//------------------------------//
// Sprawl: Change of Plans 
// Story: Dead Space: Deep Space Terror 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

Isaac and Chrysalis remained laying on the floor for a few more moments, letting their nerves calm down, before the two of them bothered to start moving again, though this time around they did so slowly so they didn't damage anything in the process. The duo discovered that they were inside a hallway of a residential area, one that looked oddly familiar to their eyes, and found that there was one open door they could go through, which meant that the others must have been locked since they last came through this area. Before either of them stepped forward they made sure that they hadn't sustained any injuries from their encounter, namely since they had been forced to face such a massive creature, were thrown out into space, had to jump away from a gunship before it exploded, and and were forced through a second glass window before the iron wall had sealed the area. Fortunately the duo discovered that they were in perfect health, despite what just happened to them, to which they breathed a sigh of relief before they moved through the only open door that was in the area around them, while also having their weapons at the ready.

As they moved through the door, and collected the credits and Power Node that were in front of them, their video links beeped and they stared at each other, because after Daina they needed to be cautious as to when they opened calls like this, since it broadcasted where they were, but in the end Isaac sighed and accepted the connection... to which the duo watched as Stross appeared before them once more.

"Isaac? Isaac, are you there?" Stross asked, revealing that his grasp on reality was definitely shattered in some manner, as it appeared that he was having a hard time seeing the duo, even though he was more interested in Isaac than Chrysalis, which she was fine with, "Can you hear me?"

"What do you want Stross?" Isaac inquired, knowing that, due to the Marker's influence, the man was definitely insane and shouldn't trust him, though at the same time he was only listening in case the man revealed something that might aid him and Chrysalis, "Look, it's over. All our plans got blown out the window."

"No, no, no, no! It's not over!" Stross insisted, though while he spoke Chrysalis kept her eye open for any enemies that might want them dead, as she was sure that Tiedemann's forces and the Necromorphs wanted to make sure that neither of them escaped this station alive, "At least, not yet. Isaac... we built it. We can tear it down!"

"You mean the Marker?" Chrysalis asked, as she recalled what Daina had said to Isaac before she revealed her existence and surprised the Unitologists, before that gunship ruined all of their plans with it's arrival, "Stross, do you know where the Marker is?"

"I... It's in the Government Sector!" Stross said, though that information really didn't help the duo, as they had no idea which sector of the Titan Station they were in at the moment and no idea where the Government Sector was, but that wouldn't stop them from looking for it, "The Government Sector... but we have to move now! Now! Now! Now! Because time is running out for me... or us."

Before either Isaac and Chrysalis could say anything else, and ask him what he meant by 'time is running out', Stross disconnected the connection and left them alone once more, only this time they had next to no idea where to go since they might be in unfamiliar territory.

"Stross! Where are you going? Shit!" Isaac demanded, speaking through the audio link this time around, since the video link had been deactivated, only to find that the audio link had been disconnected as well, to which he sighed as he turned his attention to his friend, "I guess this means that we'll have to search the area and see what we find, in terms of supplies and enemies, while we try to locate an exit."

"It sure seems that way," Chrysalis replied, to which she primed her Pulse Rifle and started walking away from where they had landed when they burst through the glass window earlier, as she wanted to get out of here before either of them were visited by their visions again, "Let's get to exploring and seeing what awaits us this time around."

The duo left the room that the Power Node had been located in, where they received Stross' call, before returning to the main hallway and made their way towards the door that was off to their left, though as they walked they ignored the Marker symbols that had been etched into the floor and the walls. On the other side of the door they found another laundry area, filled with more symbols, before they spotted two doors they could open this time around, which was a rarity for them since they started this adventure. Instead of heading forward, as that was likely the way they needed to go, the duo turned to the door on their right and walked out onto a walkway that reminded them of the walkway they had been standing on when they first spotted the gunship earlier. Off on their right rested the schematic for a Seeker Rifle, which they collected for later, but as they started to move away Chrysalis noticed some pieces of a divider climbing the wall below them and raced up to the level that they were standing on... to which she opened fire on them and tore them to pieces, before joining Isaac as he reentered the room they had just walked out of.

