//------------------------------//
// Ishimura: The Leviathan 
// Story: Dead Space: Deep Space Terror 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

Once Isaac and Chrysalis were done upgrading their weapons at the Bench, and Isaac's RIG as well, the two of them made their way back to the Security Station once more and took a look at the screen that detailed how many of the wheezers, Chrysalis' name for the poison factories they were hunting down, were left. From what the screen told them there had to be four more in the right wing of the Hydroponics Deck, as there were four in the wing that they had just finished exploring and that added up to the eight icons that were on the screen. For a moment Chrysalis wondered how in the world none of the crew members, that had access to weapons during the outbreak, could take out even one of the wheezers, but all she could guess was that the poison killed them all before they had a chance to fight back, allowing the infectors to start creating more Necromorphs to guard this deck... and the creature that was no doubt tied to the organic growth that they had encountered throughout the Ishimura so far.

A few seconds passed before Isaac let out a sigh and headed towards the door that would take them into the right wing of this deck, to which Chrysalis followed after him, where they entered a short hallway that happened to have a text log from Dr. Jagerwald. This log detailed the corruption that they had seen multiple times so far, though what they discovered was that the bacteria involved in all of this multiplied twenty-fold in a minute, revealing the speed at how fast this corruption spread. The log also echoed what Kendra had told them earlier, about the corruption being a habitat transformer, which made sense considering everything they had encountered so far, though they also apparently produced some form of gas, which neither of them were smelling at the moment. Some of this information was new, as they hadn't uncovered part of this beforehand, though some of it was old news that they didn't mind seeing again, but when they reached the end of the text log Isaac put it away before they walked up to the door that was in front of them and entered the right wing of the Hydroponics Deck.

As they opened the door, however, they spotted a guardian on the other side of the room they would be entering, though this time around it appeared that there weren't any explosive canisters sitting around them, meaning that they would be using their own weapons. Before they did anything the guardian loosed a pod at them, which handed halfway between them and sprouted a tentacle so it could start firing at them, though Isaac quickly took out the pod while Chrysalis opened fire on the guardian. She did so in short bursts, allowing each burst of bullets to take out one of the five tentacles that the guardian had, and smiled as the Necromorph moaned as she tore the tentacles off, though when the last one fell the creature stopped moving, indicating that it was dead and that they were allowed to move on... though before they reached the end of the hallway they took a moment to investigate the doors on their right.

The first door had a Bench they could use, which would have been great to know about earlier, but since they didn't need to use it they walked back out into the hallway and let the door close, to which they walked up to the second door and investigated what was on the other side. A slasher appeared on the other side and raised it's bladed arms at the duo, who immediately opened fire on the Necromorph, dismembering him in a manner of seconds, allowing them to gather up all of the supplies it had been guarding. The third and final door on the right side of the hallway, however, was locked and needed a Power Node to access, but since they had already used up the majority of their credits earlier, to buy the nodes they used to upgrade their weapons and RIGs, they had little choice but to turn towards the cargo lift and ride up to the level that was above them.

When the cargo lift came to a stop they discovered that there was more of the organic growth attached to the ceiling and the walkway, though since they had no choice in the matter the duo carefully walked forward and kept their eyes open for any Necromorphs that wanted them dead. As they walked forward, however, the duo heard that there were some anomalies in the East Grow Chamber, which immediately gave them the location of one of the four wheezers that they were currently hunting at the moment. Once the announcement was made they opened the door in front of them and entered a chamber that looked like the main hub they had walked through in the western wing of the Hydroponics Deck, only this time all the vegetation that the crew had been growing appeared to be dead... as everything was either dead from lack of care or had been consumed by the Leviathan and it's organic growths.

Before they could even take a step forward, and begin their search for the four wheezers, Chrysalis heard the sound of something something coming their way and held a hand up to stop Isaac from going forward, though that was before they both caught sight of a brute making it's way towards them.

