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

Isaac, Chrysalis, and Carver stood still for a few moments as the tram brought them to the AFT section of the Terra Nova, where the shuttle was supposed to be located, though as they arrived a computerized voice informed them that this was Engineering and Repair, meaning that they had to be in the right place. The screen that was in front of them, identical to the ones they had seen in the other two parts of the ship, was cracked and seemed to be shorting out, but since they didn't need it for anything the trio walked around it so they could investigate the area. They quickly discovered that while this station seemed to mimic the one from the Conning Tower, in it's layout, there wasn't a power terminal for them to hack into, thus allowing them to enter the control room that was behind the door on the left side of the room. They found a few supplies laying about the room, just a few bits of ammunition and some more items to improve armor, before all three of them headed over to the other door and opened it... where they discovered that it was an elevator, which was also identical to the station in Conning Tower.

As they started to climb into the elevator, however, one of the nearby vents burst as another Regenerator dropped into the station, though Chrysalis decided not to play around and wove her magic into another sphere of energy, to which she ducked the incoming attack and slammed the sphere into the Regenerator's chest. She then knocked it backwards with a quick burst of her magic and watched as the creature howled in pain for a few seconds as the cracks started to appear in it's body, before it detonated and was reduced to ash. With that done she returned to the elevator and joined her companions, to which Isaac tapped the level that they were supposed to be heading to and the door closed as the elevator began it's descent towards the floor the shuttle had to be on.

"I know that you are on our side," Carver commented, as he had seen what Chrysalis had done to the first two Regenerators they had encountered, back near the first station they had used to get aboard the tram, and what she did to this one only solidified his thoughts, "but what you do with that... power of yours... scares the hell out of me."

"Trust me Carver, you haven't see anything yet." Isaac said, as he knew that there were a number of other things that Chrysalis could do with her magic, based on what he saw back when they investigated what happened to the Ishimura and when they were trying to escape from the Titan Station, especially if she took on her empowered state.

"Part of me doesn't want to see what else she can do," Carver stated, indicating that everything Chrysalis had done, in the time he knew her, went against everything he knew, and yet there was something in his voice that suggested that he was okay with that, "and the other part... well, that part's curious about what else she might show us."

Chrysalis, on the other hand, remained silent as the elevator moved, as she knew that Isaac was referring to the form she had taken on back when she was fighting her mother, the same form that she feared to take on again since she was aware that she could accidentally kill her friends. She still couldn't bring herself to tell Isaac that the form he was talking about, and might need later on, was one she wold likely never take again unless her mind shattered again, but the chances of that happening were slim to none. She had destroyed her mother, erased the form that the Marker had given her, and her sister was making sure that whatever remained of Crudelis' spirit never surfaced again, which was good news since they were a little busy at the moment.

Fortunately she didn't have to dwell on those thoughts were long, as the elevator finally reached the level that they were heading towards and opened up so they could walk out into the area that the shuttle was located in... though as the three of them walked out, and laid eyes on the shuttle, they knew that someone was laughing at them.

"Hey guys, we found the Crozier," Isaac said, letting Ellie and the others know that they had succeeded in their mission and were now staring at the vehicle that would allow them to head down to the planet's surface, and the number of things that were wrong with it, "and it's... well, it's a piece of shit. There's no way I can pressurize the cabin."

"Then we'll have to remote pilot it back to the Roanoke's repair bay." Buckell replied, though his tone indicated that, in the off chance that something like this had actually happened, he and the others had prepared themselves to do some work on the shuttle, to make it space worthy again.

"To do that we'll need a remote relay." Isaac stated, knowing exactly what Buckell was thinking at the moment, and he had to admit that it was a great plan, while at the same time he cast his eyes around the rest of the chamber that he and the others had walked into, "Give us a few minutes to explore the Terra Nova's repair bay and I might be able to find the parts needed to build one. Then it's a simple matter of attaching it to the hull and letting you guys work your magic."

The moment the audio link was disconnected the trio walked over to the cargo lift, one that could take them from one side of the chamber to the other side, and apparently stop in front of the hull of the Crozier, but instead of using that they activated the vertical cargo lift that was a few steps away and descended to the level below them. When they reached that level a number of Necromorphs started to pour into the area, mostly leapers and a few exploders, but the trio blasted them apart while they looked for the pieces of the remote relay that they needed to make. Fortunately Isaac was able to find one of them on the lowest part of the area that the were searching, though with that in hand they retreated back to the cargo lift and rode it to the level they had been on a few moments ago. From there they climbed into the other cargo lit and rode it over to the other side of the chamber, where all three of them fired at the Necromorphs that were gathering near the area that this docked at, allowing them to safely step off it once it stopped moving.