From there the duo approached the main door they had to walk through and found a number of bodies scattered everywhere, human bodies to be exact, though it quickly became apparent that there weren't any Necromorphs in the immediate area, as they would have charged at them the instant they heard the door open. Chrysalis didn't like that fact, as it meant that their enemies might be getting smarter as time passed, but at the same time she had to wonder about Queen Crudelis' words. Her mother had claimed that her 'pet' and 'minions' would take care of her and Isaac before she departed from the area, making her wonder if that meant that the Marker had not only pulled her mother out of her memories, but had also appointed her as leader of whatever operation it was trying to pull off. She didn't like the thought of her mother being in control of an army of monsters, so she seriously hoped that she was simply overthinking everything and that it was a simple coincidence that events happened like they did.

Isaac managed to find some ammunition, again for weapons they didn't have, before they opened the door at the end of the hallway and continued moving forward, though they were forced to stop in their tracks as Stross reconnected with them with a video link.

"Isaac! They were afraid of us after our sessions, I remember!" Stross said, referring to what Chrysalis had seen over the last three years, as everyone but her had been called in for those 'sessions' that involved the machine that Wildfire kept her from using, "They took us to the machine. For our sessions. For the steps!"

"I don't remember any sessions." Isaac replied, as that was the truth since the effects of the drugs was still preventing him from recalling anything that happened over the last three years, despite what Chrysalis and the others had told him since this adventure started.

"You're lucky you don't remember." Stross stated, though his tone indicated that he wished he had Isaac's luck in that manner, making Chrysalis wonder what sort of horrors he and the other patients had suffered when they were forced into that damned machine, "When you do, He starts coming back."

"Who comes back?" Chrysalis asked, as she knew that there was a possibility that Stross might give them that information if it was someone, besides Isaac, asking the question, especially since she was interested in who this mysterious person was.

"Oh, look at you! You've grown up so much!" Stross said, though this time around both Isaac and Chrysalis could tell that he was in some sort of vision, just like they had suffered through after they left the area they had been held in for the last three years, "Where are you going?"

"Stross! Whoever's there, don't follow them!" Isaac stated, though that was instantly followed by the connection being terminated once more, to which both he and Chrysalis sighed as they thought about what they had learned this time around, "Well, this is only going to complicate things even more than they already area."

"Yeah, as if Necromorphs and Queen Crudelis weren't enough." Chrysalis said, keeping herself calm as she forced herself to say her mother's name, as she already dreaded their next meeting with the old queen, "Oh well, we had best get moving before our enemies find us."

Isaac nodded before the two of the quickly explored the area that they were in, finding no supplies and discovered that the only thing they could go was ride an elevator down to the level that it was connected to, or rather the only available level that it could bring them to. It didn't take them long to reach the level that they were heading to, though when they arrived they discovered that there was dead soldier resting against a wall with a message from Tiedemann playing, one that they decided to listen to. They learned that Tiedemann was ordering all the surviving squads to fall back to the Government Sector, the same place the Marker was in if they could believe what Stross told them, and that Operation Endgame was now in effect. Chrysalis didn't like the sound of that, nor did she like the fact that their enemy also said that contingencies were in place to deal with lost 'assets', likely the two of them when she thought about it... and Isaac definitely didn't like what they just heard.

After hearing that message the duo turned around the corner and walked out into the open area that they needed to traverse, though as they stepped out into the open they heard the familiar sound of a pregnant Necromorph ahead of them, where they spotted their foe walking out from it's hiding place. The duo remembered that attacking the stomach area was a bad idea, for this particular breed of Necromorph anyway, so Isaac lifted his Plasma Cutter and dismembered the creature's legs, dropping it to the floor. Once that had happened he approached it and blew off it's arms as well, killing the Necromorph and preventing it from birthing new enemies for them to fight, though as he did that Chrysalis turned around and opened fire on the pregnant foe that was coming up from behind, repeating the process before it had a chance to do whatever it was thinking about. Of course those weren't the only enemies in the immediate area, as the moment the two pregnant Necromorphs had been dealt with two leapers emerged from their hiding places and charged at the duo, who quickly opened fire as they backed up into the area that the first pregnant Necromorph had been hiding inside before their initial arrival.

