//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: A noble sacrifice // Story: My little dead space // by Cone of Wonders //------------------------------// "MAAAAKE! USSSS! WHOOOOOLLLEEEE"! Nicole was slowly making her way towards Isaac again for the third time, wanting nothing more than to end his life. Isaac took little notice of this as he did his best to fight off several shadowy figures a little over half his size that had been created by his own mind. *BANG* *BANG* *BANG* The plasma cutter Isaac wielded was on its last few shots. He only had seven remaining shots left plus a whole clip of twenty five shots for the same weapon. *BANG* The last shadow figure dissolved into thin air, leaving only Nicole. Or at least a twisted version of the woman Isaac once loved. She was only a few meters away. Time to end this! One way or another! Without hesitation, Isaac raised his plasma cutter and aimed for Nicole, moving back in an attempt to get as much distance between himself and his target. *BANG* He fired his first shot, hitting Nicole in the leg causing her to stumble. *BANG* The next shot barely grazed her arm, although it wasn't enough to stop her advancing. *BANG* The third shot missed her by an inch. Isaac looked behind him seeing that he was at the very edge of the rocky surface that he was standing on. He was now cornered. *BANG* The fourth shot found its mark, hitting the horrifying figure in the middle of the chest. Nicole stumbled once more, yelping in pain as she did. *BANG* The fifth shot was way off target as it flew past Nicole's blood stained head by an entire meter . Isaac was now on his last shot and with Nicole closing in, there wasn't even enough time to reload. This was it. The shot that would determine his fate, Ellie's fate, perhaps the whole of humanities fate. If he died now, the marker would have already won. Everything seemed to have slowed down as Isaac aimed carefully. His arms grew tired trying to hold the plasma cutter up after everything he had been through to get here. His finger touched the trigger, and with his remaining strength, he pulled the trigger. *BANG* The sixth shot exploded from the gun, flying straight through the air towards Nicole for the final time. The shot hit Nicole in her stomach! She was done! Nicole couldn't take the pain anymore! She had failed and she knew it!With her final breath she drew a blood curdling scream as Isaac was blinded by a white light. His mind was pulling him back into reality. Isaac opened his eyes. Several pieces of rock the size of his head smashed into the floor. Isaac was too dazed for the next few seconds to realize what had happened. His helmet no longer covered his face. The air felt refreshing on his head after it being covered in sweat from having it on for hours on end. Isaac took a second to process his thoughts. His mind seemed clear and peaceful as to say that it was no longer plagued by the markers visions. He looked up before the giant marker in front of him, or at least the remains of it as pieces of both the marker and the structure that housed it rained down from the sky. Isaac couldn't help but give a small smile. The marker had been destroyed which meant its signal to create the necromorphs had stopped which meant no more necromorphs which meant that he had given humanity a tomorrow. But his happiness was soon masked by his remaining sadness. He had sacrificed himself to destroy the marker. Isaac sat down, letting his body rest from exhaustion. His back faced the marker as it slowly crumbled away. He put a hand up to his face and exhaled to help calm himself. This was suddenly followed by a recorded voice. "Warning. Reactor unstable. Please evacuate the building immediately". Isaac ignored the voice. What good would it do him? He looked in front of him, noticing the headless body that once belonged to Tiedman only a few feet away. The last being that Isaac had to go though to stop the marker. Nicole didn't count. She was nothing more than an image created by the marker in an attempt to stop him. And almost succeeded. Almost. Isaac tore his gaze away from the dead body and sighed knowing that he would die. He sat in silence, waiting for death, whether the station would blow up consuming him in its hot fire or whether a piece of rock would fall on his head, it didn't matter to him anymore. Isaac thought of what he had done. What choices he had made just to get to the marker. He had unleashed hundreds or necromorphs upon the last few soldiers of Titan station who did what they could to keep him from advancing. He had killed Stross, aka patient 5, a man who had been affected quite severely by the marker, driving him to the point of attacking Isaac and trying to kill him with a screwdriver. And that damn eye poke machine. That was a bitch. Having to get his eye stabbed in order to help stop the marker. Even now Isaac fought the itch to rub his eye. God only knows what would have happened if he had missed. But at