"Well, at least we know that these guys aren't invulnerable," Chrysalis commented, as she knew that if these creatures were immortal like the hunter was, which still sent shivers up her spine when she thought about it, they would have perished back on the Bridge.

"Yeah," Isaac said, as he understood what Chrysalis was talking about, as he still had flashes of the hunter chasing them through the Medical Deck, before he focused on the brute, "so, should I take the left side and you the right, or should I take the right side and you take the left side?"

"You should take the left side," Chrysalis replied, because she was standing to Isaac's right and it made sense for her to attack the side of the brute that she would be the closest to, just as it made sense for Isaac to do the same thing with the other side of the creature.

Isaac nodded as both he and Chrysalis lifted their weapons and waited for the brute to charge at them, as that appeared to be one of the special moves that only a brute could do, before it finally rounded the corner that separated it from them. Once they were actually in the brute's sights, and it had a chance to stare at the duo for a few seconds, it let loose the same roar that the other brutes had made and charged at them, fully intending to knock one of them to the floor so it could smash them into pieces. When it got close enough both Isaac and Chrysalis threw themselves away from each other and let the brute move by where they had been standing moments ago, though they were quicker to regain themselves as the brute tried to stop itself. The duo opened fire, aiming for the weak points that kept the brute's arms attached to it's body, causing the beast to shudder and shake for a few seconds before it's arms were torn off, which was when it dropped to the floor in defeat... giving them a Power Node, one that they decided to slip into their packs instead of using it immediately.

With the brute dead the duo started their search for the four wheezers, though Chrysalis found one almost immediately, as it was resting in the level beneath the elevator, but fortunately for them the terminal that opened the class container, so it could one of the canisters out of the area it was in, was operational. Isaac stood beside the terminal as Chrysalis got in position, where she had an angle on the wheezer, before she nodded her head as she lifted her Pulse Rifle up. Isaac pressed the command option and the container opened, though as one of the canisters was removed Chrysalis opened fire on the wheezer and literally tore the Necromorph to pieces before the container closed, reducing the number of wheezers they needed to kill down to three.

Instead of using the elevator immediately, and heading up to the level above them, the duo decided to investigate the level that they were on and started searching for any small buildings that a wheezer might be hiding in, though along the way they opened some containers and secured more ammunition and supplies for the future. That was before they found a small building that, when they opened the door, definitely had a wheezer inside it, because of the poisonous air that the creature was emitting at the moment. Since they found their next target Isaac took it upon himself to blast the wheezer a few times until it was dead, allowing the air to return to normal in the small building they were in, though instead of resting they walked out of the building and entered the one in front of them. The second one didn't have either of the remaining wheezers for them to take out, though it did provide them with a few more supplies that they eagerly collected and stored away.

Once they were done searching the level they were on they returned to the cargo lift, where they climbed onto it and rode it up to the level above them, though the two of them were slightly surprised when they found a number of explosive canisters resting behind where the cargo lift was located. One of the two paths they could have chosen from was locked, though in front of the door rested an audio log from Elizabeth Cross, who said that something huge had slammed into the hull of the ship. She also said that it wasn't an asteroid or anything like that, which told Isaac and Chrysalis that the Leviathan didn't originate from the Ishimura, but rather it was possible that it had been created on Aegis VII and had, somehow, been flung into the air to slam into the hull near Food Storage. It would have been an outlandish theory, but since neither of them had any idea what the Marker was capable of, or what the Necromorphs on the planet were capable of, they didn't rule out that possibility... even if such a thing made the two of them nervous.

Since the mystery of the Leviathan was even stranger than they originally assumed, and wasn't likely going to be solved, the duo pushed it to the back of their minds as they returned to the cargo lift and rode it to the final level, as their prior experience told them that something had to be up there... which ended up being the third wheezer that they were searching for, though seeing it only made the duo open fire on it and tear it to pieces like the others.