After those two leapers died, however, four more emerged from wherever they were hiding and surged towards the duo, to which Isaac and Chrysalis held their ground as they opened fire on the leapers, who were slightly faster than they remembered, but their prior experience and Isaac's Stasis Module helped them survive the attack.

Before either of them opened the door that they needed to go through, if they could believe Isaac's indicator, they turned to the right and headed down to a store, where Isaac sold off what he didn't need and purchased some additional ammunition for the future, just to be sure he had enough. Chrysalis, on the other hand, spotted one last pregnant foe coming at them and dismembered it with her bone blades before it could get close them to, though she continued to remain on watch until Isaac was done with his transactions. The instant he was done she connected to the store and did the same thing that her friend did, as she wanted to be ready for anything that the Marker, Tiedemann, or the Unitologists threw at them in the future. When she was done with the store she regrouped with Isaac as he made his way to the door that was on the other end of the hallway they were in, where Chrysalis noticed that the door was supposed to take them to the Public Areas and the Transport Hub.

When they opened the door they found some sort of organic vent that was near a wall, though for some reason a nearby broom fell onto it and the organic stuff exploded, revealing that they had yet another obstacle to avoid, one that could be triggered by something touching it... and likely getting too close to where the organic stuff was located.

As they turned towards the tunnel they would have to walk through they noticed that the broom was likely only going to survive one more explosion, to which Isaac picked it up with his Kinesis and hurled it at another cyst, Chrysalis' name for the corrupted organs that fired off a single bomb when they were triggered. From what they could tell there was a number of cysts in the tunnel they had to walk through, though with the broom obliterated from the second explosion they had to improvise. Fortunately there happened to be a dead soldier nearby and the duo used the corpse to set off as many cysts as they could, pretty much obliterating the corpse before they reached the end of the tunnel, though that also meant it wouldn't become a Necromorph if an infector had been in the area. As they cleared out the last cyst, however, a leaper tried to surprise them, only to find itself dismembered as both Isaac and Chrysalis opened fire on it, pretty much ending it's existence in the flash of an eye.

Once that was gone they approached the Bench that was in front of them and made sure to use their Power Nodes for additional upgrades for their individual weapons, though Chrysalis did spare one of her nodes so she could unlock the door to their left, where she recovered a few bits of ammunition, a few med packs, and two semiconductors, a bronze one and a ruby one.

The moment they were done with the Bench they walked through the door that would take them to the Hyperion Hall Apartments, where the duo instantly had to walk by a few floating corpses as they entered a Zero-G area, which meant that something important had been busted before their arrival. As they walked forward they discovered that there was a large fire pretty much raging with no systems trying to stop it at all, which was the moment a computerized voice told them that there was a fire suppression system malfunction. From what she heard Chrysalis guessed that they needed to divert the flow of oxygen to this area to cut off the flames, which was why they were lucky to have an oxygen tank equipped on both of their suits. Isaac immediately got to work as he and Chrysalis kicked off the floor, as he started moving around the area they were in and used his Kinesis Module to remove the power boxes from where they were located, as well as the covers that were keeping them in place. Chrysalis mostly followed after him and kept her eyes open for enemies, since there was no telling when more Necromorphs would show up, but it seemed to be uneventful as Isaac pulled out the third box and let it float through the air... to which the oxygen stopped and the flames were smothered almost immediately.

Once the flames had been taken out Isaac replaced two of the three power boxes, restoring oxygen to the area, before carrying the third one over to the path that his indicator was pointing towards, where Chrysalis followed after him and short down the lurkers that were waiting to ambush them... allowing the duo to walk through after door, after connecting to the floor once more, and insert the power box into one that powered an elevator, restoring the power to it so they could move on. The elevator happened to have a puker waiting inside it, something that both Isaac and Chrysalis dismembered and destroyed before it could do anything to them, before they pulled the dead Necromorph out of the elevator and took it's place as they headed down to their next destination. As the elevator moved Stross decided that now was a good time to contact them again, though this time around he did that by an audio link and not a video link, to which the duo sighed as the connection was made.

