hard surface, with vision returning shortly he noted that it was a tile floor, barely lit from candles.
He got up as his suit began to hiss, signs of the room pressurizing after a breach occurred. He checked his locator, toggling through the filters, finding a trail to a nearby STORE. He was interrupted from his orientation to receive a transmission from Nolan. “Isaac, are you there? Can you hear me?”
Crankily he replied “What do you want, Stross? Look, it’s over. All my plans blew out the window.”
Distressed was the word, as Nolan panicked “No, no, no, no, no! It’s not over! At least, not yet.” Isaac couldn’t make out where he was transmitting from. “Isaac….. Isaac. We built it. We can tear it down!” Built- the Marker? “You mean the Marker?”
Stross seemed to be struggling with a severe migraine, or more accurately the dementia that they both were experiencing over the time they had been conscious. It wouldn’t have surprised him if Stross had been awake longer than him. He had been awake for at least 3 hours, if the visions and symbols he had been seeing were trying to ‘kill him’ – more accurately his insanity through his body – then Stross’s condition was probably a hell of a lot worse. Hopefully he could still be reliable. “Do you know where the Marker is? Stross?”
The transmission was getting weaker or perhaps jammed. Wherever the hell Stross was, it looked like the worse had already come to pass. Especially with the bloodstain on the wall, though it didn’t seem to bother him at all. “I… It’s the Government Sector! The Government Sector! But we have to leave now!  Now! Now! Now! Because time is running out for me… for us.” The signal ended or at was jammed. Either way he wasn’t receiving.
Government Sector. He needed to interface with a terminal. Quickly salvaging the rooms for supplies, he made his way into what looked like a laundromat for the floor. Tucked away in a corner was a terminal, probably linked to a public intranet server. Surfing through the CEC staff cleared resources, he downloaded a route to the Government Sector, checking to see if his translocator had loaded the data, he began scrounging through the side room. He found a schematic for the Seeker Rifle, he felt the smallest sense of glee at the thought of a new weapon to use.
Going into the next room he heard the sound of what could only be described as a monstrous roar. He continued scavenging what he could before moving on when his suit received a transmission: From Stross. “Isaac! They were afraid of us after all those sessions, I remember! They took us to the machines. For our sessions. For the steps.” He was moving while transmitting. Looked like another residence of some sort.
“I don’t remember any sessions.” Clarke replied uncertainly, now that he had some time to think he not only had a Necromorph infestation to deal with, he was stuck trying to survive on a larger complex than the Ishimura with a larger proportion of living areas – therefore: more Necromorphs and more time spent navigating the station -, there was also the Marker on-station in the Government Sector, - which he had yet to get to – Tiedemann was still out there and his goons were probably still out there hunting for him and he was talking to a person of unsound mind. Checking the time on his HUD, he had been up 5 hours and out for 2 years. Bore witness to the death of a high ranking Unitologist, managed to stay alive all this time and to top it all off: He had a route to the Marker. He had a chance to destroy the Marker. Again.
“You’re lucky you don’t remember.”
Nolan stared dead ahead, a whole thousand miles
“When you do, he starts coming back”
“Who? Who comes back? Who?” Tiedemann? Was it that doctor that had cut him out of the straitjacket? But Nolan didn’t answer, he seemed distracted, looking off into the distance.
“Oh, look at you! You’ve grown up so much!” Ah, that’s right: Stross was seeing things just like Clarke. Though it seemed he was seeing someone, he guessed someone Stross knew from a young age. A son? A nephew?
“Stross, don’t follow him! He’s not really there!”
But all he got was static and the transmission ended
All he could now was continue on.
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