//------------------------------//
// Tau Volantis: Reunion 
// Story: Dead Space: Deep Space Terror 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

As Chrysalis and Carver started to open the large door that was in front of them, so they could begin their journey to find what was waiting at the coordinates they had been given, Isaac spotted something nearby and found what he called a 'Tesla Core', something that would be useful in crafting new weapons once they found a bench. Chrysalis wasn't sure that such a thing was entirely necessary, since they had done just fine with the weapons at their disposal, but since they might have found the place they were looking for she guessed that Isaac could tinker with his weapon, if a Bench even existed on the Roanoke. Once he rejoined his companions they opened the door and entered the hallway that was in front of them, where they discovered a large number of metallic containers, which looked an awful lot like coffins, resting on both sides of them, though all that did was cause Isaac and Chrysalis to remember what they had seen on the Ishimura and the Titan Station... meaning that it was only a matter of time until they encountered the Necromorphs that the crew had become.

"Coffins everywhere... that's never a good sign," Isaac commented, to which Chrysalis nodded her head, indicating that they were thinking the same thing as they primed their weapons, causing Carver to glance over at them for a moment before he did the same thing.

"Especially since these were executions," Carver added, causing the duo to turn towards him as he pointed at one part of the wall that he happened to be staring at, where they found him staring at some ancient bloodstains that had been left after whatever happened on the Roanoke, "the bloodstains are at the height a head would be at."

"I don't think the insanity of the Marker even touched these ships," Chrysalis said, because if these people had been executed that meant that someone intended for this to happen, to prevent something from leaving this area, which meant that they needed to get down to the planet as fast as possible, "Come on, let's get moving and find out whats waiting at those coordinates."

As the trio moved forward they discovered that they weren't actually inside a hallway, rather it was a smaller area before the larger one that was in front of them, where Chrysalis spied a Bench nearby, as well as a power cell receptacle that was missing it's power cell.

"It's a dead end." Isaac commented, staring at the large door that was across from the one they used to enter this area, as he could already tell what was going on the moment he laid eyes on the door, "It appears that someone shut a bulkhead for a quarantine... that's also not good news."

"Can we cut through it?" Norton asked, revealing that he was partly listening to what Isaac and his companions were saying, while at the same time working on the sealed room Rosen and Locke were locked inside.

"No, it's too thick for us to do that." Isaac replied, knowing that if he asked Chrysalis might be able to use her magic in some manner to open a hole for them to use, but at the same time he knew a much easier way for them to open the door, without destroying it, "But we might be able to get it to cycle open if we power it back up."

Fortunately it wasn't too hard to find the power cell that went into the receptacle, as it was resting near the Bench, to which Isaac smiled as he picked it up with his Kinesis Module and carefully inserted it into the waiting slot, which did exactly what he had been thinking it would... and, as an added bonus, the Bench powered up as well.

"That did it." Isaac stated, knowing that Norton was going to like that bit of news, while at the same time he and Carver walked over to the Bench for a moment as Chrysalis faced the door they could now open, intending to protect them in case enemies suddenly attacked them, "And we're in luck, because there happened to be a Bench on the same circuit."

"...Bench?" Norton asked, clearly having no idea what that meant, but at the same time he said nothing else about what Isaac was talking about, as he figured that Isaac would explain everything to him anyway.

"It's a place where we can upgrade our weapons," Isaac explained, though at the same time he glanced around the area that they were in and nodded his head for a moment, as he could see potential already, "With all of the parts that are laying around here, I'm willing to bet that Carver and I can 'make' some better weapons, better than what we're currently using at the moment."

"Smart thinking." Norton commented, though that was when the audio link was disconnected as he continued work on freeing Rosen and Locke, leaving Isaac and Carver to see if there was anything they could do with the supplies that were around them at the moment.

While the two of them worked on following the tutorial that was in front of them, however, Carver mauled something over in his mind and glanced back at Chrysalis once or twice while he did so, before finally focusing on what he was doing as he asked his question.

"Why isn't Chrysalis watching this tutorial as well?" Carver asked, though if Chrysalis heard him he didn't know, as she seemed really focused on the door and what might rest behind it, before he remembered what her weapon was, "Surely she can find something to use to upgrade her Pulse Rifle."