"Isaac, the steps. He wants me to follow the steps." Stross told them, causing the duo to look at each other in confusion, as neither of them knew exactly what he was referring to, though they listened in case it had any relevance to what they were going to do next, "Step one, crawl into the dark machine."

"Stross, calm down." Isaac replied, as he could tell that the man was about to break down in some manner, if his tone was anything to go by, but at the same time he still had to wonder who this 'He' was that Stross mentioned, while knowing that the answer would come to them in time, "He can't hurt you."

"He wants me to go into the dark machine, Isaac... but I can't go." Stross said, though as he spoke Chrysalis had to wonder if this 'dark' machine was actually the very same machine that Foster had tried to make her enter when he was still trying to question her, "She's in there... she's waiting for me."

"Stross, listen to me. You need to keep moving." Isaac stated, as he knew that, if the last communications with the man were anything to go by, the soldiers would be upon him soon and that he needed to get somewhere safe before they found him again, "Can you get to the train? Can you do that?"

Instead of saying anything Stross disconnected the transmission and went back to whatever he had been doing before he tried to speak with Isaac, to which the duo sighed as they realized that the man was definitely going insane and there might not be anything they could do to help him. That was quickly followed by the elevator stopping and allowing them to exit through the door that was opposite of the one they entered through, where they found a Power Node resting in a wall box and a power tube keeping a door locked. With the node in hand Chrysalis smashed the power tube and unlocked the door, allowing her and Isaac to walk out into a cargo area that reminded them of the one where they found the Pulse Rifle schematic. As they walked down to the lower area and started to traverse it, however, they heard the sounds of the stalkers waiting around them and instantly fell back to a more defensible position, where the duo waited for their enemies to make the first move and fired at them when they charged at them.

It wasn't long before the stalkers were all dead at their feet, and hooves, before Isaac and Chrysalis moved to the other side of the cargo area, where they found another terminal for Isaac to hack into, where he started the process while Chrysalis defended him like usual... though a few moments went by before he was successful, allowing them to walk through the door that was to their right.

"Isaac?! He's gone." Stross spoke up, causing the duo to stop once more, inside the new area they had discovered, but at the same time they were getting tired of this, as they weren't making the type of progress they would have been making if they weren't constantly being interrupted by someone, "Listen, the steps can destroy the Marker. Step one, crawl into the dark machine. Step two, the screws go tight, all around..."

Before Isaac could even say that he didn't understand what Stross was talking about, and Chrysalis was planning on voicing the same opinion, Stross said that He was back and the connection was terminated again, leaving the duo to sigh as they walked up the ramp that was in front of them. Neither of them said anything as they reached the door at the end of the path and entered an area that had a ticket station for the trains, but they ignored that as they heard the sound of someone firing at something. As they emerged from the small room they had found themselves in they spotted some slashers climbing up to the level that they were standing on, though all of the Necromorphs were more interested in someone that was firing at them from the safety of a security wall. That fact, however, didn't stop Isaac and Chrysalis from rushing over to where the person was located so they could help them, but they quickly found out that the person was a lady, from the voice they overheard as they emerged from the room they had been standing in.

"Yeah, come on!" the lady taunted, clearly trying to get the Necromorphs excited, which seemed easy to do since the undead monsters were only interested in living creatures, of which she was a prime target for them, "You like this? The come and get it!"

As they rushed to help the lady, however, it appeared that she actually didn't need any assistance at all, because every Necromorph that tried to attack her ended up dying before it could reach the level that they were all standing on, even the leaper that wanted to attack Isaac and Chrysalis... though as they started to cross the bridge a bullet stopped them in their tracks, but they knew who it came from.

"Hey, watch it!" Isaac shouted, though at the same time he carefully put his weapon to the side and held up his hands for a moment, hoping that the lady would see that he and Chrysalis, who reluctantly followed his example, weren't enemies and were trying to survive like the lady was.

