//------------------------------//
// Ishimura: Fixing the Tram 
// Story: Dead Space: Deep Space Terror 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

Chrysalis and Isaac took a moment to calm themselves down, because since they were inside what appeared to be one of the safe rooms of the Ishimura at the moment Chrysalis insisted that she and Isaac calm themselves before they left the room behind. It was mostly because she was still freaking out on the inside, as this was something that she had never done before and she had never seen someone killed in such a manner, but at the same time she was relieved that Isaac agreed with her. He was also freaked out about what was going on at the moment and didn't want them to freeze at the wrong moment, because with those creatures running around the ship he knew that they needed to be ready for their return, especially with their already limited resources... and that was because they only had one working weapon at the moment and had nothing to replace it.

Isaac was sure that Chrysalis would hold onto the bone blades that she had pried from the monstrous creature that had been killed by the cargo lift doors, as it appeared that they were the only weapons she could find for the moment, but he was also sure that she'd put them aside when she found something more useful.

Once the two of them were calmed down, to a level that they both agreed with, they got back onto their feet, or hooves in Chrysalis' case, and moved towards the other entrance that the Tram Control Room had, to which they carefully opened the door and made their way into the hallway that was connected to it. A few seconds later they came to a split in the path, as they could choose from heading to the left and heading to the right, though this time around Chrysalis knew that it was best to follow Isaac. The reasoning behind that decision was because he seemed to know where he was going, which meant that he had worked aboard the Ishimura at some point in his career and knew where they needed to go, so she remained silent and watched him pick the path on their right.

That brought them to another door that Isaac carefully opened up, though they were greeted by a corpse falling from the ceiling and hitting the floor in front of them, to which they raised their weapons towards where the dead man came from and found that there was no vent there... only a small area to fit something into, which meant that he fell from where he had been hiding, no doubt to get away from the creature that was chasing him, before he died where he had hidden.

The two of them shared a look with each other, as they were sad to see another dead body, before they started to walk down that hallway, where they received a message from Hammond about the creatures he had fought while he and Kendra had been running, the same ones Isaac and Chrysalis had killed as well. He basically told them what they already knew, that shooting them in the body didn't seem to work and that they needed to go for the limbs, as dismembering these creatures seemed to do the trick. Isaac and Chrysalis confirmed that they received the transmission and told Hammond that they would change how they were attacking these monsters, though at the same time they silently sighed and continued on their way.

Hammond had no idea that they had found a message saying the exact same thing near where Isaac picked up his plasma cutter, so they simply decided to let him tell them what he knew and didn't fight against it, because then Kendra was likely to join in and Chrysalis really didn't want them all fighting with each other, especially given the current situation.

A few moments later Isaac opened the door in front of them and stepped out into the area in front of him, where Chrysalis discovered that they were actually walking on the area that rested beneath where the tram moved, though there was more than enough room for them to move around in. Something of interest that she noticed was that there appeared to be a broken tram resting on the rails, which had to be what they were supposed to either fix or remove, but at the moment she didn't really see how they were going to fix it from down here. She then turned her gaze towards the area that was around them, as she was sure that more of those creatures were around here somewhere, before she found Isaac standing near two bodies... or rather an unfortunate someone that had been cut in half by the malfunctioning door that was blocking their way.

Something that caught her attention was that Isaac had picked up something interesting while she was studying the ruined tram, as there was now something attached to his left arm that hadn't been there when they left the Tram Control Room a few minutes ago.

"What is that?" Chrysalis asked, though at the same time she stared at the strange device for a few seconds, as it appeared to be some sort of circular device that was plugged into a stand that was attached to Isaac's arm, indicating that he had likely installed it into his RIG at this point in time.

"A Stasis Module," Isaac replied, as he knew that Chrysalis had never seen anything like this before, despite the fact that she might have a spell that mimicked the module, but it felt good to explain things to her, "it allows the user to slow down fast moving objects... and sometimes even other people. Poor guy barely had a chance to use it, if the power meter is anything to go by... I wonder if this will help us against those creatures, maybe slow them down enough to where we can hack them apart before they have a chance to react."

