After retrieving the beacon that they needed to attach to the asteroid, which had been after seeing both of their loved ones again, the duo walked out of the room that the beacon had been resting in and returned to the trolley that would take them back towards the large elevator. The trolley was right where they left it and immediately climbed onto it, where Isaac pressed the button and got them started across the line so they could return to the small room before the elevator, though at the same time they discovered that some new pods had been deposited during their encounter in the previous room. At first it appeared that the pods were the only enemies, though after a few seconds a lurker emerged on their right and growled at them. Chrysalis responded by blasting the lurker to pieces before it could even attempt to attack them, where the pieces fell into the abyss around them, though her victory was short lived as more lurkers emerged from wherever they were hiding and continued the attack.
It didn't take them long to deal with all of the enemies that were in front of them and return to where they had first used the trolley, though this time around they were attacked by a pair of slashers that were waiting for them, to which they responded by opening fire on them... before returning to the small area that was in front of the elevator, where they dealt with one more slasher that was pretending to be dead in front of the elevator.
"I've restored elevator access to the Mining sub deck," Kendra informed them, which the two of them could see by simply looking at the command terminal that was in front of them, though they patiently waited for her to finish before they picked the level they wanted to head to next, "It was a security lockdown, although I don't think that it helped them out. Now that the two of you have the beacon and the access key, you should head to the Mining sub deck. It looks like the asteroid is being held in place by some gravity tethers, which the two of you will have to knock out before you can launch it off the ship."
Isaac looked at the terminal for a few seconds before he tapped the icon for the Mining sub deck, to which the elevator rose up to the level above them and opened the door, where they discovered a host of enemies already waiting for them this time around. Slashers and lurkers were standing around the entrance to this level, causing the duo to open fire on them in an attempt to move forward, though even as made their way into the sub deck they turned to the left and headed in that direction. It ended up being a wise decision in some ways, since they came to an area that appeared to have a store and a Bench for them to use, though that required them to cut down a slasher that was trying to fake them out by pretending to be dead. The duo then headed towards the store, where they found an audio log from Dallas, who noticed what happened to the bodies of the dead and stated that if he didn't have limbs he wouldn't be able to kill anyone when the infectors or the Marker tried to bring him back to life.
Chrysalis was disgusted by the fact that the people of the Ishimura, those that hadn't died automatically, had to resort to such drastic measures to make sure that their friends, and sometimes family, weren't hurt by them when they turned into Necromorphs... though as Isaac accessed the store she simply sat on the nearby container and disengaged her helmet as she thought about what she had seen earlier.
"So, who was that mare?" Isaac asked, as he knew enough about Chrysalis' past, or the past of her home world, to know that the strange pony that had been standing next to Nicole had been important in his companion's life, though he was still coming to terms with the sort of form Chrysalis had before coming here.
"Wildfire Comet... the first, and only, pony I ever gave my heart to." Chrysalis replied, though she couldn't fault Isaac for asking the question, as she and the others had pestered him about Nicole while they were traveling to the Ishimura earlier, but she did have to put her face in her hands.
"I see," Isaac said, to which he moved around some of the items that were in his inventory and sold some of them of, though when he noticed that he could purchase the new suit they had gained the schematic for he paused, since he was interested in what they had seen, "Wildfire seems nice, though I had no idea you were into ladies... or mares, considering where you came from."
"Technically, I like both genders," Chrysalis stated, once more not faulting Isaac for making such a observation, since she never volunteered the information and knew that Isaac had drawn his statement from Wildfire's gender, "Originally, when I started seeing her, it was more to get at my mother, who was trying to teach me to see ponies as a food source and nothing else. In time, however, I eventually developed feelings for Wildfire and revealed my true nature to her, but she was more accepting than the other ponies were at the time and accepted the true me with open hooves, where we became a couple some time after that. As you saw she's a fighter, seeing how she handled that slasher, and her commanding officer at the time was pushing to make sure that the pegasi were ready for war, hence her armor."
"Sounds like the two of you were a perfect match," Isaac said, as he had seen Chrysalis fight with the bone blades that she carried on her back, with a terrifying accuracy at times, and knew that Wildfire must have shown her something during the time they were together.