"You two stay back!" the lady replied, though Chrysalis knew it was a demand, one that she and Isaac were ready to follow if it meant that she wouldn't shoot at them anymore, especially since all of them just wanted to get off this station, or destroy the Marker, "You wanna talk, you do so from over there."

That was instantly followed by a video link appearing in front of them, where they came face to face with the lady they had originally planned on trying to help, only for her to prove that she didn't need any assistance at all, which made them happy that they weren't the only ones surviving the outbreak.

"And don't say that the two of you are here to help." the lady continued, picking up from where she had left off, though at the same time it made the duo a little uneasy with how easy it was for everyone to pick up their signatures and speak to them like this, "The last person who said that tried to kill me."

"Don't worry, we weren't planning on hurting you or anything," Isaac replied, to which he disengaged his helmet for a moment, just so the lady could see his face and know that he wasn't lying by observing his features, something that Chrysalis repeated moments later, "we were planning on killing those Necromorphs, but you showed us that you definitely didn't need help taking them out."

"Yeah, you got that right." the lady stated, though her tone was a little too hostile for both Isaac and Chrysalis' liking, but they couldn't blame her since they had literally made contact with her after some terrible things apparently happened to her, "If either of you even try to hurt me, you'll both wind up dead."

The moment her threat was made the lady disconnected the communication and went back to whatever she had been doing before the Necromorphs attacked her, which appeared to be her trying to hack into something, but since there wasn't much else for them to do at the moment Isaac and Chrysalis carefully walked over to where she was working, since they might receive a bullet in the process.

"Look, I think we got off to a bad start here." Isaac said, noticing that the lady really wasn't paying attention to them at the moment, though if she was he sure as hall couldn't see any movements that indicated that she was, "I'm Isaac Clarke, and this is my friend Chrysalis."

"...Ellie... Ellie Langford." the lady replied, though she waited a few seconds before doing so, while at the same time turning to look at the duo, likely so she could observe them while she finished her work, "What do the two of you want?"

"We're just trying to get to the Transport Hub." Chrysalis answered, as she knew that, from the brief look she got of Ellie's attire and attitude, their new acquaintance likely had no idea what was going on and had no idea what the Marker was, meaning that the less they told her the better it was for her, "We need to get to the Government Sector."

"What do you think we were trying to do?" Ellie asked, to which Isaac and Chrysalis noticed some dead bodies around her, people that had likely been defending the area while she worked and had been killed before she could complete her hack session on the elevator, though she surprised them by finishing it up right then and there, as the elevator door opened and she grabbed her tools.

"Maybe we can be of some assistance?" Isaac suggested, as he knew that he and Chrysalis could easily handle the hordes of enemies that were in front of them and their experience in this sort of situation would help keep Ellie alive until she decided to part ways, "Look, Chrysalis and I have been in this sort of situation before and we've got some experience in dealing with the Necromorphs that have infested the station... and besides, we've proven that working together benefits everyone in the long run."

"Not a chance." Ellie replied, to which she walked over to where Isaac and Chrysalis were standing, where Chrysalis noticed that she was carrying her own Plasma Cutter and kept her eyes on Ellie, in case she got second thoughts about allowing them to live, "You're little group dynamic might work for you, but for me other people are just a liability. Once I reach where I'm going I'll release the door lock so you two can use the elevator... but please, don't follow me."

"As you wish." Isaac said, as he knew that if they ticked Ellie off in some manner, while she still had the door lock under her control, they would never be able to move forward, not unless Chrysalis used her magic to break the metal door down once Ellie was gone.

Sure enough his choice of words seemed to make Ellie pause for a few seconds, as if she was actually reconsidering what she had told them already, before she sighed and walked into the elevator with her tools, where she closed the door and headed to whatever floor she had been trying to head to the entire time. Isaac and Chrysalis simply waited outside the metal door and waited for the lock to be released, though a few more moments ticked by before the door moved out of the way and the elevator door opened, revealing that Ellie was already going down her own path. The duo decided to explore the area a little bit, just to be absolutely sure that they didn't miss anything, to which they found the schematic for Pulse Rounds and little else. With that in hand they returned to the elevator and descended towards the level that they needed to head towards, where they wondered if Ellie had hacked into the elevator and set their course as she left the elevator... but, since they likely wouldn't know the answer, they pushed it to the back of their minds as they waited to see where they had to go through next.