When they reached the other side of the chamber, and found that the Necromorphs were being silent, they used the cargo lift on that side to lower themselves to the area below them, where they just so happened to find the remaining two pieces they needed to build the remote relay. With all three of the parts in their possession they instantly headed back up to the Bench they had walked by and let Isaac fiddle with the parts for a few moments, until he was holding the object they needed to move forward. From there they returned to the cargo lift that went between the two sides of the room and let it carry them towards the hull of the Crozier, where Carver pulled up the hatch with his Kinesis Module before Isaac installed the remote relay. Once it was in place they closed the lid and moved back to the side where the Bench was located, as they all knew that there had to be something else they needed to do before the shuttle was ready to leave the Terra Nova.

"Hey, it worked!" Ellie said, though she knew that if Isaac had suggested the plan it was going to work, while the only person that might not have believed the plan was Norton, who remained silent, "I can see the Crozier's readouts. Hand on guys, I'm going to try and start her up... and hopefully it has some fuel inside it."

Isaac and Chrysalis looked at each other for a moment, as they both knew that Ellie was being too hopeful for a two hundred year old ship to still have some fuel inside it, especially when the crew at the time were getting ready to tear the entire thing apart.

"No good," Ellie said, where her voice indicating that she knew that his might have happened, but at the same time she was really hoping that fate would have been nice to them and given them a fueled ship, "it's out of fuel."

"Wait, there should be a refueling station on the upper floor." Buckell stated, which was great to know, as the moment he mentioned the station's existence the group glanced up and stopped the station he was talking about, but they remained silent as they listened to him, "Here, I'm sending you the coordinates."

"Okay, we'll head up there and refuel the Crozier." Chrysalis replied, letting a certain someone know that they were doing everything in their power to complete the mission and not deviate in any fashion this time around, "Then, once it has some fuel inside it, we can try starting it up again."

The instant after she said that the audio link was disconnected for now, to which the trio rode the cargo lift down to the level below them, where they found the last two parts of the remote relay, and found that the door they needed to walk through was off on their right. When they opened the door they discovered a small room that had a ladder, to which they took turns ascending the ladder until each of them reached the floor that it stopped at, though that brought them to a structure that allowed them to walk behind the Crozier. As they entered the area behind the Crozier the three of them discovered a few fodder Necromorphs decided to attack them, though as that happened the trio opened fire on their enemies and dismembered them before they could reach them. The three of them were more than able to take out the enemies that were coming their way and cleared out the area, to which they used the cargo lift that was near the ladder they used to reach this point and headed up to the level above them... which was the control room that they were looking for, with the refueling station standing just outside the room.

As they walked into the control room Isaac and Carver accessed the terminals that were in the middle of the room and watched as the refueling device moved into position above the Crozier, to which the three of them headed out through the other doorway and approached the terminal that would allow them to manipulate the device. As Isaac attached the nozzle, however, several fodders tried to attack them again, to which Chrysalis and Carver stood their ground and opened fire on the Necromorphs that were marching towards them. A few moments later the terminal indicated that the tank was full and the trio headed back towards the control room, where they discovered that the only way to detach the nozzle was to access the pair of terminals that allowed them to move the nozzle above the tank in the first place. The three of them watched as the nozzle moved out of the way, moving back to the position it had been in earlier, and they stood there for a few moments... before Isaac reopened the audio link so they could tell the others the news.

"Okay, the tank's full." Isaac said, knowing that there was the possibility that they would have noticed that from where they were stationed, but it was better to be safe than sorry, especially when this was the only shuttle left that they could use to get down to the planet, "Go ahead and try to start it again."

"That's more like it!" Ellie replied, her tone indicating that she was liking what she was seeing, which confirmed the group's thoughts, before she started fiddling with the controls on her end, "Okay, I'm initiating a test-fire of the shuttle's engines. You guys should find some cover, as this could get hot."

Sure enough the engine started and they could see that it was working just fine, which was great since Isaac was worried that something would have gone wrong, but when he noticed that the audio link was still open, and the tapping of keys was even greater than it had been earlier, he knew that something had happened.

"That cheap bloody ancient techno... oh, oh god..." Ellie commented, at first sounding mad over something that the crew had done before they were all killed, but then that turned to terror as something happened on her end, "Um, guys, I think I just started the launch sequence... and I have no idea how to stop it!"