"Yeah, her fully upgrade Pulse Rifle." Isaac said, as he knew that, before they confronted her mother back in the Titan Station, Chrysalis had spent a great deal of credits to purchase the necessary Power Nodes to upgrade every aspect of her favorite weapon, and he was sure that she wouldn't change it at all, "She's fond of that Pulse Rifle, so good luck trying to convince her to make a new weapon or upgrade it... and besides, if she runs out of bullets, or grows tired of it, she'll either switch to those bone blades of hers or start hurling magic at her targets. The moment she deems that weapon useless you'll see a very sudden and rapid change in how she fights, and the power she brings to bare against our foes."

Chrysalis, despite not paying attention to Isaac and Carver for the most part, knew what her friend was referring to, he was talking about her powers, the ones she had unlocked back when they were attacking the Titan Marker, and how dangerous she could be if she entered that state. The monster she had become could easily decimate, if not entirely destroy, the Roanoke and any of the other ships that were lingering above the atmosphere, before heading down to the planet to tear it apart. She was still terrified of it, because she couldn't control her own powers, and feared what might happen if she was forced to become that monster again, but at the same time she still said nothing about this to Isaac, because she didn't want to worry him at all. With everything that was going on she didn't want him to know that she couldn't actually use that power without the fear of losing herself in the process, especially since she had been so emotional she she accessed it in the first place.

All of this went through her head as she waited for Isaac and Carver to finish up at the Bench, though once they were done, and the Bench returned to it's normal state, she snapped back to reality and prepared herself... to which the three of them opened the door that was in front of them and delved deeper into the Roanoke. What they discovered on the other side of the door was another door that manually needed to be opened by their Kinesis Module, followed by another door of that kind, before they found a new enemy leaning from the ceiling. Chrysalis, on the other hand, noticed that the enemy was a slasher the instant it hit the ground, though at the same time they noticed that more of them further behind the first one. As such the three of them opened fire on the slashers that were coming their way, dismembering them before they could even reach the door that they were standing in front of, though fortunately Isaac and Chrysalis' experience in this situation was useful in dealing with them... but once the group of slashers was taken care of, and no more were coming at the moment, they paused for a moment.

"Son of a..." Isaac said, as he and Chrysalis had been expecting this, though Carver growled as they all restocked their ammunition for a few seconds, before he opened an audio link, "hey guys, we're in trouble."

"What... what is it?" Norton asked, though his tone indicated that he didn't like any bad news, even though he also seemed to know that this sort of thing was going to be common in the near future, "What's going on?"

"We just got jumped by what's left of the crew," Chrysalis replied, while at the same time knowing that they needed to clarify what they were talking about, especially since Norton and the others weren't used to this sort of situation, "or, more accurately, the reanimated remains of the crew... also known as Necromorphs."

"Wha..." Norton started to say, though when he comprehended the second part of her statement he understood what she was talking about, to which he sighed as he realized that they were in trouble, "Okay, so what do we do?"

"You keep your weapons ready and stay the hell away from the ventilation shafts." Isaac explained, to which he and his group did the same thing, especially since they had no idea what sort of enemies were waiting for them in the rest of the Roanoke, "And, if any of them get close to you, you need to shoot at their limbs... it's the quickest way to kill them. You catch all of that?"

"Yeah... yeah, I got it!" Norton snapped, which Chrysalis thought was unnecessary, especially since the only time Isaac had taken command away from him had been back on the Eudora, so they could all escape with their lives, but instead of saying anything else he disconnected the link so he could focus on the sealed room.

As the connection was cut off Isaac, Chrysalis, and Carver continued down the hallway that they were in and looted the various walk boxes and lockers that they discovered, though in addition to finding some universal ammunition they also discovered some new supplies that both Isaac and Chrysalis hadn't seen in their prior adventures. Regardless of that fact Chrysalis insisted that they pick them up, so that way they could maybe upgrade things or craft supplies if they really needed something, which Isaac agreed with. From there the trio walked through the nearby doorway and entered what appeared to be a theater or meeting room of some kind, one where they had to deal with a pair of slashers that freed themselves from their resting places. After those two were taken care of the trio walked over to the other side of the room, opened the door that was in front of them, and headed into another hallway, where they had to contend with another small group of slashers... though once those were taken care of Isaac opened a door on the left side of the hallway and found a ladder that would help them out.