"Only one way to find out," Chrysalis said, as while she didn't like the fact that she and Isaac might be seeing more of those creatures, as they sent a shiver down her spine and really freaked her out, she was interested in seeing what the Stasis Module did and had the perfect thing for Isaac to test it on, "How about you try it out on that malfunctioning door?"

Isaac nodded and pointed his left hand towards the malfunctioning door, waiting for the perfect movement to happen before he released a stasis blast at the door, causing it to slow way down and, and the same time, gave him and Chrysalis the opportunity to move to safety without being hurt in the process. The two of them made their way to the passage that was on the other side of the door and carefully started climbing the ramp that was in front of them, as there was no way of telling where their enemies were lurking. At the top of the ramp they found a Stasis Pack, which Isaac explained would allow him to recharge his Stasis Module if he ran out of power, where he showed Chrysalis a new icon that had appeared on his screen, so he could know how much juice was left inside the module at any given time.

He was right about the fact that whoever had been carrying the Stasis Module prior to him, before being crushed by the malfunctioning door he and Chrysalis had passed through, hadn't had the chance to use it at all before his untimely demise, but at least he could put it to use now.

The two of them walked down to the right for a few seconds, just to make sure that there weren't any enemies in the area surrounding them, to which the lights flickered and turned off for a few moments, though when they reached the locked door at the end of the hall, and picked up the thousand credits that were laying there, the lights came back on. That told Chrysalis that the ship might be running on borrowed time, because if the power started going out she was sure that the Ishimura might drop out of space and collide with Aegis VII. At the same time, however, she was sure that if the power was starting to go out, or was in the early stages of going out, that there had to be a way to restore power to the entire ship... something that Isaac or Kendra would definitely know about.

As they walked down the hall, back towards the way they came, Isaac insisted on checking the bathroom for anything that someone might have dropped, to which he quickly entered the bathroom and returned with two containers of plasma energy and a small Med Pack. With those items in hand the two of them carefully walked down the other side of the hall, where they came to a door that was marked as the 'Tram Repair Room', which happened to be what they were looking for at that very moment. As they walked into the room they noticed that the larger doors, which allowed the tram to be taken from the tracks and fixed while a new one was put in place, opened the moment they entered the area, though as they approached the main console, in the middle of the walkway on their right, Chrysalis spotted a box on the wall and opened it... where she found a node of some kind and pocketed it, as there would be time to figure out what it was later.

Once they reached the console, however, Isaac stopped and looked down at the repair area in front of them, or more specifically the two claws that were supposed to draw the broken tram into this area, meaning that one of them had to be broken in some manner.

"What we're going to do is manually attach these claws to the tram so the repairs can begin," Isaac said, to which he gestured to the two glowing screens that were to their right and left, at the ends of the ramps they had to walk up to reach this console, "all we have to do is tap the button and the claws will engage... then the system should take over and we can go find that data board Kendra told us about."

"Right," Chrysalis replied, though deep down she was pleased to hear that this was going to be an easy task and not something that was complicated, because she had no sort of training like Isaac or Kendra had and was pretty much useless in their respective fields.

As they started to separate from each other, however, Chrysalis heard the sound of Isaac's plasma cutter and found that he had severed the legs and one arm of a creature that had jumped into the room, though since he appeared to be handling himself quite well she decided that she might as well continue with her own task. Since she didn't have anywhere to put them, and didn't want to tire out her magical reserves on making two things float all the time, she had been carrying her bone blades since she and Isaac left the Tram Control Room. She figured that if she needed them she could easily toss one at an enemy, grab it with her magic, and battle her opponent in that manner, but at some point she knew that she was going to return to using magic.

Once Isaac was done with the creatures on his side of the repair area, and Chrysalis still hadn't seen any that would make her fight, the two of them nodded their heads and activated the consoles they were standing in front of, though as Isaac's claw touched the tram he blasted it with a stasis blast and charged up the ramp. A few seconds later he touched the console that was in front of him and the tram started being pulled back into the area they were standing in, which made Chrysalis happy that they were actually getting somewhere.

Replacing damaged tram car. a computerized voice said, one that made Chrysalis jump for a moment, as she wasn't expecting something like that to happen, before she calmed down when she noticed that Isaac was standing still and was paying attention to the tram in front of them, Please stand by.