"You WHAT?!" Carver snapped, as he couldn't believe what he was hearing at the moment, especially since they were still in harms way at the moment, as those flames had the potential to cook them all and leave nothing behind.

"Look, just get out of that chamber before it bakes you all to a crisp." Ellie replied, where both Isaac and Chrysalis knew that she was concerned for their well being, though at the same time she stopped talking so they could get moving before the flames caught up with them.

The first thing the group did was use the cargo lift to get back down to the walkways they had been on a few minutes ago, though as the cargo lift came to a stop they found that the path they used to get over here was blocked off by flames and the only way forward was to head by the engines of the Crozier. Since they had no choice but to go by the engines they waited for one of them to stall, which was followed by the second one, and they raced across the walkway that was in front of the engines. At the same time they didn't fire at the Necromorphs that were in the area around them, as they either died due to standing in the flames or they were burned by the engines, but as they moved towards the other side of the room a Regenerator popped out of a vent and tried to attack them. Chrysalis, not wanting to mess with another one of these monsters, wrapped her magic around her spare bone blade, thrust it into the Regenerator's chest, and hurled it into the walked by the engines... where the combined power of her magic and the engines reduced it to ash, though at the same time she lost the blade as well, but she pushed that out of her mind as they moved into the small open room that was near the Regenerator.

Luck seemed to be on their side for the moment, as there was a ladder they could use to descend to the bottom portion of the side of the repair bay that they had entered through, though as the three of them climbed down to the level below them they discovered that a good portion of the area was on fire as well. As they headed towards the cargo lift, so they could leave, Chrysalis spotted yet another Regenerator marching through the flames to get at them, to which she growled and used her magic to yank over one of the axes that the fodder carried with them at all times. The instant the weapon was in her hand she empowered it with her magic and carved the Regenerator in half, before using her magic to reduce the two halves to ash so she could climb onto the cargo lift. Of course when they reached the upper level two more of the vents burst open, though while one was on fire, and they had to wait to cross when the flames died down, the one behind them had another Regenerator, making them wonder how many of these damned things there were... though at the same time Chrysalis held her ground as she hacked the creature to pieces and reduced it's body to ash, before she sighed and followed after her friends.

As they reached the elevator that allowed them to get down here they discovered that it was offline at the moment, to which their best course of action was to use the other cargo lift and travel to the front of the Crozier again, though as they did that they had to wonder what they were going to do next.

"The airlock door is stuck!" Ellie stated, though this time around the trio could tell that this was bad news, especially since they had just filled the Crozier with fuel and they had no idea what was resting near the repair bay, "If the shuttle launches before it opens..."

"Son of a bitch!" Isaac said, as he knew what might happen if they let something happen, to which he tapped the command terminal and had the cargo lift they were on head to the other side of the chamber that was opposite of the side they entered through, "We'll check the gears and see what's wrong with them."

As they reached the other side of the room, and headed towards the cargo lift that was next to the Bench, Chrysalis growled as one more Regenerator arrived through a vent in front of them, to which she repeated the process she used earlier against the others of it's kind and reduced it to ash after hacking it apart. Once the cargo lift arrived at the lower level they headed down the ramp on their left and approached a door that needed to be manually turned, like every other door in this ship, while Chrysalis turned around and dealt with a Regenerator that started marching down the path. She was growing tired of these things, because now they were just like every other Necromorph, save for the fact that only she could permanently kill them. The moment the door was open she finished off her target and followed her friends to the room that was in front of them, where they avoided the flames that came out of the walls and moved towards the back of the room... where an elevator was located, one that they used to head up to the area that the gears had to be in.

When they reached the floor that the elevator connected to they found a pair of gears in front of them, though as they wanted forward something flew by them and became wedged inside one of the gears, though it was something that Isaac sort of recognized.

"It appears that there's some military ordinance barrels wedged into the gears," Isaac said, speaking into the audio link, though this time he made sure that Chrysalis and Carver could hear him as well, just in case the noise in the area made it hard for them to hear him, "We're going to try and clear it."

"Explosives?!" Ellie exclaimed, understanding exactly what they were facing at the moment, to which her personal worry for two of them rose to the surface immediately, "Oh god... Isaac, Chrysalis, be careful."