As Carver climbed down first, to be absolutely sure that the path was clear for them, Isaac noticed that the audio link was beeping, to which he pressed the button and let it come through, as he figured that Norton had news regarding Locke and Rosen.

"They're coming out of the woodwork!" Norton said, where Isaac, Chrysalis, and Carver heard the sound of gunfire on the other side of the audio link, indicating that the Necromorphs were attacking the others at that very moment, "Isaac, where the hell are you?"

"We're almost at the crossover tube." Isaac replied, knowing that Norton and the others could best some two hundred year old Necromorphs, but that didn't stop him from wanting to move faster now that he, Chrysalis, and Carver knew the others were in danger.

As Norton and the others continued fighting the Necromorphs that were near them, and winning by the sounds of it despite them running low on ammunition, Isaac, Chrysalis, and Carver reached the lower part of the ladder and opened the door that was in front of them, where they entered an area that didn't have gravity. The moment they noticed that all three of them disengaged from the floor and floated into the air, where they started flying through the air and headed towards the other side of the tunnel, though as they did so a lurker burst out of a nearby vent. What Chrysalis found odd was that instead of the lurker being crafted from babies, like the last two outbreaks they had encountered, this one appeared to have been created from a dog's body, meaning that the Sovereign Colonies brought pets and no kids. Despite that fact Isaac and Chrysalis fired at the lurker and cleared the way forward, only for a few more of them to surge through the other vents and enter the tunnel.

Fortunately it didn't take them long to reach the other side of the tunnel, where they connected to the floor that was beneath them and opened the door that was in front of them, which in turn had them take turns climbing up the ladder that was inside the room... though at the top of the ladder they had to open a door that allowed them to enter what appeared to be the Roanoke's primary generator.

"Norton, you there?" Isaac asked, as he wanted to hear what the situation was for their companions, especially since they had been under attack the last time they had spoke to each other.

"Yeah, I'm here." Norton replied, though at the same time Isaac heard the sounds of Locke and Rosen lingering in the background, to which his group breathed a sigh of relief as their companions were just fine for now, "I think that's holding them for now..."

"The S.O.S. is coming from above our current location." Isaac stated, though while he spoke Chrysalis and Carver studied the area around them and looked out for any additional enemies that might come after them, "We just found the ship's primary generator, so if we can get the power going it should unlock the crossover tube for your group."

"What about you, Carver, and Chrysalis?" Norton asked, indicating that he might be worried about one of them, mainly Carver, but at the same time none of them put too much thought into it at the moment.

"I see an elevator that goes straight up to where the coordinates are located," Chrysalis said, to which Isaac and Carver spotted it as well, only discovering that it was currently offline at the moment, putting more pressure on them to power up the Roanoke, "Once we've got the power online we'll meet you at Ellie's coordinates."

Norton said nothing as the audio link was disconnected for the moment, to which Isaac and Carver, using their Kinesis Modules, approached one of the three turbines that were in the area and lowered part of it into place while the other turned the valve and started powering part of the generator up. Chrysalis, on the other hand, opened fire on the lurkers and slashers that tried to stop them from restoring power to the ship, allowing her friends to focus on their own task at the moment. As the first turbine went online more enemies started pouring into the area they were in, though Chrysalis focused on those that were behind her while Isaac and Carver moved to the next turbine and repeated the process that they had just gone through. When the second one came online the trio continued around the circular walkway that they were on and approached the third turbine, repeating the process once more and caused the third one to go online as well, to which they approached the main terminal... where Isaac and Carver stood in front of the pair of buttons, where they pressed them and the generator sparked to life, restoring power to the Roanoke.

After they did that Norton reconnected the link for a moment and said that it was time for them to rendezvous at the top of the spire, while he left Locke and Rosen behind for a few seconds, to which Isaac, Chrysalis, and Carver walked over to the elevator and climbed into it... where they simply stood there for a moment or two before they reached the top, which was when all three of them disengaged their helmets as they stepped out into the command center. A smile appeared on Chrysalis' face as she saw Ellie standing in the middle of the chamber they had come to, tending to a man and a woman that were slightly injured, but she was pleased with what happened next.

"Ellie!" Isaac said, though his tone was a happy one, because now he put all of his previous fears to rest the moment he laid eyes on her, though at the same time Ellie, hearing Isaac's voice, turned around and the happiest grin appeared on her face when she saw him.