The two of them watched what was happening for a few seconds, where the damaged tram car was removed from the track and lowered into an area where it could actually be fixed, though that was followed by a fresh tram car being brought out and attached to the tracks.

"Isaac, Chrysalis, you guys did it!" Kendra said, to which she appeared on the video link once more, though they could tell that she was extremely happy about what they were able to accomplish since their arrival, "That tram was blocking the whole system. When you get the computer online, you'll be able to call the tram from the control room. Faster the better... I can hear something crawling around out there..."

It was at that point that several of the vents, those that were still intact, blew themselves apart as several of the creatures jumped into the repair room, from both sides no less, thus forcing Chrysalis and Isaac to stand back to back as their enemies came at them. Isaac wasted no time in firing at his opponents, where he aimed solely for their legs and their arms, as they had already seen that these creatures were greatly harmed when even one of their limbs were blown off, giving them the advantage in this fight. Chrysalis, on the other hand, used her magic to parry the bladed attacks that came her way with one blade while using the other to cut off the exposed limbs of her opponents, allowing her to drop them in rapid succession like Isaac was... and, as quickly as it had started, the fight was over.

The two of them spared a few seconds to collect themselves, as now they knew that they should be wary of ambushes whenever they did something, before they gathered the spoils of their victory, ammunition and some credits, before they started to retrace their steps back to the area just past the first split in the path.

As they walked out of the Tram Repair Room they noticed another creature, one that was slightly different from the others due to the fact that it was using its hands to crawl on the floor, in a clear vent that was above their heads, but that was followed by it leaving the moment it spotted them. Chrysalis and Isaac glanced at each other, as they were sure that they hadn't seen the last of that type of creature, before they headed back down the ramp that brought them to the malfunctioning door. After Isaac loosed another stasis charge at the door, while spending the rest of it's charge at the same time, the two of them walked back into the area that was below the tracks... only this time around they were attacked by two more creatures, the slashing type that they first encountered and one of the crawling type they had seen a few seconds ago.

Isaac, deciding to play it safe at the moment, backed up to a stasis recharge station and powered his Stasis Module back up, which he knew that he could have done with the pack he had picked up earlier, before he slowed down the crawling enemy and opened fire on it's limbs while Chrysalis dealt with the slasher enemy. Of course he wasn't expecting her opponent to be hit by what appeared to be a fireball and burst into flames, where it dropped to the floor and cooked itself until it became a charred corpse. He then turned his gaze to Chrysalis for a moment, where he noticed that the armor around her horn stopped glowing, indicating that she had cast a spell and was pleased with the results, though he was glad that she didn't do that in the halls, as she could easily cook him by mistake.

With their enemies defeated the duo opened the door that led to the hallway they had walked through to get to this area, from the control room anyway, where they received another message from Kendra, to which they paused for a few seconds and listened to what she had to tell them.

"Isaac, Chrysalis, I've patched into the desk's security system." Kendra said, though her tone told them that she had some good news to share with them, which was likely something that was related to their current objective, "It took some  work, but I've got the door to the Maintenance Bay unlocked. The data board should be somewhere inside."

Once the message was over, and they were pleased that their work was much easier, the two of them entered the first hallway they had walked through and made their way to the other side, where they hadn't gone considering that they had chosen the path on the right and not the path on the left. When they started to round the corner, however, they spotted a dead slasher creature that was blocking their path, as they were both sure that it would get up the moment one of them walked towards it, to which Chrysalis smiled for a moment. She tapped the Stasis Module for a moment and Isaac understood what she was thinking about, to which he loosed a blast that didn't rouse the creature, though that was followed by Chrysalis using one of her bone blades to sever one of the creature's arms... though as it slowly sprung into the air Isaac opened fire and tore off the remaining limbs, killing it before it even had a chance to fight back.

They rounded the next corner and found a cargo lift that would take them to their destination, to which they walked through the now open door and activated the command console, where they felt the lift start to move and patiently waited for it to stop when they reached their destination.

"Guys, it's Kendra again." Kendra said, though it was really surprising Chrysalis with the number of times that she was speaking to them, as there were moments where she told them something and then a few seconds later she told them something else that she should have told them in the prior message, "It looks like the door to the storage room is locked. There should be a key somewhere in the maintenance bay."