With that task done the duo returned to the cargo lift and rode it back down to the second level, where they carefully approached the only door that would open for them and walked into the short hallway that was behind the door, though behind the second door rested a hallway that had a lot of growth on the walls and on the floor. Both Chrysalis and Isaac moaned as they realized that they would be slowly walking towards the end of this particular hallway, though before they started walking Chrysalis picked up a gold semiconductor and stored it inside her storage area before walking forward. Before they could get too far, however, another large tentacle surged around the corner and latched onto Chrysalis' leg, knocking her to the floor before it started to drag her to whatever hole it wanted to pull her through, but she wasn't about to let this journey end in such a manner. Since she knew the tentacle's weakness, the large yellow ball that appeared to connect two parts of the tentacle, she dipped into her magic and loosed an ice charge forward for a few seconds before releasing the magic.

The good news was that the large ice spike she had summoned pierced the tentacle's skin and stopped it from taking her further down the hallway, though the bad news was that she had missed the weakness, which only caused her and Isaac to open fire on it before it finally exploded, releasing her as the tentacle returned to it's home... allowing Chrysalis to pull herself back to a standing position as she checked her armor, so she could see if she had suffered any damage.

"What's with these tentacles?" Chrysalis inquired, though at the same time she and Isaac started moving again, because they were still short one wheezer before they could take on the Leviathan, "Why do they keep going after me, instead of picking you for once?"

"Maybe the Necromorphs see you as the bigger threat and are trying to get rid of you first?" Isaac suggested, because that was honestly the best answer he could give her that made sense, as he was sure that any other answer would have annoyed her to no end.

"Whatever." Chrysalis said, though her tone told Isaac that she was getting fed up with the Necromorphs and Mercer, even if Mercer wasn't behind the tentacles trying to drag her into a dark hole, "Let's just find that last wheezer and get to the Leviathan before those tentacles come after us again."

At the end of the growth infected hallway the duo walked through the door on their left and found an audio log, one from Temple this time around, where the engineer stated that he was searching for Elizabeth Cross and couldn't find her anywhere, before saying that he was heading to the Mining Deck to look for her. Somehow Chrysalis knew that the next task they were be forced to do, or the one after that, would be situated on the Mining Deck, either trying to fix something or do whatever Hammond and Kendra asked of them. The duo then walked through the door in front of them and entered an area where they would have to use Zero-G again, just like on the other wing they had passed through, before Chrysalis noticed that there was some writing on the screen to their right... though it appeared to be the various symbols they had seen in the Unitologist areas of the ship, complete with which letter of the alphabet went to which symbol.

Since they were likely to never see something like this again in the future, even if the alphabet was incomplete, Chrysalis felt the urge to memorize what she was seeing, to which she cursed the fact that there wasn't a picture taking option for the RIG... but in the end her few moments staring at the symbols and letters was integrated into her mind, though it would take her some time to fully memorize all of it.

Once that was done the two of them walked through the barrier between a room that had gravity and the part of the wing that didn't have any gravity to speak of, where they were both sickened by the sheer amount of organic growth that was resting all around them. Fortunately it didn't appear that there were any enemies in the area around them at the moment, to which they carefully aimed their weapons at the platform they could jump to and did just that, though as they flew through the air Chrysalis noticed an engine or something that seemed to be malfunctioning due to the electricity that was coming from the device. Isaac, however, had the solution to the problem they were facing, as he loosed a Stasis blast at the machine and slowed it down, getting rid of the electricity in the process, before he jumped over to the other side of the platform that they needed to be on... where Chrysalis followed after him, as she didn't want the machine to come back on while she was passing over it.