When the elevator came to a stop they found themselves in a tunnel that had some cysts waiting for them, which they carefully removed with the various dead bodies that rested around them, though as they walked they realized that they were actually near the area where Chrysalis had bought the Pulse Rifle... only this time around the door they had walked through, after the purchase, was blocked off with some of that organic mess.

As the duo headed down the tunnel that was in front of them, and recognized the stores that were to their right, they found a slasher and a pregnant Necromorph waiting for them, which were quickly dispatched before they continued forward, while at the same time Chrysalis claimed a Power Node that was sitting out in the open. As they neared the end of the passage a pair of pukers tried their luck, only for Isaac and Chrysalis to snatch their acid projectiles with their Kinesis, or magic in Chrysalis' case, and flung it back at their owners, blowing the two creatures to bits and opening the way once more. When they approached the door to the Titan Station Elementary School two more pukers attacked them, only for them to meet the same fate as the previous group that attacked them, though before they started moving Isaac decided to wait and see if any more enemies wanted a piece of them. Chrysalis stood beside him and noticed that there weren't any additional enemies heading their way, to which they both sighed before they opened the door to the Elementary School and walked through to the other side.

At first the school appeared to be almost normal, save for some of the blood that was inside a nearby fountain, but the duo was able to ignore that as they kept moving, since there was no telling what awaited them inside this area, until they came to a stop when they found something disturbing. They found a lady standing near the back of a room, one they could observe thanks to the window they were standing next to, and she was talking to the mutated child that was crawling along the ground as it moved towards her. A few seconds later the mad lady was kneeling on the floor and was holding the crawler, Chrysalis' name for the unfortunate mutated children, and patted it's head a few times, which was followed by the Necromorph exploding and killing the lady in an instant, while at the same time painting all of the walls around the room red with the lady's blood.

"That... that's horrible and disgusting." Chrysalis said, to which she turned away from the window and moved away from the blood filled room, as she didn't want to look at it any more than what was absolutely necessary, and the few seconds she had seen it was more than enough, "Nope, we're moving along and not looking back."

Isaac couldn't blame her, as he felt sick to his stomach as well when he considered what the Marker had done to the children that likely had been inside the school when the outbreak happened, which meant that they would have to be careful, least they encounter the same enemy in the near future. The duo carefully followed the path, listening as another computerized voice declared a fifteen minute recess, before they entered a daycare room that several crawlers entered the moment they were inside. Instead of wasting a ton of ammunition on these enemies, like they would do against everything else they fought, Isaac waited for all of them to be in the same area before using a Stasis charge to slow them all down, meaning one shot was enough to take them all out in an instant without hurting themselves in the process. They then entered the next room and found a few more crawlers hanging around the place, though this time Chrysalis simply snapped up a shield around them and levitated a bone blade around, using it to slice into the goo sacks that were the backs of the crawlers and blew them all apart... before she dispelled the shield and moved onward.

From there they exited the room they had been standing in and walked out into a new hallway, one that immediately had them duck into a new room that contained a text log, one that detailed the potential origins of how the outbreak in this area came to pass, before heading out through another door. When they walked outside the Marker attempted to mess with them for a moment, causing them both to stagger, though while Isaac had nothing happen to him, at the moment anyway, Chrysalis did some careful breathing as she heard her mother's laughter again, but thankfully that was the only thing that happened. After that event they opened the door on their left and entered what was apparently the gym area of the school, though with some things blocking their way they had to walk under the bleachers and contend with an empowered slasher, along with a few members of a pack. After that they climbed onto the stage itself, walked around so they could access a terminal that Isaac could hack into, and remained that way for a few seconds until he was done fiddling with the controls... which caused the stage props to disappear and the tables that had been blocking their way were pulled back into the floor in front of the stage.

