//------------------------------//
// Ishimura: Aiding Hammond 
// Story: Dead Space: Deep Space Terror 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

Chrysalis and Isaac road the Tram to the Bridge in silence once more, letting their companion think about the situation they were in while wondering what Hammond would say to them the moment they arrived at the Bridge, but they both had other reasons for wanting to remain silent this time around. Isaac had heard, mere moments after Hammond and Kendra had stopped talking about the ADS, what he could have sworn was the sound of Nicole broadcasting something for him and him alone, but at the same time he had no idea if his mind was playing tricks on him or not. He wanted to say that it was Nicole, that she had reached out to him in a manner that wouldn't alert the Necromorphs to her exact location, but until he had further evidence to prove that he had actually heard his beloved Nicole he wasn't going to say anything for now... even if it pained him to not shout for joy at the possibility that she might be alive.

Chrysalis, on the other hand, didn't share Isaac's joy at all, because what she had seen chilled her to her bones, as that lance belonged to someone from her memories that she would have preferred remained buried in the past and not brought back to the surface. She hadn't told Isaac, Kendra, or Hammond about her past and what she had done, mostly because she didn't enjoy failure, but at the same time there were some memories that even she dreaded to think about and this was one of the few that she really wished she could forget about. The problem was that the memory in question was a strong one that she couldn't forget about, as she remembered it from time to time over the years, but this was the first time she ever envisioned that lance appearing like that... making her wonder if the Marker was making her lose her mind already, or if the artifact was already so powerful that it's affects started to manifest.

She couldn't tell Isaac and the others what she had seen, otherwise they would think she was already losing her mind and that sooner or later she would succumb to whatever madness had infected the colonists and the crew of the Ishimura before their arrival.

A few minutes later the Tram reached the Bridge's station and came to a stop, to which the two of them reengaged their helmets and picked up their weapons, where they walked off the Tram and made sure to keep their eyes peeled for any enemies that might want them dead the moment they felt the safety of the transport vehicle they used. Fortunately it appeared that there weren't any Necromorphs waiting for them, something that Chrysalis would have assumed they would do considering that the Tram made a decent amount of noise, but she was happy to discover that the Necromorphs weren't that smart to figure something like that out.

"Isaac, Chrysalis, come in." Hammond said, to which the video RIGLink appeared in front of them, where Isaac and Chrysalis stood their ground and paid attention to the communication, "Kendra's right, the ADS is completely shot. I'll need your help to fix this. Kendra, if you can hear me, see if you can get into the ship reports. It sounds like you have better access from there."

"When were you going to tell us about the artifact, Hammond?" Kendra asked, though as her image rapidly replaced Hammond's Chrysalis guessed that there must have been more to the Kellion's mission than what she had been told, or she was just overthinking everything thanks to what she had seen earlier, "This 'Marker'?"

"I don't know anything about that." Hammond immediately replied, where Chrysalis noted that this time he sounded calmer than he normally did, at least in the sense of when he was talking with Kendra, "It's referenced in the captain's records. They brought it up from the planet..."

"It's on the ship?!" Kendra exclaimed, though at the same time that was when Chrysalis knew that something was up, because she could have sworn that there was a hint, a very small hint, of joy in Kendra's voice, but she pushed the thought to the side and waited for the conversation to finish.

"In cargo." Hammond corrected, confirming what Kendra had asked while also telling them exactly which part of the ship that the mysterious Marker was resting in, "They think it's of alien origin, but I don't know what the hell it is."

"Really? The CEC didn't know anything about it?" Kendra inquired, though as she appeared in front of them once more both Isaac and Chrysalis knew that the calm conversation was about to explode once more, "You're lying."

"Back off. I am not the bad guy here." Hammond snapped, indicating that he was annoyed by what Kendra had said, though he let out a short sigh and regained himself a little bit as he looked at the screen once more, "We're all shaky right now. You're going to have to trust that I don't know anything about it."

That was followed by the image in front of them cutting out for a few moments, indicating that something had to be happening where Hammond was sitting, before the screen stabilized and he stared at them again, though he seemed more worried about something than he was a few moments ago.

"We've entered the debris field!" Hammond said, though this time around he focused on Isaac and Chrysalis, who nodded their heads as they knew what was coming next as they primed their weapons, "Get to the captain's nest. I'll explain everything later. Hammond out."