"Isaac!" Ellie nearly shouted in return, though at the same time the two of them approached the other and wrapped their arms around each other, bringing a tear to Chrysalis' eye as she stared at the lovebirds for a moment, and her labeling of them was proven right when they shared a short kiss a few seconds later.

"I knew we'd find you, safe and sound." Isaac said, to which the two of them pulled back for a moment, but still stood near each other as he realized that while Ellie didn't have any weapons this time she was still a force to be reckoned with, especially if she was right about the situation, "I'm glad you aren't hurt at all."

"If you two lovebirds are done, we have an operation to complete." Norton commented, walking out of the doorway that connected to the crossover tube, though at the same time Chrysalis detected a fair amount of jealously in the captain's voice, enough to make her worry about him.

"Captain, is this them?" the wounded man asked, to which he and the lady that was helping him walk stared at Isaac and Chrysalis for a moment, letting them know that he was referring to them, while at the same time his tone revealed that he was happy to see them.

"Yeah, it is." Norton replied, his tone shifting towards anger for the briefest of seconds before it disappeared, but Chrysalis was smarter than Norton believed she was and knew that he might be a liability, to which she decided to watch him and see what happened next, "Buckell, Santos, allow me to introduce Isaac Clarke and Chrysalis, our newly recruited experts on the Markers and, more importantly, Marker Killers. Isaac, Chrysalis, these are Austin Buckell and Jennifer Santos, members of the Marker research team that are dedicated to stopping the Markers and what they create."

"If it is true that you can decipher the Marker script, this mission might have a chance." Santos said, referring to the script that was etched into the Markers and used by the Unitologists, while at the same time revealing that Ellie had informed them about something that Isaac picked up on after destroying the Titan Marker.

"Isaac, Chrysalis, thanks for coming so quickly." Ellie said, knowing that the two of them would have preferred to remain hidden, but her discovery demanded that she contact them immediately and get them away from the colony before it's Marker was unleashed... though she could tell that she must have sent the message in the nick of time.

"You gave Norton and Carver the code, which they performed perfectly," Chrysalis commented, to which her smile remained on her face, even though she knew that there was more to the situation than what they currently knew, "as such we came here as fast as we could, especially since Danik unleashed the colony's Marker. So, what are we up to this time?"

"It's time to stop the Markers, once and for all." Ellie replied, voicing something that everyone agreed on, though this time there was so much more meaning behind her words, especially when she considered the planet that they were currently floating above, "The trail ends at the Admiral's quarters, where she's apparently written Marker Scrawl all over the walls. The key to stopping the Markers is in there, I know it... and we simply cannot leave without knowing what she wrote on the walls."

"Then Chrysalis, Carver, and I will go see what it says." Isaac stated, as he knew that, as the only person that could actually read the Marker script, it was up to him to figure out what the Admiral wrote all those years ago, "You and Norton should get the others to a safe spot and search for anything else we might be able to use in the meantime... and Ellie, please stay safe."

"I always do, don't I?" Ellie said, though before she and the others left she put one last kiss on Isaac's cheek before helping Norton assist Santos and Buckell in leaving the area, before the door Norton entered through closed once her group was on the other side.

"Come on Isaac, let's get moving." Chrysalis spoke up, to which she and her friends engaged their helmets, as they had the feeling that they were going to want them up when they went back down to the generator room.

Before they left the command center Isaac and Norton salvaged everything that they could, as in spare parts, med kits, and any useful parts that would help them create better weapons in the future, before they returned to the elevator and rode it back down to the generator room. As they did so something shook the shaft they were in and caused them to raise their weapons, though when the elevator stopped and the door opened Chrysalis found some sort of creature, one that used massive tentacles, was latched all over the room and they couldn't see the main body. Unfortunately since the path on the left was blocked off, since part of the walkway had been smashed to bits, the trio had to head to the right, where they opened fire on the yellow weakness areas that the smaller tentacles had while trying to come up with a way around the larger ones. it was Chrysalis who came up with the plan, as she had Isaac and Carver repeat the actions they went through when they were powering the area up, so she guarded them while they did that... to which the surge of power caused the tentacle in front of them to loosen and retreat while the creature roared in pain.