The only downside to that was the fact that the remaining members of the pack and a large number of crawlers started charging at the stage, but both Isaac and Chrysalis stood near the edge of the stage and opened fire on the foes that were coming their way, using the crawlers' explosive backs to their advantage whenever possible.

When the short battle was over, and the duo discovered that an infector had been in the group without them even knowing about it, they headed towards the door that was opposite the one they entered through, where they entered an area that was a mirror of where they entered the school. The reason they knew it was a mirror image was because the room they walked by wasn't covered in blood and they could enter the room, where they found a text log that detailed that the kids had, indeed, started feeling the effects of the Marker. They also found the schematic for the Flamethrower nearby as well, something that they collected for when they reached the next store, before they moved out of that room and walked into a new room, one that contained a playground of sorts. In there they found a Power Node and little else, though when they approached the elevator they were seized by the Marker once more, where Isaac spent a few moments speaking to 'Nicole' once more... while Chrysalis, on the other hand, shut her eyes as another memory, where her mother was beating her over one of her many 'failures', but this time there was something off about the memory.

Despite how painful the phantom pain of the memory was, as the beating had broken several of her bones in the process and required some healing before the Queen could do so again, there was a blank spot in the memory, as if there had been someone else present during the beating... someone that she couldn't remember for some odd reason, though she paid it little attention as she came back to reality. Once the duo were calm and collected, and their visions had gone away, they entered the elevator and headed up to the level that the elevator was connected to, though at that happened their video links became active as Ellie appeared in front of them... and she was pointing her weapon at Stross.

"Isaac, Chrysalis, it's Ellie." Ellie said, though she was repeating her name in the off chance that they had forgotten about her, something that wasn't likely going to happen any time soon, "I've found someone... another survivor. He says he knows you, or rather he knows you, Isaac, since he makes no mention of Chrysalis... Hey, hold still!"

"Yeah, we know him." Isaac replied, not knowing exactly how much they wanted to tell Ellie at the moment, since this wasn't the sort of thing that she should be involved in, "His name is Stross. I know he can be twitchy, we all are considering what's happening on the station, but we need him to help us stop this madness."

"Shit Isaac." Ellie stated, as while part of her clearly didn't believe that Stross was important in any way possible, regardless of what they told her, there was a part of her that wanted this entire event to be over and that part appeared to win out in the end, "Alright, I'll march him to the transport hub and hand him over to you, but if he does anything stupid, and I mean ANYTHING, I'll shoot him."

The moment Ellie was done speaking the video link was disconnected and the elevator came to a stop, allowing the duo to walk out of the elevator and explore the tunnel that they had been connected to, though at the same time they found a decent sized hole in the wall and heard a roar that reminded them of a brute. When they walked out of the tunnel they were in another video link appeared as they walked out, only for them to find that Ellie and Stross were on the level above them. The duo found it odd that they had basically ended up at the same place that Ellie had, despite the fact that she told them not to follow her, but at least Stross, and his understanding of the 'steps', was within their grasp, since they might be needing it soon.

"Well, this brings up bad memories." Ellie commented, looking around the area that they were in, while at the same time shrugging off whatever terrible memories had come back up to the surface, "I barely managed to escape this CEC facility this morning."

"Wait, you're CEC?" Isaac asked, though Chrysalis knew that he was interested in that fact, because he was an engineer with the same company, and technically she was since Daina had hacked into the system and added her own signature to the roster without raising any suspicions.

"Heavy Equipment Pilot, Class Four." Ellie proudly said, as Chrysalis guessed that the class of their profession was like a badge of honor or something, though she knew some ponies and changelings that were the same way, "You?"

"Engineer." Isaac replied, though he was equally proud of his accomplishments, despite the fact that it had brought him to the Ishimura and the Red Marker that had given him the information he knew, while at the same time Chrysalis picked up a schematic for the Vintage Elite Suit.

That was followed by the lights going off and casting them into the dark for a moment, where Chrysalis carefully called a ball of light into the area so she and Isaac could see what was around them, and draw the attention of whatever creature was in the area with them, as she was sure that there was one near them. Of course that was before the video link was claimed by someone else, where Isaac and Chrysalis, along with Ellie for that matter, got a look at Tiedemann, who had finally caught up with them despite their best efforts.