The instant the communication between them, Hammond, and Kendra was disconnected Isaac and Chrysalis quickly explored the station they had arrived in and gathered the bits of ammunition that were sitting everywhere, before they headed towards the door that would take them to the Main Atrium. The duo then followed the hallway that was in front of them, which led to a sitting area that had some bodies scattered around in various places and blood splattered near the door they had just walked through. As they walked forward, however, one of the glass windows on their left had a hole punched into it as some sort of Necromorph arm, unlike any of the undead creatures they had fought so far, punched it's way through the glass and lashed around as it tried to grab onto something... before eventually pulling away and disappearing as quickly as it had arrived.

Chrysalis knew that, at some point during their venture to help Hammond repair the ADS, she and Isaac would have to contend with whatever that creature was in order to get to one of their objectives, if what they had already been through was any indication.

A few seconds passed before they moved on, as they wanted to be sure that the Necromorph didn't come back, to which they approached the store and sold off some of the excess ammunition that they had, as they got rid of the ones that neither of them had the weapons for so they could pick up more supplies while they explored the Bridge. They then opened the main door to the Main Atrium and walked into the large area that was in front of them, though as they did so Chrysalis kept her eyes open for enemies that wanted them dead. She did so because there weren't any corpses laying around the atrium, which meant that the Necromorphs either let everyone run somewhere else and killed them there or already carted off the corpses. She also noticed that there were some large windows that allowed the crew to see what was around the ship when they were moving through space or hyperspace when using the Shockpoint Drive... though she also spotted a lot of debris floating around the bridge, all bits of rock that had been created from the planetcrack.

Before the two of them got too far one of the debris pierced the ceiling above them and smashed into the floor in front of them, where it disappeared into the depths of the ship while damaging the Ishimura in the process.

Warning. the computerized voice said, though at the same time Chrysalis glanced around as she expected the vacuum of space to suck out the air, but she found that she and Isaac could breath just fine despite the hole punched into the ceiling, Hull breach detected.

"Isaac! Chrysalis!" Kendra's voice said, to which the duo stopped for a few seconds and waited for her to speak before they moved forward, so they could fix the defense systems before a bigger piece of debris crushed them, "Impact on the bridge, right at your feet. I'm reading heavy damage, but containment looks solid. Life support is stabilized. We've got to get the ADS working!"

"Right." Chrysalis replied, though as the connection was terminated she turned towards the ceiling and looked at it for a few moments, before turning towards Isaac, "So... we have a hole in the hull of the ship and we're allowed to breath and walk normally? Does the ship have a system that allows it to automatically fix any damage to the hull in seconds?"

"Not that I'm aware of," Isaac replied, though he was sure that there was a reason behind it, but since they were on the clock and couldn't take the time to question everything he beckoned for her to follow him.

Chrysalis sighed, as some of the things she had encountered so far didn't make sense, but she followed after Isaac as they made their way to the captain's nest, though along the way they found an audio log that detailed someone asking the bridge for assistance combating the 'invaders'. Isaac and Chrysalis knew that the person who was talking was referring to the Necromorphs and one of their attacks on the deck staff, along with the fact that guns were 'useless' against these enemies, despite the fact that they had discovered the method to defeating the undead enemies. They listened to the audio log as they rounded the corner and walked onto the cargo lift in front of them, where they rode it down to the level below them. When the lift stopped they found the schematic for the next suit, the upgrade to what they were currently wearing, and that there were four escape pods, three of which had been used already and one seemed to be waiting for someone to use it... but they ignored it as they walked forward and entered the captain's nest.

There they found Hammond working on something, no doubt studying what was wrong with the ADS and what they needed to do to fix it up so they could survive passing through the debris field... to which the commander nearly jumped when he heard the door open.

"Isaac! Chrysalis! Damn, the two of you scared me." Hammond said, though at the same time he smiled for a moment before getting back to his work, but he intended to speak to them as they stood near he was standing and studied what he was working on at the moment, "This place is making me jumpy. Fucking asteroids coming through the roof... Look, I know Kendra doesn't trust me, but I don't know anything about a Marker or anything else. This was supposed to be a repair mission, plain and simple."

"It's okay Hammond," Chrysalis said, as she remembered the few audio logs that she and Isaac had discovered that mentioned the Marker, which she wondered if they should share with the commander before they departed to repair the systems that were supposed to protect the Ishimura, "We don't know much about the Marker either... all we know is that some of the scientists, and possibly the captain, knew something about it, but nothing more than that. Now, what is this... mess... that you are staring at?"

"This 'mess', as you call it, is the Asteroid Defense System," Hammond replied, though he couldn't fault Chrysalis for not knowing about what was on the screen in front of him, because she knew nothing about the majority of the items she had come into contact with, but he had to admit that she adapted quite well to her situation, "I can fix these boards, but the main power routing is shot. You and Isaac are going to have to re-route them manually through at least three junction boxes to activate the primary cannon. Oh, but before you do that you'll have to activate the Atrium elevators from Bridge Security. You can use them to get to the junction boxes."