"We thought so as well," Chrysalis replied, though that was followed by her letting out a sigh as she leaned her head back and stared at the ceiling, because she remembered how it all ended, "I was careful to make sure that none of the other ponies discovered my true nature when I was with Wildfire, reverting back to my true form when we were alone, but eventually her commander, and the leaders of the unicorns and earth ponies, discovered the truth. Someone discovered that I was a changeling, the heir to my mother's kingdom, and revealed my true nature to the three leaders, who proceeded to chase me out of town before I could even explain that I was acting on my own. Wildfire... Wildfire suffered a worse fate than being chased out of town."
"What happened?" Isaac asked, though this time he turned around and noticed something wrong, there were some tears on Chrysalis' face, indicating that he must have asked something that he shouldn't have.
"The other ponies saw Wildfire as a traitor for loving someone like me," Chrysalis replied, though this next part truly pained her heart, because of what happened, but she ignored the tears that had formed and continued speaking, "since she was a pegasus the others tied rope around her wings, binding them to her side, and dropped her off in the largest desert in the entirety of Equestria. I spent weeks searching for her, so I could save her and bring her back to my home since her kind had pretty much banished her, but... but in the end I was too late, and I found her body resting in the sand. I foolishly hoped that she was still alive, after so much time in that desert, but after discovering what happened to her I cried for weeks and mourned her terrible passing... while my heart shattered into a thousand pieces and I turned bitter towards the ponies that inflicted such a terrible fate upon my sweet Wildfire."
"Wait... you mean..." Isaac said, though as he realized what Chrysalis had said, and why she had frozen up earlier when she saw Wildfire, he also realized what was happening to his companion.
"Wildfire died a little over a thousand years ago," Chrysalis said, though at the same time she touched the side of her face where she had felt the touch of Wildfire's lips, because despite the truth it felt too real for it to be an illusion, "I personally buried her with her armor and weapon, along with what remained of my heart, before I went on to become queen of the changelings when my mother finally retired. That's why I froze earlier, because there's no way Wildfire could be here, on the Ishimura, in her natural form like that... and yet it's like she's been given a second chance at life, because that kiss felt real."
"Chrysalis, you're just feeling heartbroken," Isaac said, though he had no idea how to comfort someone whose lived for over a thousand years and whose only comfort, the only person or pony they ever loved, had died over a thousand years ago, but he hoped that she would accept his statement, "you aren't going insane. You are much stronger than the colonists were, so there's no way for the Marker to be getting to you already."
Chrysalis sighed and nodded her head, though instead of saying anything she decided that the time for talking was over and wiped the tears from her eyes, as merely thinking of Wildfire still caused her to freeze and cry, something that she had refused to show to her changelings. Now, however, her only companions were Isaac and Kendra, maybe even Hammond if she was lucky, and knew that they would let her cry and voice her sadness without judging her, even though Isaac felt terrible for bringing up the past. Once the tears were gone, and sure was sure of that, she engaged her helmet and stood up once more, where she watched Isaac nod for a second and he accessed the store, to which he stepped into the machine and let it close around him... though when he emerged Chrysalis noticed that the left arm piece of Isaac's suit had armor pieces, as well as the leggings that he was wearing, and there was a fourth line on his helmet.
As Isaac stepped out of the store area, however, Chrysalis took a moment to sell off the stuff she didn't need and noticed that she also had enough credits to purchase the suit as well, to which she stepped into the machine after making the purchase and let it close around her... though a few moments later she emerged with her modified suit.
With the two of them decked out in new armor they walked down the path that was in front of and headed over to where the Bench was located, though as Isaac accessed the work station Chrysalis heard the sound of a Necromorph moving in the nearby vents. She turned towards the vent near the Bench and raised her Pulse Rifle as a slasher jumped out of the vent and landed on the floor in front of her, to which she tore the slasher apart as Isaac upgraded whichever weapon he was working on. When Isaac was done with his weapon the duo moved on, as Chrysalis didn't feel like using her Power Nodes just yet, but as they did so Chrysalis wrapped her magic around the Power Box and pulled it from the terminal that it was in... to which the two of them walked down the path on the right of the main entrance of this sub deck and found a terminal waiting near a cargo lift.
Of course the duo had to deal with a few more Necromorphs that were in their way, a pair of exploders to be exact, though once they were done with those enemies the duo walked up to the cargo lift, slipped the Power Box into the terminal, and rode it down to the next level... where they followed the hallway in front of them and found a text log that detailed the mining timeline, including the planetcrack. The duo stared at the text log for a few seconds, as it was an interesting thing to read for a moment or two, before they stored the log away and opened the circular door to the area where the tethers were located, as well as the massive asteroid that they were holding in one place.
