...Insertion of ERCC-1 graft complete
...Test subject shows increased signs of mutations in the frontal lobe and spinal cord through areas 2-7
...Synthesizing
...Done
The needles were pulled out of the mass of necrotic flesh in the protein vat and retracted back into the apparatus that held the machine in place. The man grinned in satisfaction. Soon, his patient would be ready to be set free and lead the glorious crusade for Mankind's ascension.
He gently put his hand on the glass, as if to reach out to his creation like God did to Adam. His child was truly magnificent. A born killer to rend the nonbelievers apart and destroy them. The man smiled wickedly. This was truly what God's work was about: uniting these petty, primitive primates and to make them whole, a part of a greater plan. No one, especially not these interlopers that had recently boarded, would stop the Convergence.
He brought up the recent security footage and gazed intently at the peculiar creature that had come onboard with the vessel's crew. The scientist inside had become madly excited at this discovery; the equine being would soon become his test subject to further advance the transformation while the worthless humans would be cast aside, consumed by the collective.
Everything would come together in time. All he needed was to be patient.
________________________________________
There was nothing but silence as the Kellion's crew contemplated Twilight's decision. Anxiousness grew in everyone's heart as they awaited the unicorn's verdict. Finally, she steadied herself and took a deep breath.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. "You're all right. I can't fight these things. I apologize for letting you face them alone."
"You have nothing to apologize for, Twilight," Kendra reassured her.
Her encouraging words made Twilight smile a bit before she cleared her mind, putting on her helmet to clear out the unpleasant smells. She mentally prepared herself for the trip back. It was like reading a book; only concentrating on the most important things.
You're going home, girl, Twilight thought to herself. Focus.
A tiny pinprick of light formed at the tip of her horn. She poured every ounce of magical energy she had could into it until it grew larger and brighter, eventually forcing the awed humans to shield their eyes. She pushed harder. She could feel realities twist apart by now, tendrils of energy licking at Twilight from her homeworld.
Come on, she beckoned to herself.
A faint sound reached the mare's ears now and grew louder, like a trickle of water steadily but slowly forming a river.
The mare grew nervous, a creeping chill snaking across her body. The echoes were close now. Whispers in the dark called out her name, almost beckoning her to join them in the shadows that now clouded her view. Everything was but a thick red mist in front of her, strange and alien symbols flashing out of the darkness.
Twilight... Twilight...
In an instant, Twilight panicked and broke the spell. Her vision went back to normal and she took a huge gulp of air after realizing she had been holding her breath the entire time. She had never experienced anything like that; whatever had stopped her wasn't natural.
A worried Isaac approached her. "What happened?"
"I- I can't do it..."
"What?"
"I can't do it... I can't complete the spell...” Her eyes began darting around franticly so as to try and see what had gone wrong. “This isn't supposed to be happening!"
Hammond could be heard sighing audibly for the other side, while the engineer rubbed his face. "Shit."
"But why? It worked before! I should be home right now!" A frantic Twilight paced around. Isaac simply stopped her by putting a hand on her back.
"Twi, calm down. Maybe... it's the stress or something like that."
"But-"
"Miss Sparkle, I'm afraid any of us are unable to help," the Hammond told her. "If you tag along with Isaac, maybe you'll be able to try it later. But for now, we need to find out what happened to the Ishimura, and then get out of here."
There was no sense arguing for now. The mare gulped nervously. "I... I understand."
"Stay safe. Both of you."
The feed was cut.
Isaac made sure the plasma battery was properly inserted into the cutter before they proceeded through the door into the tunnels again. The sound of shuffling and growls reached their ears again, although Isaac proceeded with a bit more confidence since he had a weapon at hand. He brought up his map and beckoned Twilight to take a look.
"Alright," he spoke in low volume. "The tram is the closest to where we are right now, so we'll deal with that first, then we'll travel to the maintenance bay to find the data board. Keep close to me, okay?"
"Right," Twilight whispered anxiously.