As the two of them turned to go, however, two things happened; Isaac found a text log that he and Chrysalis could look at later, while at the same time Hammond coughed before the two of them departed from the room they had been standing in for the last few moments.

"By the way, Isaac, Chrysalis... be careful." Hammond said, though there was something in his voice that stopped the duo in their tracks and turn towards him, while at the same time he glanced at the glass that was in front of the captain's chair, "I saw something out there. I don't know what it was. I only caught a glimpse of it, but it was big... really big."

Chrysalis didn't like the sound of that, because of what she and Isaac had seen the instant they started walking down the hallway earlier, but she appreciated the warning as she and Isaac looked at the text log, which was a detailed list of the dead crew members. Isaac spent a few moments looking through it, seeing if Nicole's name was on the list at all, but after some time he sighed and put the text log away, indicating that his beloved's name wasn't on the list and gave him more hope for finding her alive. As they walked out of the captain's nest they found that the escape pod they had ignored earlier had a slasher trapped inside it, where Hammond told them to step back before he ejected the entire pod, along with the Necromorph, off of the ship.

From there the duo walked back onto the cargo lift and rode it back to the level above them, though as they walked back into the open area Chrysalis heard the sound of something striking a door, where she noticed the door near the one that led them to the store seemed to be breaking... though that was followed by a bestial Necromorph burst through the metal door and touched the floor again, before focusing on Isaac and Chrysalis. From what she could tell the creature had been formed from multiple bodies fused together, which was grosser than anything Chrysalis had seen so far, while at the same time it had heavy layers of flesh that had been converted into chitin... which no doubt served as armor to protect it's massive arms and head from damage, while also ruining their chances of quickly beating the creature.

"What the hell is that thing?" Isaac shouted, though at the same time the creature charged at them, forcing him to jump to the right to avoid the beast while Chrysalis did the same thing by jumping to the left.

"I have no idea, but I don't like it!" Chrysalis shouted in return, though as she did so she lifted the Pulse Rifle and opened fire on the creature, where her bullets bounced off it's armored pieces without damaging it at all, causing her to worry about their chances.

The monstrous Necromorph, a brute as Chrysalis decided to call it based on what it had done to the door it busted down, turned it's head towards her for a moment and stared at her, before it fully faced her and charged in her general direction while ignoring Isaac completely. Chrysalis, not having a moment to actually dodge this time around, called her magic together and formed a circular barrier in front of her, where the brute slammed into it and knocked her onto her back, before it approached her and pressed one of it's 'hands' down on the top of the barrier. Chrysalis opened a small hole in the barrier and opened fire on the brute's chest area, though she did minimal damage in the process, but one of it's arms was blown off as Isaac fired at something on it's back and forced it off of Chrysalis.

The brute shielded itself with it's remaining arm and pressed itself against the floor, where Chrysalis pulled herself up and backed away from the creature, while at the same time trying to figure out how best to damage their foe without being hurt in the process.

A few seconds later the brute regrew the arm that Isaac had blown off and pulled itself back to it's full height, to which it charged towards them with the intent on killing them and letting one of the infector Necromorphs transform them into more monsters to hunt and kill whoever was left in the Ishimura. This time both Isaac and Chrysalis avoided the charge and opened fire on the brute's back, where Chrysalis spotted some yellow balls of mass resting where the arms connected with the main body. She was reminded of the tentacle that wanted to pull her to her death and aimed at them, where she blew off one of the brute's arms and caused it to stagger, to which Isaac nodded and repeated the process on the other arm, causing their foe to stagger once more before collapsing.

The two of them waited for a few seconds, to be sure that the creature was actually dead, before they sighed as the brute didn't get back up and collected the credits that it was carrying, five thousand according to what Isaac said, before Chrysalis pulled out one of the Small Med Packs and applied it to herself. Just because she had summoned the barrier her armor still took damage from the collision and her RIG indicated that she, herself, had been hurt as well, though she wasn't about it question it and let out a sigh of relief as her systems said that she was fine once more. While she was doing that Isaac walked over to the Security Room, where the brute had come from, and called her over to him, where she found the elevator controls for the elevator that was near the cargo lift that took them to where Hammond was waiting... though when they turned the controls on the computerized voice told them that the elevators were online.