The Maintenance Bay, as it turned out, had some sort of contraption hanging in the air that was slowly swaying, along with two paths for them to take, though Chrysalis was sure that these paths connected up on the other side of the room they were in. Before they could start moving they both noticed slasher enemies coming from the path on the right and the path in front of them, to which Isaac opened fire on the enemies that were coming from the right while Chrysalis cut her single target down, by taking it's legs off, before blasting it with a fireball to the chest that also destroyed one of it's arms. The combination of her attacks brought her foe down, allowing her to focus on using her bone blades to wound Issac's enemies, or that was what she would have done if she hadn't discovered that Isaac had finished off his opponents in such a timely manner.

As they walked along the path on their right, as that was what they had chosen, another slasher foe jumped out of the vents and tried to attack them, but the combined might of Chrysalis and Isaac was more than enough to deal with a single opponent that thought it could take them on. From there they walked up to the cargo lift that was in the area and rode it up to the next floor, to the area that was near the top of the Maintenance Bay, before they walked out and started crossing a walkway that was in front of them. Only two more slasher enemies appeared in their way, to which Isaac blasted the one in front of him when Chrysalis cut down the one that jumped out of the vents, before they reached the other side of the short walkway... where they discovered the keycard resting near some ammunition and a log detailing some of the repairs that had been done the last time it was accessed.

With the keycard in hand the two of them returned to the cargo lift, shot down a slasher enemy that was patrolling in front of the door, before they rode it back down to the level that was below them, where Chrysalis carved up another slasher that was waiting for them, before continuing along the walkway they had been following. Along the way Chrysalis moved into a side area and collected two small Med Packs, that either of she or Isaac might need in the future, before they came to the door to the room where the data board was waiting for them to pick it up. Once they reached the door Isaac pulled out the keycard and the coloration of the door changed from red to blue, indicating that they could now enter the room... which they did so, as they needed a short break before they moved forward.

"So this is the data board," Chrysalis said, though at the same time she observed the piece of technology, as it was another item she had never seen before and was slightly fascinated by what she was seeing, because she was still silently freaking out about this whole situation, "Amazing."

"Yeah, it sure is," Isaac commented, though as he spoke he noticed that a Bench was resting nearby, to which he approached the terminal and activated it, where he laid the Plasma Cutter on it and watched as the upgrade screen appeared before his eyes... only to discover that he had no Power Nodes to upgrade his weapon.

Chrysalis, however, came to his rescue as she handed him the one she had found in the repair room and one that happened to be in this very room, though she was okay with handing them over since she had no weapon and knew that his weapon would make things easier if it was empowered. Isaac quickly thanked her before he empowered the cutter's overall damage and ammunition capacity, though once that was done he pulled the weapon off the Bench and let the terminal power down... to which he and Chrysalis started to move towards the door so they could head back to the Tram Control Room and get this venture over with.

"Isaac, Chrysalis, that's it!" Kendra said, to which the link appeared in front of them again, to which the two of them stopped before they actually walked out of the room, "Take the board back to the Tram Control Room and slot it into the computer array. That should get the Tram system back online."

As Chrysalis and Isaac nodded their heads the link disappeared once more, though as they stood there another slasher jumped onto the walkway they had used used to reach this room, but before it could really do anything Isaac blasted it's legs off. Chrysalis noticed another foe coming from the path on their right and simply held her hand out, as this time she decided that magic was the best weapon she had and she froze the slasher that was coming their way, before snapping her fingers and caused the ice crystal to explode and scatter the foe into a thousand pieces. When their foes were taken care of the two of them continued on the path to their right and circled back to the entrance, where they combined their weapons and took out the slasher that was suspiciously resting in front of the door, as if it was trying to ambush them.

Once that was done the two of them entered the elevator that took them back up to the hallway they had been walking through a few minutes ago, where Isaac loosed a stasis blast on a slasher that came from around the corner and cut off both of it's arms and it's legs... where they walked to the Tram Control Room and entered what had been their safe haven for a few minutes. From there Isaac walked over to the machine that the data board was supposed to go into and slipped it into the slot that was open, indicating that someone had been about to repair it before their death, which was followed by the computerized voice telling him that the console was now active... to which he approached the console and pressed the button that reactivated the entire tram system.

