//------------------------------//
// Alone 
// Story: Deadspace: Nova's Tale 
// by genericlogin1 
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Chapter 2: Alone        

I was freezing, never in my entire life have I ever been this uncomfortably cold. I tried to open my eyes but my battered body resisted, after a short struggle and a fit from adjusting my eyes to the light I was greeted with a sight that seemed straight out of a nightmare. I was surrounded by ponies, each one unmoving and strapped into a gurney. Even more were stuffed into tubes and frozen. It took a while to realize where I was, I was trapped in the morgue. All around me lay dead ponies. I tried to jump back, to put some distance between me and the dead, but I was strapped down like all the others. Damnit I hate being in these. I bit my tongue, almost drawing blood. Nova! You know better than to swear!
        
The sickening sound of rending flesh, followed by horrific screaming tore me out of my inner monologue. I turned my head just in time to see sharp blades painfully tear out of the bottom of the front hooves of a beige pony, covering the gurney in black blood. The pony’s mouth twisted in what looked like agonizing pain mixed with bloodlust. The expression soon faded as it’s mouth soon split apart into four separate sections. The... Creature, in addition to the necromantic screaming had begun flailing its bladed arms not unlike a dying insect, attempting to break out of the gurney.
        
Panic set in and I began to do the same. I didn’t have sharpened appendages, but I did have experience. After a few minutes of squirming I had managed to free myself and slowly began to pick my way past mutilated body after mutilated body. I had been suppressing the urge to vomit at the gore ever since I regained consciousness, I couldn’t hold it anymore. I heaved repeatedly, the foul taste of bile staining my mouth. I picked up the pace and hurried past the flailing abomination and away from dead.

As I began walking up the stairs to the reception room of the morgue I decided to go back and put the creature out of its misery, it was a pony before this after all (or at least it looked that way), and it didn’t need to suffer more. I braved the frigid temperatures and the sight of dead ponies once more to do (what I thought was) a service to a pony I barely knew. I pulled the firing mechanism for Isaac into my mouth, which should have deployed him. I didn’t hear the satisfying sound of a capacitor charging, and the vibrant blue light didn’t appear, only a disheartening click followed by an error buzz from my RIG. I glanced at my side in horror, Isaac was missing! “Isaac! Where are you!” I called out, half expecting an answer.

        I bolted back up the stairs, the only thing I cared about was finding Isaac. I was running down a hallway when a dark blue RIG turned the corner in front of me. I galloped over to him, glad to see somepony else alive. Only to be returned to my nightmare when I noticed this pony had the same bladed hooves as the one downstairs. The creature’s neck was broken and dangling. It was also missing a leg and moved very slow, dragging itself forward using only its front legs. The realization hit me like a train, that creature was Orbit!

        Tears had begun to form in my eyes as I mouthed the words, “I’m so sorry Orbit.” Orbit seemed to respond with a low grunt, as he continued crawling towards me. He blocked my only exit, and I knew his intentions were to kill. As he got within reach of me I did the only thing I could do. Swallowing the fear building up inside of me I turned around, closed my eyes, and bucked as hard as I could. This merely staggered Orbit, but I didn’t stop with one buck, I brought my hooves down on what used to be his head over, and over, and over again, each hit emitting a sickening crunch. I cried a little harder with every stomp. Each time I struck Orbit I was hurt emotionally as much, if not more than he should have been physically. I didn’t stop until he had been turned into a bloody paste. I first looked at my blood stained hooves, regret taking hold of me. I then turned around and looked at what had been Orbit, feelings of dread and remorse washed over me as I broke down, crying uncontrollably. Up until I met Applejack, Orbit had been my only friend, and I had killed him twice in the course of a day. At least I thought it had been a day, I pulled up my clock to see that I had been out for over 4 hours, I should be well into my work day. 

        Wiping tears out of my eyes I continued on my way. I had no idea where I was going, what I was doing, what was going on, where everypony went, or if there was a way out of here. I had begun piecing together a shoddy plan that would surprise me more if it worked than if it led to a horrible death.