The pair went down the tunnel to the right. More unintelligible whispers echoed through the walls in the dark. The lights were at low power, leaving the pathway in a dull illumination. Apart from the quiet sounds of mumbling and their own heavy footsteps, nothing broke the silence.
A loud clang echoed above them. They both jerked up, Isaac holding his cutter at ready. By the time they had reacted however, it was already gone. He felt a slight pat on his leg and looked down.
Twilight was trembling, pointing at a large pool of blood on the floor in front of them. The smears looked as though someone had been dragged along the ground before the trail continued up the wall and into the vent on the ceiling. The survivors tensed, the engineer holding up his weapon at the hole while they approached it. Nothing happened for several seconds, and they both exhaled in relief.
The walkway took a turn now. A door lead into the next area, Isaac fiddled with the controls before the door unlocked with a loud sound of depressurization and opened.
A body came crashing down before them. The pair jumped back in panic, muted gasps escaping their mouths before calming down. Isaac recognized the dead man as a miner by his suit, his body suffering great cuts all over the torso and blood splatters on the mask. He sighed in relief. Whatever had been in the vents was moving away from them now.
The continued down the stairs when they heard crashes in a continuous pace. A quick look made them understand why: the door leading to the tram rails had malfunctioned, raising up before slamming against the frame repeatedly. One of the monsters laid in pieces by it, obviously serving as a grim warning as to how powerful the force of the door closing was.
"No way are we going past that," Isaac muttered.
Something lying nearby made him smirk however. Close to the dead abomination was a Stasis module. He picked it up and wired it to his suit, giving his wrist a experimental swing before aiming at the door at firing it up. Nothing happened however, visibly irritating the human even more when he noticed the charge on the module was empty.
A purple glow suddenly engulfed the door. He noticed the unicorn's helmet lighting up similarly when the metallic door was, to Isaac's surprise, enveloped in ice, firmly stopping its rampage. Twilight panted before turning to the engineer.
"Voilà," she sang, to which Isaac chuckled.
The pair continued to the tram control room. It was a wide open space, relatively brightly lit. The broken tram was conveniently parked on the maintenance rails, ready to be changed at a moment's notice, along with a Stasis recharge station on the wall.
Fixing the tram itself was easy. The only snag they encountered was a malfunctioning claw, which was easily fixed by a burst of Stasis. However, something left Isaac troubled. So far, they had not encountered a single creature since their arrival in the tram control room. This meant that they either had not found the human and the pony, or they going after Hammond and Kendra, or... those damnable things were actually preparing an ambush.
A vent burst open on the wall nearby, accompanied by an unearthly scream and a gargling abomination that lunged towards them. Twilight backed away in terror while Isaac spun around, fumbling with the plasma cutter. The creature raised a blade and shrieked, ready to impale its bipedal prey before a loud bang and a bright flash echoed across the room. The cutter fired, surgically slicing off the arm that had intended to kill Isaac and leaving the monstrous predator temporarily stunned before it launched itself at the duo again. This time, however, Isaac was prepared. The weapon barked again and the other arm fell off, a cry of rage and pain escaping the creature's tortured larynx before it collapsed on the floor, dead.
Isaac held the still smoking weapon in his hands, both him and Twilight breathing heavily from their encounter. The adrenaline wore off, finally letting them realize what they had done. Isaac started laughing nervously while Twilight simply stared at their victim.
More gurgles could be heard, making them both tense. Two more of the undead monsters surged through the vent, bellowing gutturally before charging them.
The first one was quickly dispatched by Isaac, who tore apart it's legs with a shot before cutting off an arm. The other one was too fast though and rammed the engineer, sending him reeling onto the ground with a pained grunt. Before it could lunge at him, however, it was hit by a purple beam of energy, encasing its body in ice and rendering it immovable. Another plasma burst was fired into its center of mass, the entire creature exploding in thousands of frozen shards.
Twilight had barely believed what she had accomplished. Multiple emotions were conflicting in her head, fear, guilt and a just little bit of pride for saving the human. She looked worriedly at Isaac, who was already back on his feet.
"Not bad Twi," he panted. "Thanks for the save."