"So, there's the asteroid we need to attach the beacon to," Chrysalis commented, though at the same time she noticed that there appeared to be four beams attached to the asteroid, two of which appeared to be inside the room and two of them appeared to be outside the chamber.
"And there's the Necromorphs that want to stop us," Isaac added, to which he aimed at the leaper that was coming his way and and dismembered it before it could reach them, where he heard Chrysalis firing at a lurker that was near them, which just confirmed his suspicions.
There was actually a few lurkers and leapers waiting in this chamber, waiting for them to move before they even revealed themselves, though at the same time Chrysalis observed the area around them as she wondered how they were going to destroy the gravity tethers. As she watched the one on the level that they were on, however, she noticed that there were times where some power tubes, like those they destroyed to get through the flaming tunnels on the Hydroponics Deck, were revealed to them. When she pointed this out to Isaac her companion loosed a Stasis blast at the gravity tether and slowed it down, where Chrysalis noticed that the tubes were vulnerable for a few moments and immediately opened fire on it... causing the entire tether to explode as the beam was disconnected, leaving three more beams from the three remaining tethers.
Isaac leapt towards the ceiling and moved towards the gravity tether that was at the top of the room, though Chrysalis simply aimed at the area between the inside and outside of the room, to which she landed on the asteroid after the moving rings passed by her destination. The instant she landed on the edge of the asteroid she walked along the edge and headed outside, where she was thankful for her increased air supply as she started firing at the lurkers that happened to be running around the exterior of the ship. She noticed that there was a large number of them this time around, at least ten by her estimates, but fortunately she didn't have to fight them alone as Isaac followed her outside and opened fire on the enemies on her left, allowing her to focus on those that were to her right.
While the two of them made cut and blasted their way through their enemies Chrysalis noticed that they could see Aegis VII, and the massive piece that had been pulled from it, in the sky above them, a reminder of what the Ishimura had done before the outbreak happened... before she pushed the thought away and focused on the task at hand.
Isaac approached one of the gravity tethers and slowed it down with a Stasis blast, allowing him to blast the power tubes to pieces before the entire machine was a flaming wreck, while at the same time Chrysalis approached the second one and did the same thing that her companion was doing. For her, however, she had to resort to sinking her magic into the machine and froze the components with a frost spell, giving her the ability to blast one of the tubes to pieces once the rotating part was no longer spinning. The instant the final tether was down, however, she and Isaac got back together in the middle of the asteroid, on the outside part of it, and carefully attached the beacon to the surface of the piece of rock, before they headed back inside the room the other half of the asteroid was resting in.
Warning. the computerized voice said, though at the same time Isaac and Chrysalis jumped onto the nearby wall and then jumped to the floor, allowing them a moment to relax before Kendra talked to them, Payload 8772 is no longer tethered. Untrained personnel should leave the area immediately.
What surprised them was that as they made their way outside the room where the asteroid was resting, and returned to the hallway that was outside the room, there was no word from Kendra yet, though they kept their mouths shut as they blasted apart a slasher that was waiting for them by the cargo lift. As they road the cargo lift back up to the level it had been at earlier, before they accessed it to reach the area the asteroid was resting in, they noticed that several of the machines were now spewing fire, meaning that they had to be careful as they moved the power box back to the terminal it had originally been in earlier. Fortunately it didn't appear that there were any enemies at the moment, not with all of the flames that the two of them had to avoid as they levitated the power box through the area, as they were able to retrace their steps to the store and Bench area... where Isaac carefully slipped the power box into the terminal and restored power to the cargo lift that would take them to the control room that contained the terminal that would allow them to launch the asteroid.
They paused for a moment, to make sure that no Necromorphs were waiting for them to return the power box to where it had been earlier, but when they didn't see any slashers or exploders or lurkers the duo walked onto the cargo lift and rode it up to the level it was supposed to take them to... where they found a few swarm type enemies waiting for them, but Chrysalis crushed them immediately with pure magic before they climbed off the cargo lift.