That was followed by the computerized voice announcing that the system was online and that the tram was arriving at the station, where Isaac and Chrysalis watched as the tram blocked their view of Kendra and Hammond... which was when their RIG link appeared in front of them once more.

"Alright, we're onboard and heading to the bridge." Hammond announced, though at the same time the tram started moving forward, indicating that the system was indeed working as intended and made Chrysalis pleased that their hard work had paid off, "Good work you two."

"Strange..." Kendra commented, while at the same time wearing a look of concern on her face, as if she believed that there was something wrong with the situation that no one was acknowledging, "the quarantine just lifted..."

"Whatever was in the flight lounge must have left. That's lucky for us." Hammond said, though at the same time he turned towards his arm, indicating that he was going to speak with Isaac and Chrysalis again, "Isaac, take Chrysalis, get back to the Kellion, and prep it for launch. We'll find out what we can from the bridge and meet you there."

"If we live that long." Kendra said, where she stared at Hammond for a few seconds, once more reviving their feud, which Chrysalis was getting sick of considering that they were in hostile territory at the moment, "You're out of your league, Hammond. This is suicide! We're going to die out here."

"Your lack of confidence in me is duly noted, Ms Daniels," Hammond stated, though both Isaac and Chrysalis detected that he had slipped back into being the commander of this mission, "but I have a mission to complete and that's exactly what I am going to do. With or without you. Do we understand each other?"

"Just get us out of here alive." Kendra replied, though the look on her face told Chrysalis that she wasn't in the mood to talk with Hammond at the moment, before the connection was severed once more.

The moment the connection was severed Isaac and Chrysalis started to retrace their steps back to the room that they found Isaac's Plasma Cutter in, where they made sure that no more slashers or leapers were waiting for them, though they were lucky, as they reached the lift without having to fight more enemies. When they reached the top of the lift, however, they had to cut and blast their way through two more slashers that happened to be in their way, though they caught their foes by surprise and took them out without being hurt in the process. Once those foes were taken care of they were able to make their way back to the room where the security console was resting, though as they walked into the room Chrysalis noticed that the bodies of Chen and Johnston had been taken by the creatures.

Fortunately Chrysalis found something nice waiting for them; while the creatures may have taken the bodies of Chen and Johnston, where they took them she had no idea, both of the pilots had let go of their weapons and those didn't get dragged away as well... to which she grinned as she collected one of the weapons and slipped the bone blades onto her back, while avoiding her RIG's vital areas.

"Isaac, Chrysalis, we made it to the Bridge." Hammond told them, though this time around he simply used the speech link and not the video link, but this time around Chrysalis didn't mind the change as she and Isaac listened to what the commander had to tell them, "It's a nightmare up here. No survivors. We're going to try and get to the Command computer. Wish us luck."

As the connection was terminated Chrysalis walked over to where Chen died, as she had claimed Johnston's weapon, and picked up the other one, to which she tossed it over to Isaac, who grabbed it and checked it for a few seconds, before nodding his head and headed towards the door they had walked through to enter the lounge area. As they walked out of the lounge area, and started walking on the walkway that would take them back to the Kellion, a leaper jumped off the sign above their heads and landed some distance in front of them. Since they knew the weakness of their foes, however, Isaac and Chrysalis lifted their new weapons and opened fire, where Isaac tore off the leaper's right arm while Chrysalis took care of the other arm... killing the creature before it had a chance to even charge at them.

Once that was taken care of the two of them approached the Kellion, though while they did that Chrysalis marveled at the recoil of the weapon and the strength it possessed, where she decided that this was a good weapon to use when the bone blades weren't the best choice... though as they boarded the Kellion, and Isaac started checking the systems, their luck went from back to worse instantly.

Hostile lifeforms detected. the Kellion's systems said, though Chrysalis could see that considering a leaper was currently crawling on the face of the ship, Hull damage critical. Evacuate immediately.