Isaac, Chrysalis, and Carver headed to their immediate right and found two turrets waiting for them, to which Chrysalis stood behind them and tried to keep the rest of the military ordinance down, while at the same time Isaac and Carver used the turrets to destroy what was blocking the gears, as well as the number of Regenerators that happened to drop into the area between them and the gears. Fortunately it appeared that the turrets were strong enough to kill the Regenerators the instant they appeared, which meant that Chrysalis didn't have to deal with them, but the explosives proved a different challenge. Regardless of where they exploded the military ordinance dealt damage to the gears, which wore a pair of holes in the part of the ship behind it, before a set of them not only blew apart the gears, but the destruction pulled the three of them out into space... while at the same time they watched as the door opened and the Crozier safely launched, where it headed out of the Terra Nova and flew over to the Roanoke.

The three of them floated in the air for a moment and watched the Crozier fly off into the distance, though as that happened Chrysalis spotted the empowered axe she had been wielding, which now floated a good distance from where she was, and magically grabbed it... because right now it was her best hand held weapon until she decided to use her magic and nothing else.

"Isaac, you guys did it!" Ellie said, though at the same time she and the others cheered for their success, while Isaac and Chrysalis could hear that Norton wasn't very excited about what they had done, which was sure to get him another earful from Ellie later, "Okay guys, let's get the docking bay ready to receive the shuttle. Isaac, we'll see you, Chrysalis, and Carver when you guys get back."

The moment the audio link was disconnected the trio floated forward and headed towards the section of the Terra Nova that they had docked the Skip in, though as they did that they found a supply cache, like what they had looted on the Brusilov or inside the Conning Tower, resting in their way. As Isaac and Carver headed over to the rectangular container, to gather whatever was inside it, Chrysalis fired at the nest Necromorph that was resting nearby and the mines that happened to be floating in the area around them. Once the container had been stripped of everything that it contained, and Chrysalis was sure that she had killed everything that was in the area, the trio flew back towards the area that the Skip was resting in, as it was time for them to head back to the Roanoke and get the Crozier ready for departure. While they moved towards the docking area Isaac noticed that he had another message waiting for him, to which he reopened the audio link so he could see what was going on.

"I'm surprised that you guys were able to check out the Crozier so quickly." Isaac commented, as he was sure it would have taken them a few more minutes than when he, Chrysalis, and Carver had given them, but that only meant that there might be something bad with the shuttle.

"This thing needs more than just plating," Norton said, though his tone indicated that he wasn't too happy with what he had seen when the Crozier came to a stop outside the Roanoke, which was likely pissing him off and he was thinking about directing his anger towards them, "it's missing the port engine."

"There's a small wreck near the Greely," Ellie spoke up, causing the trio to remember the wreckage that was resting near the smaller research shuttle that Santos had asked them to visit, if they wanted to, and sort of recalled seeing what Ellie was referring to, "It could be a shuttle."

"We should check it out." Isaac said, because unless they were willing to take the time to tear apart one of the larger ships, or repurpose the entire research vessel into a flying ship, checking out the wreck that Ellie was talking about was the best thing they could do at the moment.

"Rosen! Locke! Suit up." Norton commanded, though that only made the others listen in silence, as one of two he listed was still wounded from the Eudora's explosion and their arrival on the Roanoke, but they said nothing as he gave them his orders, "You're on engine duty."

"But sir, my leg..." Rosen started to say, as even he knew that he really wasn't in the best shape to help anyone out at the moment, though when he didn't say anything else Isaac and Chrysalis, along with Carver, knew that Norton must have silenced him for a moment.

"I'm not asking you to do jumping jacks!" Norton stated, his tone indicating that he wasn't about to have anyone talking back to him at the moment, as if he believed that he was still in charge of the mission, especially when everyone else wanted to head down to the planet below them, "Now get moving."

"Hey Rosen," Isaac said, stopping the audio link from being disconnected for the moment, as he wanted the man to know that someone cared for his well being, even if his commander didn't seem to care anymore, "we'll meet you there."

"Whatever." Rosen replied, though that was followed by the audio link disconnecting, to which the trio sighed as Isaac and Carver entered the Skip and got it moving out of the station, with Chrysalis riding on top once more.

Thanks to the fact that Chrysalis had removed all the debris that was in the way of the Skip, in reality she moved them to the side so they didn't get hurt, neither Isaac or Carver had to worry about the Skip being damaged as they headed back over to the Greely, though when the Skip came to a stop the three of them gathered on the platform in front of the station and they started moving out into space. As they floated out into the space between them and the Greely, however, Chrysalis discovered the location of their waypoint and spotted the wreckage that Rosen was already working on, though the condition that it was in made her question if this was a good idea.

"Is that our engine?" Chrysalis asked, though while she opened the audio link up to Isaac and Carver she made sure that Rosen could hear her as well, as she wanted to be sure that this was what they had been told about, otherwise she was going to look for the real engine.