From there the duo looked into the compartment on their left and jumped through the opening that was right in front of them, where they were assaulted by two lurkers that happened to be patrolling the area, but they were prepared for such a thing and went on the offensive first. It truly didn't take them long to dismember the lurkers, not when their weakness was the tentacles that they willingly revealed from their backs, though once their foes had been taken care of Isaac and Chrysalis carefully maneuvered themselves into the next chamber. It was there that they found the last wheezer spewing more poison into the air, though the instant they landed both of them opened fire on the Necromorph for a few seconds, reducing it to a floating stack of parts as the air returned to normal once again. Chrysalis was impressed by how quickly the air seemed to return to normal, which meant that the systems had been trying to fix the problem and their removal of the wheezers had achieved what the systems had been trying to do.

As they waited for some confirmation on their mission, however, two more lurkers decided to attack them while they were distracted, though Isaac and Chrysalis proved that they were still paying attention when Chrysalis froze them with her magic and let Isaac obliterate them with a shot from his Plasma Cutter.

"Isaac, Chrysalis, that's the last of them." Kendra said, to which Isaac and Chrysalis nodded in satisfaction, because they were now one step closer to ending this nightmare and the Leviathan, "There's a switch in Atmosphere Control to reset the oxygen recycling. Once the air's clean, the two of you can get into Food Storage. Guys, I've been reading these reports... the crew began experiencing mass hallucinations. And... well, I just saw my brother on a security monitor. And that's just not possible..."

Chrysalis had no idea that Kendra had a brother, as she had never once mentioned him while they were on the Kellion, but even as that thought crossed her mind she realized that if Kendra was starting to see loved ones, like some of the other people whose audio logs they had recovered so far, than it was only a matter of time until she, Isaac, and Hammond did the same thing. She was sure that the others would be overjoyed to see their loved ones again, even if it was just a brief hallucination, but for her the memory was too painful, which was why she was thankful to have only seen the lance and not it's owner, back when they were turning the engines on. As Kendra cut the connection, for the moment anyway, Chrysalis pushed the thought about what she had seen to the back of her mind before following after Isaac, since he had already jumped into the previous area so he could start making their way back to the place that Chrysalis had assumed was the Security Station... though she guessed that it was both a Security Station and the Atmosphere Control at the same time.

As they progressed back to the gravity filled part of the ship, however, they had to pass by the malfunctioning piece of machinery again, though this time around Chrysalis spotted a device that turned the machine off, allowing her and Isaac to pass through the area without having to worry about being electrocuted by some stray electricity.

From there it was a straight up back to the first room of this area and then a quick jog into the gravity filled portion, where the duo relaxed a tiny bit as they opened the door and returned to the hallway that had more of the organic growth that impeded their progress. As they walked back to the other side of the hallway Chrysalis did so walking backwards, as she was keeping her eyes on the hole the tentacle had erupted from earlier, but she and Isaac were in luck since the tentacle appeared to have learned it's lesson and wasn't coming for them again. When they reached the end of that hallway they entered a shorter one that would take them back to the main chamber, where Isaac spotted a wall container that happened to have a Power Node inside it, which put a smile on both of their faces. As they walked out into the large chamber, and made their way to the cargo lift, the two were on edge since there should be Necromorphs coming after them, but even though there weren't any to speak of they kept their weapons at the ready.

Fortunately that was a good idea on their part, because when they opened the large door to head back into the first hallway they walked through to get to this chamber, where the locked door was located, three slashers stood near the cargo lift and turned towards them the instant the door opened. Despite the fact that it was three to two the slashers didn't stand much of a chance against the duo, not when they lined up perfectly so all of Isaac's and Chrysalis' attacks punctured all three of them in a row. In about thirty seconds all three slashers had been dismembered and the duo was continuing on their way once more, where they rode the cargo lift down to the lower level and skipped over the locked door, deeming the Leviathan to be a more important target for them. As they reached the end of that hallway, and entered the smaller one that would take them to the Atmosphere Controls, Isaac paused for a moment, as if he was hearing things that only he could hear, before pressing onward.