Chrysalis really hated these tentacle monsters, as they always went after her whenever they tried to grab one of them, and she seriously considered unleashing the monster on them for a few seconds to clear the way in record time, but then she calmed herself and knew that if such a thing were to happen the entire Roanoke, not to mention her friends, would be consumed in the destruction... so she fought off the lurkers, fodders, and leapers that wanted them dead with her Pulse Rifle while Isaac and Carver cleared the path in front of them.

Fortunately it didn't take them very long to reach the door that lead into this chamber, though they were quick to close it and climb down the ladder that was on the other side, as they didn't want the creature to suddenly show itself before they could leave the area. When they entered the tunnel they had flown through earlier all three of them found that the two fan sections were spinning again, a result of turning the power back on, though neither Isaac or Chrysalis were worried about that. The reason being was because it was a simple matter for Isaac to loose a Stasis charge at the first one, and instructed Carver to do the same with the second one, before they flew through the openings they had created and touched down on the other side of the tunnel. From there they had to climb back up the first ladder they climbed down to get into the tunnel in the first place and returned to the hallway they had been walking through a few minutes ago, where they spotted a terminal in front of them that was now powered up... though as they approached it, and found that it required two people to operate, Chrysalis spun around and dismembered the slasher that was trying to sneak up on the three of them.

Isaac and Carver went to work on the terminal, where Isaac recognized the design and informed Carver of how to help him bypass the security, before the two of them managed to override the security... though they waited for Chrysalis to finish off the last slasher, as more had come towards them and she dismembered them, before they accessed the elevator and rode it down to the Admiral's quarters. Once the elevator came to a stop Isaac and Chrysalis walked out into the short hallway and turned to their left, where they found a room that definitely had Marker markings on one of the walls, indicating that they were in the right place, which was further proven by the rotting corpse in front of them. As the two of them walked forward they disengaged their helmets as Isaac focused on the wall, where he started to mumble to himself as he looked at the writing the Admiral had left behind.

"Hey Ellie, it Chrysalis," Chrysalis said, opening an audio link with the other group, knowing that some of them were going to like the news that she had to share with them, "We've reached the Admiral's quarters and Isaac's started to decipher what the Admiral left behind."

"And? What does it say?" Ellie asked, though it was at that very moment that Carver, who waved his hands in front of Isaac's face and got no reaction, shook him and snapped Isaac back to reality, who insisted that everything was just fine before staring at the writing again.

"Everything's fine." Isaac said, to which Carver backed off and let him get back to work, though this time he didn't stare off into space like the last time he stared at the writing, where he started to decipher what the writing meant as he focused on the central drawing, "Oh my god... Ellie, the Admiral was obsessed with making a key..."

"A key to what?" Ellie and Carver asked at the same time, though that allowed Isaac to chuckle, as it was uncommon when people did that and he found it somewhat funny, before he truly focused on what was in front of him.

"Some sort of alien device... a machine of some kind." Isaac replied, where his mind rapidly worked as he translated what was in front of him and tried to make sense of what he was reading, before he found something that was interesting and related to what they were looking for, "It seems that the Admiral believed that the machine controlled the Markers... one that she wanted to turn off. She wrote 'turn it off' over and over again, like a mantra."

"This is exactly what we've been looking for!" Ellie exclaimed, revealing that she was excited for the news, exactly like Isaac thought she would, before she fully understood the situation that they now found themselves in, "Isaac, Chrysalis, this isn't some random planet... they found the source! They found the Marker home world!"

"You have got to be shitting me." Carver said, as he didn't believe that the Sovereign Colonies could have found this place, the source of the Markers, and not turned them off when they had the chance, though at the same time Chrysalis knew that there was something fishy about the way 'turn it off' was repeated over and over again.

"Alright, let's regroup in the control room," Norton stated, referring to the area near the docking chamber that he had brought the sealed room into, indicating that it was time for them to come to an agreement on something, "we can plan our next move from there."

Isaac and Chrysalis nodded for a moment, as did Carver, though as the audio link was disconnected the duo stared out at the icy planet that was beneath them, understanding that they had found the one place they had been hoping to find the moment Ellie started investigating the Markers... which meant that it was time for them to stop the Markers in their tracks and deny the Unitologists their Convergence, and save whoever was still alive.