"Hey, you guys wanted an engine," Rosen replied, to which he stared at the group as they flew towards his location, before returning to what he had been doing before Chrysalis asked her question, "here you guys go."

"It'll do." Isaac said, as he could see why Chrysalis was worried about the engine, and he shared her feelings, but at the same time there wasn't much for them to use and this was the best they were going to get at the moment, so there wasn't much use in complaining about what was in front of them.

"It's shit... just like our 'plan'." Rosen snapped, indicating that he no longer cared about what they were doing, though since he couldn't leave this area on his own he was stuck with assisting them until they did what they came to do, destroy the Marker signal and stop Convergence.

"Are you always this helpful?" Isaac inquired, because Rosen's attitude was something they could do without at the moment, especially since Norton was the one who really wanted Isaac and Chrysalis to bend to his way of thinking and not assist Ellie in her quest.

"Hey, some of us just want to go home, alright?" Rosen stated, though that statement made Chrysalis think about something she hadn't thought about all that much, as she remembered what happened, and who she had seen, right before the events of the outbreak on the Titan Station, "Look, I've disconnected all the lines and service tubes, but hell if I know now to get it out of here."

"I'll take a look at it and figure it out." Isaac said, as he appeared to be the one that had the most knowledge about engines and other things like it at the moment, meaning they should just listen and assist him so they could get a move on before something else happened, "Go get your equipment together so we can tow it back to the repair bay."

As Rosen did that Isaac stared at the side of the wreck that the man was floating near and was surprised that he hadn't seen the way to get to the engine, as he raised his hand and started to use his Kinesis Module to remove the panels that happened to be in the way. After the panels had been removed he heard the sound of Chrysalis and Carver firing at some lurkers that were in the area, to which he focused on what he was doing and removed the locks that were keeping the engine tied to the wreckage it was in. The moment the three locks were taken care of, and he was sure that there was nothing else blocking the way, he latched onto the engine with his Kinesis and carefully extracted it from the wreckage, where he made sure that it was brought out to where Rosen was floating.

"You need any help getting the engine back to the Roanoke?" Isaac asked, not because he thought that Rosen couldn't handle transporting the engine to the Crozier, but because there were Necromorphs out here in space and he didn't want anything to happen to him.

"Clarke, I'm not an idiot." Rosen snapped, his anger apparent, though why he was angry at Isaac and the rest of them Chrysalis had no idea, as it was Norton he should be annoyed with since he had ordered the injured man to come out here in the first place, "I can handle this."

"I never said you couldn't handle this." Isaac said, though at the same time he waved his hand, indicating that he didn't want to get into a fight with Rosen at the moment, to which he allowed the man to start carrying the engine over to where the Crozier was resting, "Just be sure to lock the injectors down tight when you install it into the Crozier. I don't want them popping out in mid-flight."

Rosen grumbled something as he carted the engine off through space, heading over to the Roanoke, leaving Isaac, Chrysalis, and Carver to float there for a few seconds as they wondered what to do next, though that was before Chrysalis opened an audio link with the others to give them the good news.

"Okay, we've removed the engine from the wreckage and Rosen's bringing it over to the Roanoke," Chrysalis said, as she knew that the others would be happy to have that information, especially since they were likely getting tired of hanging out in space all the time, "Is that everything, or is there something else we need before we leave?"

"There is one more thing we need before we're ready to go," Buckell replied, confirming Chrysalis' thoughts on the fact that there happened to be something else they needed to do, which caused Isaac and Carver to listen as they waited to hear what that something was, "We're going to get tossed around like a midget at a circus if we try to navigate that atmosphere without a flight path."

"Can we use the flight recorders from the derelict ships?" Isaac inquired, as that seemed to be the fastest way for them to get exactly what they needed at the moment, unless the others were willing to wait for him to salvage a better one from one of the other ships.

"Yeah... we could reconstruct one of the routes they used!" Buckell said, his tone indicating that he was glad that Isaac had suggested doing something like that, meaning that he would have said something completely different and might have cost them time they might not have, "Look for some small satellites with four solar panels sticking out of them... and I think I saw some outside the Roanoke."

"Okay, we'll take a look and use whatever we find to make a flight path." Isaac said, to which the audio link was cut off for now and he flew back to the Skip's platform, with both Chrysalis and Carver following after him.

The three of them were happier than they had been earlier, as now they had one last thing they needed to do before the group headed down to Tau Volantis, and soon they could begin the search for the Marker signal so they could stop it and prevent Convergence from happening.