"I... what... I just acted impulsively! It was going to... kill... you..." she sputtered, unwilling to utter the word. "I just had to do something! Oh gosh, if Celestia ever finds out I did this... I just broke several unforgivable rules of Equestrian law! She's going to lock me up, or banish me, or lock me up in the place she banished me in! Oh gosh oh gosh oh gosh..."
Isaac shook his head at the unicorn's incoherent ramblings.
"Twilight, you saved me, and I'm sure Celesty or what's her name would have done the same to protect someone she holds dear. Excuse my language, but right now it's pretty much ‘fuck the rules' on this ship. Do you understand?" He nodded towards the charred remains. "These things... They're not the crew anymore. Don't feel guilty, Twi. They would have done worse things to you."
He knelt down to her level. "Believe me, I'm scared shitless at this point, but we can't lose faith now, Twi. The others are depending on us. We're gonna link up with the others, we're gonna find Nicole, and then we are getting the hell off this ship. You with me?"
Despite his crude speech, Twilight took a deep breath and stuck her chest out in determination. "You're right. I wasn't thinking straight. Sorry. Let- let's go."
They decided to recompose themselves a little bit before continuing on. A relieved Kendra reappeared on their communication screens.
"Good work, both of you. That tram was blocking the entire system. Now you just have to find the data board and reinstall it and we can start moving around the ship again. Stay safe."
They reemerged into the hall with the frozen door again when more scratching emerged right under their feet. They both tensed, Isaac with the cutter at ready and Twilight reluctantly gathering up another freezing spell.
The iron grate in front of them smashed open. More creatures burst through, along with more mutated corpses crawling along the ground, their back legs fused together like a scorpion's dart. Isaac lined up the shots with a bit more confidence, the three thin cyan targeting lasers aiming for limbs and cutting them off precisely, cauterizing the stumps instantly on exit velocity. Twilight herself fired off several cold violet beams with precision, snap freezing targets for her compatriot to finish off. She cast aside her fearful thoughts for now, deciding to treat the combat in front of her without emotion like a game of chess, concentrating on analyzing the enemy's movements and countering accordingly. So far, it worked in alleviating her mind. Isaac was less disturbed and seemed to get used to it, his aim far less shaky now that the undead flesh was further away from them.
Seven dead abominations laid before them now. The engineer exchanged plasma cells again, noting he still had five whole clips on his person. Twilight was a bit winded from magical use; since there was little to no ambient magic onboard, she had to draw strength from within herself to fight. She sighed again from tiredness and nervousness.
"Using magic constantly is tiring," she panted.
"You could use some stimpacks if we find some," suggested Isaac before chuckling tiredly. "You know, we might actually make it." He gently punched Twilight in a playful manner. "We make quite the team."
"If we get off this ship Isaac, I would rather just go home and forget about all this."
"Right. Sorry."
________________________________________
The lower areas of the maintenance bay were cast in partial darkness when they entered, with a single dimmed spotlight illuminating the décor. The stench of blood was so thick that they could taste it. Several rusting hooks were hanging ominously from the ceiling, one of them sporting a hanging body in the faded orange light, its traits indistinguishable in the darkness. Said chains were clattering slowly while more whispers echoed all around them with no clear source. It was probably just Twilight's imagination, but she swore they called out her name again. She shivered; even Nightmare Moon's temple didn't feel as scary... Or as promising of certain death.
The setting unnerved them again. Despite the gruesome encounter earlier, they had a clear idea of what they had fought and had gained a temporary, if short-lived, with the knowledge that their enemy could be defeated. The creeping darkness was something different, the shadows tricking their minds into imagining things that weren't there.
Or hide things that really are there, she gulped.
Twilight followed a tentative Isaac again, staying constantly vigilant for suspect gratings on the wall and taking care to stay away from the vents. According to Kendra, the data board was in the security office that they were currently trying to enter.
"The door's locked," he whispered. "Talk to me Kendra."
"There's an emergency override key on the second floor,” She spoke across the crackly channel, “Take the elevator up and advance to the end of the platform."