"Our three remaining runners; Clarke, Stross, and the infamous Chrysalis." Tiedemann said, though while he sounded happy to see them there was a smugness to his voice that Chrysalis hated, so much so that she wanted to punch him in the face a few times before ending his existence, "I knew it was only a matter of time until you reached the transit hub. You'll find the train inoperable. The public sector is already beyond acceptable recovery conditions and I cannot allow any of you to escape. Good-bye."

That was swiftly followed by a hole being punched into the level above them as a brute entered the area, before jumping down to the area that Isaac and Chrysalis were on, leaving some other Necromorphs to attack Ellie and Stross while the duo were busy. Chrysalis, acting fast, cast a few more glowing spheres into the air and gave the area some light so all of them could focus on their targets, instead of having to rely on having some light from their flashlights, before she and Isaac opened fire on the brute. The duo dodged the attack that was coming their way and fired upon the creature's back, aiming for the weaknesses like usual, but this time around the brute was more resistant to their attacks and it took a few more repetitions of the same thing before they got anywhere. When the first arm was removed that only made the brute even angrier, as it charged at them with a fury that was unlike the brutes from the Ishimura, because those ones had defended themselves after losing an arm... before they tore off the second arm and killed the brute, where they picked up the ruby semiconductor before moving out into the open area so they could see Ellie and Stross.

"Isaac, why the hell did Tiedemann turn off the power?" Ellie asked, though at this point the duo knew that she was bound to have questions for the two of them, especially since she was going to be confused over so many things, "What did the two of you do that pissed him off this much? And how in the hell did Chrysalis shoot out those balls of light?"

"Ellie... this might sound weird, but do you know what a Marker is?" Isaac inquired in kind, as he knew that if he could convince her that the Marker was real, and that it's abilities were real, she might understand why Tiedemann wanted them dead and why Stross was important.

"Yeah, the Unitologists on my crew wouldn't shut up about it." Ellie said, though at the same time Chrysalis was sort of happy to hear that information, as it meant that they could bypass some of the tale and get to the heart of the situation before she called them insane, "Why? Is it real?"

"Yes, those damned things are real." Isaac replied, though even as he considered what to say he knew that Chrysalis was looking out for any additional enemies that might attack them while they were talking, "Tiedemann made one from patterns and codes that were stored inside our heads... mine and Stross' to be exact. Everything that had been happening on this station is because of the Marker that he made. Chrysalis and I are heading to where the Marker is located so we can destroy it, and Stross is the one that knows how to do that."

"Isaac, Chrysalis... you are some strange people." Ellie said, though while part of her looked like she didn't believe Isaac, the other couldn't fault the reality of their situation and knew exactly what she needed to do, "But, since we're going to suffocate, I guess we might as well work together."

"The our first order of business is restoring the power," Isaac stated, though he was happy that Ellie was willing to help them out in this situation, especially since she originally told them that she wanted nothing to do with a group of people since she didn't trust other people, "without it we have no air and no train. The Sprawl's got to have some back-up batteries somewhere."

"Yes, the solar arrays up there!" Ellie said, though her tone told Chrysalis that she and Isaac would likely be heading outside the moment they found the elevator to leave the building, "But they've been mothballed for years."

"Well, Chrysalis and I will head up there." Isaac replied, to which Chrysalis nodded her head, as she was eager to move on since standing still meant that her mother might find them and try to torture her again, "We'll see if we can't start them up and restore some power to the train."

"You'll need someone to open the connector panels." Ellie commented, to which she smiled at them for a couple of seconds, indicating that she knew something that the duo didn't know at that moment, "I can do that."

Isaac nodded as the connection was terminated, where he and Chrysalis watched as Ellie lead Stross away from the area that they were standing in, before they headed out and searched for the path that would take them to the solar arrays so they could restore power to the train. At the same time, however, Chrysalis wondered what the blank spot in her memories was, but she was sure that time would give her the answer... even if, when she got the answer, she wished that it had never been given to her.