        As I reached the reception room I found the corpse of a sage unicorn slumped over the receptionists desk. Burn marks from an ISC could be seen all over the desk and on the walls surrounding the room, clearly this pony had gone down fighting. As I trotted past I caught glimpse of a maroon object lodged into the skull of one of those creatures that lay dead beside the unicorn. I knew that maroon anywhere. Letting out a small squee I rushed over to Isaac, ignoring the mutilated and disgusting creature in front of me. I wrapped my mouth around him and pulled, dislodging him from the skull of the creature. I should have been at least slightly hindered from putting my mouth near such a revolting mass of blood stained skin, but seeing Isaac pushed the thought out of my mind. As I put Isaac back in his rightful place by my side I couldn’t help but expressing my joy for finding him again. “It’s good to have you back. I’m never going to lose you like that again.” I said, as I nuzzled him, not caring about the black blood I was smearing on my cheek. I had begun to open the exit when I couldn’t help but feel anger towards the sage unicorn. She had abused Isaac, almost breaking him in the process of lodging it in one of those creatures skulls. I couldn’t help myself, as rage welled up inside of me I aimed Isaac at the corpse of the unicorn and fired one retribution shot into the lifeless body.

        As I walked out of the building into the labyrinth that was Eclipse I checked my saddlebags, as I suspected the unicorn had taken everything of use from me. Which wasn’t much but it still bothered me all the same. I was now stuck with barely any batteries for Isaac and who knows how many of those creatures running around.

        Twilight was basically a celebrity here, she had to be well protected. Hopefully I could convince her to extend that protection to me. However the morgue was even further away from the Celestia quarter than the airlock was, I put my pathetic excuse of a plan into action and began walking toward the Celestia quarter, preparing for the long trek ahead of me. 

        At least that’s what I thought, with everypony gone, and nearly every building I’ve seen so far destroyed, looted, or swarming with creatures. I had assumed the trams lost power. This however, wasn’t the case. I began trotting over to the parked tram, glad to be able to cut my travel time down considerably. As I was about to board the tram the doors slid shut right in front of my face, as if to mock me. “Well.... Fuck.” I said aloud. The little voice in my head nagged Nova! You need to stop swearing, remember your morals! But lately I’ve begun to pay it less and less attention, morals don’t mean as much when societies been destroyed. I bucked the tram as it pulled away from the station. I’m going to ride one of these things eventually, even if it kills me.
        
        I had decided to take a detour back to my apartment, if those things came from dead ponies I’m going to need to prepare for the worst. Waiting in the elevator was agonizing, I was pressed into a corner out of the fear of one of those things breaking through the ceiling. After what seemed like an eternity I had finally made it to the 5th floor. I hopped out of the elevator and quickly scanned my surroundings, the lights had gone out on this level and the only light available was from the window at the end of the hallway which displayed a placid scene of the void of space. I clicked on the light I had attached to Isaac, but the beam flickered out almost as soon as I had turned it on, it had been damaged when the unicorn lodged it into the creature’s skull. I crouched low and began walking slowly, constantly checking my surroundings and listening for anything that wasn’t a pony. 
        
        I slid open the door to my apartment to see that it was exactly as I had left it, books everywhere except the bookshelf , the bed unmade, papers scattered across the floor, and my tools dispersed across my work bench. As I walked into my back room to check my safe I noticed it was already unlocked. Somepony had gone through my things! I swung the door open expecting to find all my bits, ISC batteries, and bio gel to be gone. However that was not the case, the only things missing were my bits and the few vials of bio gel I bothered to keep around. The batteries had been left untouched, and the thief was kind enough to leave one vial behind. I began filling my RIG and saddlebag with ISC batteries, when they were nearly full I glanced at the lone bio gel, weighing the option to bring it with me. If I bring it then that’s less batteries and less shots for Isaac. If I’m careful I won’t need it, I should leave it for somepony else. I filled my saddlebag the rest of the way with more batteries. My saddlebag was rather small, I could only hold 5 batteries but it’s better than none.