After a brief ride up in a way too loud service elevator, they found a single mutant staggering randomly around. The head was missing, making the monster simply stand in one location and spin around with its blades, not noticing the commotion barely a yard away from it. It was quickly dispatched by Isaac, who simply sliced its legs apart. After a short feeling of relief when nothing else was heard, they approached the body in macabre fascination.
"They’re still alive when you decapitate them," Twilight mused in a tiny voice, "meaning whatever reanimates the bodies obviously doesn't need the host's central nervous system to control them."
"That's a fancy way of saying not to aim for the head, Doctor Sparkle," Isaac grumbled.
She blushed. Despite their horrifying appearance and bloodthirst, Twilight had to admit these things were interesting creatures from a scientific point of view. Judging from body structure and looks, these were indeed reanimated, mutated corpses, transformed to kill for... whatever reason. She theorized that the culprit for the massacre onboard the ship would probably be a powerful organism capable of altering the genes, like some sort of radioactive virus or parasite.
She shook her head. Even if it would be a fantastic chance to study this ‘zombie virus’, it would not only be extremely dangerous and irresponsible, but she would probably burn any samples she fell across anyway.
They found the key on the body of a decapitated security officer. Again, memories of the deaths in the flight lounge hit them, but they quickly discarded the painful thoughts. Twilight glanced around while Isaac went through the macabre process of retrieving the key from the body. She caught a glimpse of the dead human hanging from the hook, his abdomen pierced through. An unpleasant image of a lifeless Isaac hanging there instead crept it's way through her mind but she quickly looked away.
Don't think like that.
"Damnit Twi! Do something!"
The sound of necrotic abominations bursting through the roof snapped her off the daydreaming. More ‘zombies’ were advancing now, intent on tearing through their soft flesh.
Isaac had already killed one of them, but two more were still coming.
She wouldn't have time to gather up enough energy to freeze them in time, before they pounced on her, so she did the next best thing: a single, high powered beam of magic. She aimed for one's legs and fired, the energy knocking it off its feet. Isaac finished them both off quickly before reloading and sprinting towards the elevator with Twilight in tow, their hearts beating against their ribcages when more shrieks tore through the bay.
Their eyes shifted around frantically when more shambling was heard above them. They prepared to dart away as soon as the elevator doors opened...
...Right into an awaiting creature. Without warning it shoved them back into the elevator and tried to grab Isaac, who desperately grappled with it for dear life. In her panic, Twilight spun around and delivered a solid buck to the monster, shoving it off balance and enabling Isaac to overpower it. He punched it square in its jaw to knock it down before angrily curb stomping its body to shreds, blood sticking itself to his boots.
While the engineer was occupied with terminating his opponent, Twilight had picked up Isaac's dropped plasma cutter with her telekinesis and frantically fired at the approaching flesh horde. She felt nausea rise up her throat when her shots dismembered one of them.
I can't believe it... I killed someone again... This time directly...
The remaining three were approaching too fast though, and they were stuck in the cramped elevator with no way of escaping.
Oh Celestia, we're going to die!
To her shock, however, a blue flash hit the charging undead and left them suspended in midair, their movements limited to slow motion. Twilight noticed Isaac had managed to use his Stasis module at the last moment and gave him back his cutter, leaving him to slice them apart calmly. The area was clear again.
She took a look behind her and immediately felt the urge to turn away; the monster Isaac had tangled with was now a huge pool of red on the elevator floor, trashed body parts splattered across the cramped space like macabre decorations. The lower parts of Isaac's suit were completely crimson, and even Twilight's suit was drenched, though she had never noticed while her attention was focused on the creatures. If someone had not noticed the sickly smell of blood by now, they certainly would.
Isaac exhaled in exhaustion and flexed his body, grunting in pain as he cracked his neck.
"Let's just find that board and get the fuck out of here," he wheezed.
________________________________________
Finally.
As Isaac tore out wiring from the old data terminal to replace it, Twilight sat back, her helmet at her side, deeply engrossed in thought now that the threat of death was not immediately hanging above them. The last hour had been completely outlandish to the poor pony, ravaging her confidence and sanity.