That was followed by part of the ship catching on fire, to which Chrysalis grabbed onto Isaac's shoulder and pulled him out of the Kellion, though as the real explosions happened she snapped up a barrier around the two of them before the flames even attempted to reach them. The two of them watched as the Kellion was rocked by a series of explosions that not only incinerated the leaper that was on top of it, but literally tore the entire ship into a mess of smaller pieces that landed all over the area where the Kellion had landed. At the same time, however, a couple of slashers and a leaper entered the area in front of them, to which Isaac and Chrysalis pulled out their new weapons as Chrysalis lowered the barrier... where they opened fire on the enemies that were coming at them as the computerized voice informed them of the 'collision' that had occurred.

While they fired at their foes Chrysalis felt defeated, because the only ship that could possibly get them off of the Ishimura, even if it had been damaged in their entrance, was now gone and there was no other ships they could use to leave this massive ship... but at the same time that fueled her anger and her determination to survive despite what fate was throwing at them. When she and Isaac finished off their enemies, and took a breather, their links activated once more and revealed that both Kendra and Hammond had heard what was going on in their area.

"What the hell is happening down there?!" Hammond demanded, though his tone indicated that, the moment he didn't see the Kellion behind them, his mood went from bad to worse, "What happened to the shuttle?"

"Gone." Chrysalis replied, though at the same time she moved her hand so Hammond and Kendra could see what remained of the ship they had used to reach the Ishimura, "It's gone..."

"That was our ride home..." Kendra said, though that was when her tone took on the same one that Chrysalis had used, as they both understood the situation that they were in, "It's the only way off this ship..."

"Kendra..." Hammond said, as this time he was actually attempting to make sure that everyone stayed calm, though Chrysalis knew that was impossible considering that the Kellion was gone.

"No Hammond!" Kendra snapped, as her earlier anger returned in full force, though at the same time Hammond closed his mouth as he waited for her to calm down on her own, "This changes everything!"

"Just let me think!" Hammond replied, though as Chrysalis and Isaac sat down on some boxes, while keeping their eyes open for enemies, it appeared that Hammond actually got an idea, "Can you access the Command Computer?"

"It's no good." Kendra stated, indicating that she had either been working on that earlier or had entered a simple command and found something wrong, "There was an executive lockdown of all primary systems. Without the Captain's authorization, I can't access them."

"Well? Where's the Captain?" Hammond asked, though even as he said that he had the feeling that he knew what the answer was, which was mostly based on everything they had seen so far since their arrival.

Isaac and Chrysalis watched as Kendra entered a few commands into her console and she muttered to herself, indicating that it was taking some time to figure out what she needed, though when she found something she still seemed disappointed and defeated.

"Here he is." Kendra said, though she let out a sigh as she spoke, confirming Chrysalis' fears that something terrible had happened to the person who commanded the entirety of the Ishimura, "Captain Benjamin Matthius. Location... Medlab. Status... Deceased."

"What? How?" Hammond demanded, though this time he was genuinely interested in hearing how the captain had died, especially since it complicated the entirety of their objective to survive and find a way off the Ishimura.

"I can't access that information." Kendra stated, once more letting out the sigh of defeat, as it appeared that everything was going to be much harder on them all from this point forward, "Find the Captain and you'll find his RIG. With his authorization codes, I can crack this computer wide open."

"Dammit!" Hammond said, though that was when he turned his full attention to the screen in front of him, where Issac and Chrysalis looked up and prepared themselves, "Isaac, Chrysalis, I'm sending the Tram back to your location. Get to the Medical Deck and find that RIG as fast as you can."

Before either Isaac and Chrysalis could say anything, and tell Hammond that they would leave immediately, they heard the sound of one of the creatures burst into the area that their companions were in, though as Hammond and Kendra started to run they saw the shape of a leaper enter the room before the connection terminated. Isaac and Chrysalis glanced at each other before they headed towards the lounge and the area that their companions had been in while they were fixing the tram. After going through a few doors they found themselves standing in front of the tram, though to their right stood a store of some kind, but instead of worrying about it Isaac and Chrysalis boarded the waiting tram, pressed the icon for the Medical Deck, and settled in for a swift ride.

Chrysalis was now beginning to regret her decision to enter the magical mirror that Discord was watching over, but what was done couldn't be taken back and she had to do her best to survive the horrors of the Ishimura and the reality that was now her life... and pray that she made it back to Equus without going mad in the process.