The door to the control room was locked, as they expected, to which Isaac touched the door and the card was recognized, where he and Chrysalis walked into the area that would allow them to do what they were here to do, though before they got too far they both noticed a box on the wall that contained another Power Node. They took a moment to gather all the supplies that were resting around the small room, before they approached the terminal that was in front of the window and got another clear view of the asteroid, along with the machine that was still holding it in place at the moment, despite the fact that the tethers had been destroyed. Isaac and Chrysalis braced themselves, as they were sure that something was going to happen after they activated the terminal, before they sighed and touched the command option, to which the lights flashed and the asteroid was released from whatever was holding it.
Payload 8772 launched. the computerized voice declared, though at the same time the duo stared at the asteroid for a few moments as it drifted off into space and left the Ishimura behind, while hoping that this did exactly what Kendra said it would do.
"Beacon's on it's way!" Kendra declared, though this time around a video link appeared, instead of them just listening to her voice, but Chrysalis noticed that she seemed sad about something and had an idea what that something had to be, since she had seen the same thing earlier, "All functions normal and broadcasting wide band... now we just have to hope that someone's listening. I'll position the array receiver. Guys, I thought I saw my brother again. He waved to me, like nothing was wrong."
"You aren't the only one seeing dead loved ones," Chrysalis said, as she easily recalled what she and Isaac had seen earlier, or more specifically who they had seen when they went after the beacon, "Wildfire Comet, the love of my life that's been dead for a thousand years... I saw her earlier, when Isaac and I were searching for the beacon."
"...I'm sorry to hear that," Kendra replied, as she and Isaac hadn't known how long Chrysalis had been alive before today, and was still shocked by how old she really was, and knew that she must been suffering for years to try and replace someone that was irreplaceable, "Okay, I should be able to leave this channel open... What? The Comms Array receiver isn't responding. Isaac, Chrysalis, can the two of you get back to the Bridge? We need that array online, otherwise we can't receive signals from anyone responding to the beacon."
Before either of them could respond, however, the room was locked down as quarantine enforced itself upon the area they were in, to which Isaac and Chrysalis prepared themselves for the Necromorphs that were no doubt coming their way at the moment. Slashers started pouring into the room, at least ten of them, causing the duo to split apart and take one side of the room apiece, where they kept their eyes on the slashers and opened fire on them as they dropped down into the area that they were in. Since she had access to magic, and some of her enemies had no idea what to do against it, she froze several of the slashers that were in front of her and blasted them to pieces with her weapon, while at the same time Isaac dismembered the enemies that came at him and even had to use a med pack to heal one of wounds that was dealt during the fight.
With the fight done, and no more Necromorphs were coming after them, the duo walked out of the room and headed back to the cargo lift, allowing it to take them down to the level where the store was located, to which they carefully walked through the corridor that had flames. Halfway through that area they returned to the main elevator and climbed onto it, where Isaac pressed the button for the Preparation sub deck, the first of the four sub decks, and they waited as the elevator took them to their destination.
"So, back to the Bridge?" Chrysalis commented, though at the same time she wasn't surprised, because when one task was completed they either went to a new deck, to take care of a specific task, or headed back to an old deck to do something specific.
"That's correct," Isaac replied, though he shared Chrysalis' mood, he wasn't too keen on backtracking at this point in time, but he knew that they needed the Comms Array to be online and that the two of them were the only ones that could fix whatever went wrong, "but think about this; we'll be there for a few minutes, fix up the Comms Array, and then we'll head to one of the other decks and fix something else."
"I hate how I know you might be right," Chrysalis moaned, though before she could say anything else a slasher, the empowered black variety they had encountered when the Captain had been transformed into a Necromorph, dropped onto the elevator floor and turned towards them.
Chrysalis turned her Pulse Rifle on the slasher as Isaac pulled out the Plasma Cutter, to which the two of them opened fire on the slasher and dismembered it before it could touch them, though before they could put their weapons away they found some of the limb type Necromorphs wandering around the Preparation sub deck, in front of the elevator. The duo carefully removed all of the limb enemies and moved forward, where they walked through the door that was in front of them and passed through the short hallway that was between them and the Tram. When they arrived at the waiting Tram the two of them took their seats before Isaac pressed the icon for the Bridge and they got underway once more... though this time around they remained silent so they could think about what they had seen earlier.
Chrysalis took the time to reflect on her own past and what happened since Wildfire's death, where she wondered if her love would have been proud of her or disappointed in how she acted recently... yet all she could do was let some tears flow as she waited to see what horrors were waiting for them on the Bridge this time around.