I did it, she whimpered to herself. I survived. I fought off terrible zombie beings and somehow survived. Unless I died back there along with Isaac and this is some kind of dream.
A single tear felt down her cheek. I can't go home to my friends. They probably think I'm dead by now. Maybe I am. I miss everyone so much... The princess... my brother-
She was crying now. Ever since she had arrived in the human's world it had taken a huge physical and psychological toll on her. She raised her front hooves and stared at them, and the blood still caked onto the suit.
If I hadn't messed up back in the library, I wouldn't be in this situation. Now look at me. I... I killed these things by my own hooves. They used to be people and I killed them.
These things... they're not the crew anymore. Don't feel guilty, Twi. They would have done worse things to you, Isaac's words echoed through her mind. She gazed at the engineer again, deeply engrossed in his work. The mare wondered how he could hold on to the hope that Nicole would still be alive onboard the Ishimura. She chuckled quietly. Isaac was probably one of the most stubbornly loyal beings she had come across... Not too unlike a certain cyan pegasus. She sobbed again at the thought of Rainbow Dash.
Will I ever see them again?
A triumphant exclamation from her human compatriot interrupted her train of thought. He emerged from the tangle of cables again and replaced the metal grate before closing it, humming as he restarted the software to accommodate for the changes. He gave Hammond and Kendra a thumbs up from his side of the glass, his colleagues returning the gesture before boarding the train that had arrived on station. Twilight wiped away a few tears when the holoscreen popped up in front of them again.
"Alright, we're onboard and headed for the bridge." Hammond smiled. "Good work."
"Strange..." Kendra noted. "The quarantine just lifted..."
"Whatever was in the flight lounge must have left. Isaac, get back to the Kellion and prep it for launch. We'll find out what we can from the bridge and meet you there."
"If we live that long. You're out of your league here, Hammond, this is suicide!” She took a step closer to Hammond. “We're going to die out here!"
"Your lack of confidence is duly noted, Miss Daniels, but I have a mission to complete and that's exactly what I'm going to do, with or without you.” Hammond pointed at her. “Do we understand each other?"
"...Just get us out of here alive."
Isaac snorted in frustration at their antics when the feed cut before reaching Twilight her helmet.
"If these two could get along for once..."
________________________________________
The way back to the flight deck passed in relative silence. The Kellion was still damaged, but Isaac predicted that it could be flyable again with a few minor repairs to the port booster... if they were lucky.
The hangar was deathly quiet, but offered at least some relief for the pair as they walked alongside the blood and corpse-free walkway to the Kellion's airlock. Twilight decided to stay outside while Isaac went onboard; she would just be in the way anyway.
A few sparks flew from a broken computer as the engineer brought up the ship's holoterminal. The damage was not as bad as he had initially feared, and was nothing an hour or two of dedication wouldn't fix.
Wait.
His eyes scrolled down to the bottom line and widened in horror.
Fuel containment failure?
That was extremely bad, considering the smaller fires and sparks running along the hull. If he didn't act fast, the tanks would explode if unattended.
A screech was heard. Isaac saw one of those scorpion-looking creatures crawl across the cockpit, slamming its claws at the glass to try and break in. He hurriedly decided to run out and deal with it when a huge explosion tore through the starboard hull, sending the monster burning and plummeting to its death and almost knocking Isaac off balance.
"Isaac!" Twilight cried out frantically.
He desperately staggered his way out of the burning ship before being tossed out of the airlock by a blast and landing in front of a horrified Twilight. He managed to turn around just in time to see the Kellion getting wrecked, the remains consuming themselves in a fireball before falling down to the cargo bay floor and finally exploding.
Twilight was in a catatonic state after seeing their very lifeline getting so brutally cut in front of her. Everything was lost. They couldn't escape anymore; trapped like rats in a cage.
This isn't possible...
Not even Isaac's warning of approaching hostiles could move her out of her trance.
This isn't possible...