Chrysalis wondered if he was hearing the voice of a loved one, like everyone else was, though since he wasn't saying anything about it she kept her mouth shut, especially since she could have sworn that she heard some whispering for a moment, but it was so faint that she couldn't make out what was being said.

When they entered the Atmosphere Control area Isaac quickly walked over to the store and sold all the ammunition and items he didn't need, before making sure to purchase some additional ammunition, just in case things went sour after they used the poison. Chrysalis, on the other hand, simply sold off anything that she didn't need and kept the credits, so she could either get some Power Nodes or the next suit when it showed up, before walking away from the store once she was done selling everything. A few moments later they approached the terminal that they needed to access and Isaac pressed the button, to which the computerized voice indicated that it was flushing the systems and restoring both nitrogen and oxygen levels... before indicating, after a few minutes of the systems running, that the lockdown on Food Storage had been lifted.

Once they knew that the lockdown had been lifted they walked around the control terminal and accessed the large circular door that was in front of them, revealing a glass hallway, tube shaped, that connected them to their destination, along with a large mass of organic growth that rested all around the glass. Both Isaac and Chrysalis knew that the Leviathan had to be big, especially with how much growth they had encountered so far, but seeing all of this made them both hope that the poison took out the Leviathan. They also discovered another audio log from Elizabeth Cross, who stated that she was going to the Mining Deck to wait for Jacob there, though that was all she really said, to which the duo made their way across the hallway before opening the door in front of them. Both of them knew that they had finally reached the point where they used the poison that Kendra had them make, though as the door opened they discovered a terminal that had a receptacle waiting for them.

Of course there were several small tentacles wrapped around the door to Food Storage, indicating that the Leviathan wanted to be left alone, but that didn't stop Isaac from inserting the poison capsule into the receptacle and starting the process... which, judging by the howl like noise that emitted a few moments, didn't kill the Leviathan, but did open the way so Isaac and Chrysalis could take it out.

"Dammit, the poison wasn't strong enough." Kendra commented, though she sounded upset with herself, indicating that if they had more time she could have created a poison that would have wiped the Leviathan out, "Isaac, Chrysalis, it's still alive. Get in there and finish it off, before it contaminates the entire ship!"

Since they didn't have much of a choice in this matter, especially since the door behind them locked after the poison was put into the receptacle, Isaac and Chrysalis opened the door in front of them and walked into Food Storage, which prompted the lights to activate. What they discovered, at the very end of the storage area they were in, was a large monstrosity that was at least as wide as the entire circular storage area, though what was staring at them were three large holes that formed a triangle shape and a fourth one that rested in the middle of those three. The Leviathan was, like all of the other Necromorphs, composed of a large number of corpses, though it was hard to tell how many of the corpses belonged to the colonists on Aegis VII and how many had been the crew aboard the Ishimura... though one thing both Isaac and Chrysalis agreed on was that the Leviathan was an ugly creature, though they knew this thing was dangerous thanks to all of the corpses floating around them.

As the door behind them closed, and they took a few steps forward in the Zero-G area they had walked into, the Leviathan sensed that it had company and let out another roar as three tentacles emerged from the creature's front side, one tentacle per hole of the triangle.

"So you're the creep whose been using those tentacles." Chrysalis stated, though a smile appeared on her face, one that she was thankful that Isaac couldn't see thanks to the helmet, before she primed her weapon and pointed it at the monster in front of her, "I'm going to enjoy this way more than I should."

Isaac wasn't sure if that was the case or not, but it seemed to put Chrysalis in the mood to deal with the Leviathan and he wasn't about to break that, rather he loosed a Stasis blast at the first tentacle that fully pulled itself out of their foe so it could smash them. The resulting blast did slow the tentacle down, though since it belonged to something so big it quickly snapped out of it, telling Isaac that he might want to invest some Power Nodes into his Stasis Module at some point in the future. The good thing that came from that, however, was that Chrysalis loosed a hail of bullets at the tentacle's weakness and blew the tentacle apart, causing the Leviathan to howl in pain for a few seconds, but this time around the duo held their ground as they waited to see what happened next. What they were expecting was that they would have to move to a point where they could attack the other two tentacles, but fortune was on their side as one of the remaining tentacles entered the Leviathan's body and emerged where the first one had been located.