least he had saved someone from certain death. Ellie. She was now stuck on a small military ship, probably floating through space looking for a way home. Instead, Isaac received a small shock when a video hologram flickered to life in front of him. "You complete Barstard"! It was Ellie herself, grabbing Isaacs attention entirely. "Was this your great plan, dump me off and die"?! She scolded Isaac much like a mother would with a child. Isaac shook his head slightly. If he was going to die then good thing there was still somebody to criticize him. Although, it did seem nice to have somebody to speak to in his final moments. "I'm full of bad ideas, remember"? Isaac responded, remembering himself the last time he told her. "Yeah well here's another one". Ellie turned away from the holoscreen for a few seconds, clicking a few buttons to control the ship she was still flying. "I'm crashing through the roof to get you, now move your ass". Isaac quickly got to his feet. Was she crazy? There was nothing more that could be done to save him. "Wait, Ellie no. Ellie it's too late"! Isaac was now standing on both his feet, at his full height. He stared back into the holoscreen giving a small glare to get the point across. "Stay clear of the station"! He told her, making it sound more like an order than anything else. "Yeah well, you don't really have a say in it this time"! Ellie argued. The ground started to slightly rumble. "Heads up". Up above, the military ship Ellie was piloting smashed though the ceiling! Isaac cranked his head up, nearly falling over as he did from the after shock. Light blurred his vision as the ships main lights and engines shone in his face, nearly blinding him as it got closer to the ground. However even miracles have it limits. The ship was too big to land safely. But luck stood at Isaacs side. The decompression made by the newly made hole in the ceiling began sucking the air out into space. There was no way to fight it as Isaac quickly found himself being thrown up into the air. His helmet quickly sealed itself automatically around his face as he activated his anti gravity boots, pushing him upwards while controlling his direction. But it wasn't over yet. Huge pieces of the marker and ceiling were hurling towards him, threatening to rip his body to pieces if any of the debris smashed into him, with or without armour. With ease, Isaac avoided each and every obstacle thrown at him. He had plenty of practice in similar situations as he drew closer to the ship. Closer, closer. Ellie was right there, wearing a suit which must have come with the ship. She held out her hand, and Isaac did what he could to grab it. "ISAAC, TAKE MY HAND"! Ellie yelled, reaching for his hand. "I'M TRYING"! Isaac yelled back, doing his best. Putting all power of the suit into the anti gravity boots, Isaac's hand made contact with Ellies. Ellie pulled as hard as she could but the decompression was pulling them apart. Isaacs hand slipped slightly. At this rate, the both of them wouldn't be going anywhere. Isaac knew this. "ELLIE, YOU CAN'T PULL ME UP"! Ellie ignored Isaac, trying to think, wanting to think that he was lying. "ELLIE! YOU NEED TO LET GO! OR ELSE WE'RE BOTH GOING TO DIE"! "ISAAC, JUST SHUT UP AND HOLD ON"! Shame that Ellie had to be so stubborn all the time. Even when she knows when its time to give up. "ELLIE, LISTEN TO ME"! Ellie did nothing but keep pulling, trying to pull Isaac into the ship. But she did in vain. "LOOK ELLIE, I KNOW THAT YOU WANT TO SAVE ME, BUT I WAS DEAD THE MOMENT I LAUNCHED YOU FROM THE STATION"! Ellie looked at Isaac with her one eye, unable to believe what she was hearing! "ISAAC, YOU CAN'T JUST GIVE UP! NOT LIKE THIS"! "Believe me Ellie...". Isaac's voice softened. "...I wanted so much to believe I had a chance to escape, to live another day. But I don't have that choice any longer. And neither will you if you don't let go. Ellie let a single tear fall from her eye. Isaac was willing to sacrifice himself to save her. Her mind told her to let go but her heart and feelings held back on what her mind screamed at her to do. "Isaac... please"! Begged Ellie, her voice breaking as she did. "It will only hurt for a second. I promise". Isaac smiled under his helmet. Ellie closed her eye, and slowly, she let go of Isaacs hand and sobbed. Isaac plummeted towards the ground as the decompression threw his body downwards. He began to lose consciousness, but before he did, he muttered his last few words. "Goodbye Ellie, Godspeed". His eyes closed, letting out a single tear as they did. Titan station was unable to function any longer, it's reactor couldn't take any more and exploded, engulfing everything in flame except for Ellies ship which now wandered aimlessly in space. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PONYVILLE 11:45AM EQUESTRIA Morning had finally arrived for everypony in Ponyville, mostly everypony was outside going about their daily business such as going to market, having an early lunch at the best restaurants Ponyville had to offer, or young foals having fun with their own friends under the warm sun. Everypony else who remained inside were either busy with their own activities or were just too lazy to even get up. At Ponyville library, the librarian was up bright and early as she sorted out each book into their rightful categories. However, she had been at this for three hours, perhaps longer as stated by a certain purple dragon named Spike. "Twilight, would you give it a rest? You've been at this for at least three hours straight"! Spike complained. Honestly though, the only reason he was complaining was because the noise of the books being slotted into the shelves was enough to wake him up from a nice dream. Twilight sighed, Spike would often criticize her daily routines in the hopes of getting some longer shut eye. "I can't Spike, you should know how important it is to keep your personal belongings secure and organized". She said without taking her eyes off of the hundreds of books still upon the floor in need of being re-shelfed. Spike rolled his eyes, knowing that when it comes to books, Twilight never leaves the job half done. He then proceeded into the kitchen, seeing how he was awake he might as well have a bite to eat. After a minute or two, Spike walked out of the kitchen with a sandwich half the size of himself. He looked over to Twilight. She was still organizing the same shelf. Deciding not to bother her, Spike sat down and began to eat his giant sandwich. However before he could take even one bite, there was a knock on the door, seems his lunch would have to wait a little longer. Spike looked over to Twilight in the hopes that she would answer it. She wasn't paying attention to anything right now. *Sigh* "The things I put up with". Muttered Spike, making the walk to the door sound like he had been set some sort of challenging task. He sat from his chair and waddled over to the door and opened it, his facial expression stayed the same. Uninterested. Outside of the door stood Pinkie Pie with a big smile, as she would usually do to anypony who was her friend. Anypony who wasn't her friend, she would do almost anything to become their friends although that only happened once with Cranky Doodle the donkey. "Hi Spike. Is Twilight in"? She cheerfully asked Spike, not letting Spikes expression bother her. "Yeah she's-". Pinkie didn't let Spike even finish his sentence as she zoomed past her, leaving a cloudy figure of where she once stood which slowly disappeared. "...- sorting books". Spike finished, basically talking to himself now before closing the door and returning to his sandwich. Pinkie Pie bounced up and down towards Twilight, eager to say what she had to say. "Hey Twilight, I just came over to check if you...". She trailed off as she noticed Twilight was busy sorting out her books to notice her. Not that it surprised her seeing how see was This gave Pinkie Pie an idea as a smile formed onto her face. She then stood on her hind legs and sucked in as much air as she could hold, which expanded her chest more than it naturally should have, and yelled as loud as she could. "HI TWILIGHT"!!!! Her voice was so loud that not only did Pinkies voice scare Twilight nearly to death, but it also blasted Twilight into a different bookshelf causing all the carefully organized books to fall, burying Twilight as they fell. Spike just sat there watching the humorous scene unfold in front of him making him laugh, nearly choking on his sandwich as he did. It took a few seconds for Twilights head to pop out of the mini mountain of books. She then glared at Pinkie Pie who gave an embarrassed smile as to say sorry. "Pinkie! Look at these books now! It'll take me forever to fix these"! Twilight snapped in frustration. "Oh come on Twily, it wouldn't hurt you to take a break"! Spoke Pinkie Pie cheerfully as though nothing had just happened. Twilight was about to speak back. But then again, she could use a break from stacking books. "I suppose". She decided. "Good, cause I just wanted to check if you still wanted to have lunch today. After all, you did Pinkie Promise". As she spoke her last sentence, her fluffy playful attitude was quickly replaced by a serious face. Everypony knew how seriously Pinkie Pie was when it came to Pinkie promises, and woe the poor pony who ever broke one. "Yes Pinkie, I still do". Twilight replied happily, trying to ignore her serious look as she did. "Great"! Squeaked Pinkie Pie, happy once more. Twilight turned her attention to Spike who had eaten a little over half the sandwich at this point. "Spike do you want to come"? Spike looked up, a small piece of tomato stuck to his face, and replied with a full mouth. "Thangffff vut no thanghsss". He responded, barely getting the message across. Twilight rolled her eyes and laughed. She then began to leave the library with Pinkie Pie. "Well lets get going. I'm sure that today is going to be a great day".