They also discovered another Bench, meaning that they could empower their weapons once they either purchased more Power Nodes or found them somewhere on the ship, but they decided to move on and headed back towards the main elevator... where they rode it down to the level they needed to head to, while at the same time finding a video log that had the captain, Kyne, and two crew members that appeared to be holding onto the captain. Apparently the captain was accusing the doctor and the men behind him with mutiny, while Kyne and the men were declaring the captain unfit for duty. One thing that the captain did was declare that the Marker had to be delivered to the church, while Kyne said that he couldn't allow such a thing to happen as he prepared a syringe filled with some sort of liquid... which was followed by some static and Kyne put the needle in the captain's eye, which resulted in the captain's dead despite the fact that Kyne insisted that the captain had to be stopped while the men stated that Kyne had to be arrested.

Chrysalis was pleased to find that they had at least figured out what happened to the captain, though at the same time it confirmed that people were succumbing to the power of the Marker... though when the elevator reached the level they were heading to they walked out into the open room and began their search.

The two of them gathered the supplies in the room and headed out into the hallway that was connected to the room, where Isaac found the schematic for the Contact Beam, a weapon that might help them, but instead of going back and downloading it into the store they moved forward and continued their search for the junction boxes. There was a storage room in front of them and they walked into it, where they found a slasher sleeping among some corpses, to which Chrysalis held it down with her magic as Isaac blew it's arms off. Once the slasher was done for they gathered the odd bits of ammunition and headed back out into the main hallway, though as they did so Kendra contacted them as they approached the door they needed to walk through.

"It looks like some of the gravity plating is malfunctioning," Kendra said, though at the same time Chrysalis shook her head, because she had no idea what Kendra was referring to while at the same time cursing the fact that there was more of the ship falling apart on them, "Keep an eye out for any kind of distortion effect coming from the floor... it could be dangerous for the two of you."

Isaac and Chrysalis walked into the room in front of them and found that they had to follow a specific path, though around the corner rested one of the ruined gravity plating, where they got a demonstration as to what could possibly happen to them as a lurker rounded the corner and charged at them. When it crossed over the ruined plating, however, it was thrown up at the ceiling and shattered into a mess of pieces, to which Chrysalis determined that she and Isaac should use them to the best of their ability so they could conserve ammunition. A few seconds later they rounded another corner and found a lurker and a slasher standing together between two gravity plates, to which Chrysalis smiled and held a hand out towards them. That was followed by her using some of her magic to force the two enemies into the gravity plate behind them, where they were ripped to pieces and dropped some ammunition, allowing them to collect the bits before they moved forward along the path... while at the same time avoiding the plates that were in their path.

A slasher dropped down into the area they had walked through to get into this area and slowly approached them from behind, to which Isaac turned around and put the creature down before returning to Chrysalis, where they followed the path forward once more... where they found two lurkers waiting for them, but since they posed no threat Isaac slowed them down and they tore the Necromorphs apart with a few blasts.

Behind the two lurkers rested some crates that were easily moveable thanks to the Kinesis Module and Chrysalis' telekinesis, though as they did that they heard the sound of another brute waiting ahead of them, to which they both gulped as they hoped that they were just hearing things. Unfortunately they found a brute barreling towards them as they entered the room in front of them, though this time around they were smarter thanks to their encounter with the other one and separated from each other. Isaac threw a Stasis blast at the brute and slowed it down, allowing him and Chrysalis to get to the back of the creature, where they opened fire on the weak points that were visible to them, just like they had with the last brute. When the Stasis failed the brute turned around and charged at them again, though this time Chrysalis wrapped her magic around it and slowed it down with her own spell, allowing Isaac to finish it off... where they collected a Power Node before continuing forward.

In front of them they found where the debris had landed, and was still flaming oddly enough, though at the same time there were some moving electric wires that could prove hazardous to their health, where Isaac loosed a final Stasis blast and slowed them down... allowing him to access the junction box, where the computer informed them that power had been re-routed to the ADS.

"Ship Systems junction box re-routed," Hammond confirmed, though at the same time Isaac returned to Chrysalis and they started walking back to the elevator, while they listened to what their commander was saying, "I'm making some progress with the tracking grid... one of the cannons is giving me a hard time... keep moving."

Chrysalis smiled for a few seconds, because despite the fact that two more junction boxes remained they were actually making decent progress this time around... though she had the feeling that she and Isaac would find another one of those brutes before they powered up the remaining two boxes and restored the ADS to it's full power. All she could do was hope that they could overcome whatever else was in front of them and prevent the ship from falling apart, which meant preventing more pieces of debris from piercing the hull... but she was sure they could manage a miracle, before something else went wrong on another deck.