This time around Chrysalis latched her magic into the tentacle and forcefully pulled it out, revealing it's weakness to Isaac, who grabbed one of the explosive canisters with his Kinesis Module and hurled it right into the area that Chrysalis was showing him, causing that tentacle to explode as well. The third and final tentacle reached for them like the other two had, but this time around the duo simply opened fire on it and tore the weakness to pieces before the tentacle could even latch onto the side of the chamber, to which they listened to the Leviathan howl in pain as they waited for it to reveal another weakness to them. What happened next was that their opponent opened it's 'mouth' and revealed the weak spot they were searching for, to which Chrysalis opened fire on it immediately, though while some of the bullets hit their target some of them hit some strange growth balls that the Leviathan was spitting at them... though the oddest part was that if she and Isaac hit the balls with a bullet it went flying right back into the Leviathan's mouth.

Together they took turns shooting the balls back into the Leviathan's mouth and appeared to be doing massive damage to the creature, judging by how it was shaking at the moment, before it clamped it's mouth closed and created three new tentacles to fight the duo. They then simply repeated the same set of attacks they used against the first three tentacles that had been used against them, where Isaac slowed the first down and Chrysalis destroyed it, Chrysalis grabbed the second and let Isaac blow it up, and they combined their attacks to down the third. From there it was a simple matter of firing into the Leviathan's mouth, and hitting the organic explosive balls it was firing at them, before the Leviathan let out a rather painful howl, one that was louder than the others... before it shook for a few seconds and then stopped moving altogether.

"Take that you foul monster!" Chrysalis cheered, because now that the Leviathan was dead she and Isaac wouldn't have to worry about encountering anymore of those tentacles that only seemed to go after her.

"Isaac, Chrysalis, you did it!" Kendra spoke up, though her tone immediately told them that she was happy, especially since they didn't to worry about the Leviathan creating more wheezers to pollute the air in the future, "Hammond? Do you read me? Oxygen levels are returning to normal!"

Isaac and Chrysalis stood there for a moment, as while they were overjoyed to have won this victory for them and the others, it wouldn't be that great if they suddenly lost one of their friends before they could properly celebrate their victory over the Leviathan.

"Dammit. He's gone again. No sign of his RIG anywhere." Kendra finally said, to which both Isaac and Chrysalis gulped, because that either meant that Hammond was dead or Mercer knew how to hide their friends from them so he could hunt them down in peace, "It's up to the three of us now... and I've got a plan to get off this ship! I've located an SOS beacon on the Mining Deck. If the two of you can get down there and activate it, we might be able to send out a distress call."

Chrysalis moaned as she heard that news, because she hated being right about having to visit yet another deck on this ship, one that was no doubt infested with more Necromorphs, but at the same time she and Isaac turned around and headed back through the door they had used to enter this area, leaving the dead Leviathan behind. From there they returned to the Atmosphere Control area and walked over to the door that would take them back to the elevator that they used to reach this area when they first stepped off the Tram. A short elevator ride later brought them to the level where the Tram station was located, to which they carefully walked out and made their way to the Tram, where they were both pleased to find that no Necromorphs were waiting for them.

Together the duo stepped onto the Tram and took the same seats that they took every time they had to use the Tram to move from one deck to another, before Isaac pressed the necessary icon and got the Tram moving once more... only this time around they had a plan to call for aid and potentially get off this ship. Chrysalis wanted nothing more than to get off the Ishimura and go home, but for now she could settle for getting off the Ishimura with her friends, and then she could worry about finding a way back to Equus.