        I heard a necromantic groan as an abomination wandered into my apartment. I jumped out around the corner to meet my foe, Isaac ready to fire. The creature had learned how to stand on two legs, the bladed forelegs now held in the air pointed at me. Before I could fire the creature charged me, out of a panicked reaction I shot the creature square in the chest. Black blood exploded out of the wound as it let out a screech of pain and stumbled crashing into the wall beside me, still alive and trying to kill me. Putting four more shots straight into it finally caused it to slump over motionless. Breathing heavily I took a second to collect myself, then started slowly stepping over the lifeless body. The creature sprang back to life, wrapping its bladed forelegs around me, pulling me closer to its mouth. As I was pulled face to face with it I slid behind the safety of my helmet and tried as best I could to push away. As I pushed against the creature its bladed forelegs dug into my back, causing me to yelp in pain. Isaac folded out once more and I unloaded 3 shots directly into the creatures razor sharp mouth, exploding its head. The body went lifeless and the blades loosened their grip. I threw the lifeless corpse off of me and walked back to the safe, I downed the foul tasting mixture that was bio gel and the wounds on my back slowly began to stop bleeding. They wouldn’t fully heal, or stop hurting for a while, but at least they weren’t bleeding. Three new rules I thought to myself Decapitation is better than body shots, double tap, and shoot the ever living fuck out of them. They like to get back up.

Back on the ground level I took a quick glance around, in the distance I could see those demonic creatures wandering aimlessly. They were too far away to pay me any attention, and I did the same for them. I saw the tram begin to pull into the station again and this time I made sure I wasn’t going to miss it. I made it into the tram with plenty of time to spare, I danced around victoriously while waiting for the doors to close, and I gave the tram a revenge buck, cracking one of the windows. I told you I was going to ride you, even if it kills me!

The tram set off towards the Celestia quarter and I took a seat to enjoy the 30 minute break I had until I reached my destination. The moment I let my guard down and dropped my helmet to get comfortable a window behind me exploded. I quickly spun around and was face to face with another one of those creatures. Like the other one it was standing on two hooves. Also like the other one it sprinted towards me, bladed arms flailing. I slid behind the safety of my helmet once more and began to unload at the creature with Isaac.
        
BZZT! BZZT! BZZT!        
        
I had fired three shots at the creature, two striking its leg dismembering it. The other hitting it square in the chest. As the creature fell it emitted an ear splitting howl, and the body went limp. I shot it again but it didn’t react, it had died almost immediately after losing its leg. Apparently dismembering them kills them faster than shooting where vital organs should be. I didn’t question this realization however, at least now I could save ammo. Just in time too, three more windows exploded in a hail of sharp shards of glass, two in front of me and one behind. I quickly fired at the legs of the two in front of me, missing my first shot but my next four finding home in the legs of the two creatures. They both howled in pain and dropped to the floor, I spun around just in time to see the last creature swinging a bladed hoof at me. I jumped back, but not fast enough to completely avoid the strike. The blade embedded itself in my helmet piercing far enough to cut a gash uncomfortably close to my eye. I twisted in pain and was partially blinded, my left eye forced shut. Isaac fired blindly at the arm of the creature dismembering it but not killing the creature. As the creature wound up to swing again Isaac had dismembered its other arm, this time it slumped over, lifeless.

After a short struggle I had managed to dislodge the dismembered blade from my helmet. Blood was freely flowing from cut over my eye. My helmet was useless now since the strike had caused it to lose power, it no longer displayed any status monitors such as time, ammo, inventory, location, and to make it worse the visor was blank and cracked so seeing out of it was impossible. I dropped the safety of the helmet again and saw that the two creatures at the front of the tram weren’t dead, and still crawling towards me. I soon fixed this as both of them lay decapitated. The top of Isaac slid back, and with a click the depleted battery popped out, and my RIG cycled a new one in.

The tram begin to gain altitude and travel over buildings now. Below I could see what used to be the central hub of Eclipse, it was where everypony went for shopping, eating, and socializing. It was always crowded at every point in the day, but now it was a ghost town. Small fires, broken glass, and dead bodies littered the hub. I had never been lucky enough to spend time in the hub, but I had heard that it was always fun, only now I’ll never have the chance to find out. 

I was overcome by a touch of sadness, but that feeling didn’t last long, a loud thud brought me back to reality. A creature had landed on the roof and was now attempting to cut its way into the tram, only it wasn’t only slicing the roof apart, it was also slicing the connection to the rail. I looked up with my good eye to kill the creature before it dislodged the tram, but I couldn’t see it, let alone get a clear shot. With a loud snap the tram was now in freefall, but not for long as it soon crashed on the roof of one of the tallest buildings on Eclipse. I was thrown around the tram throughout the entire fall. 

Dazed I got to my feet as the tram slid closer and closer to the edge of the building. I lept out one of the many broken windows as my helmet enveloped my head (safety first!). After tumbling violently I finally came to a rest safely on the top of a high end apartment building. The tram slid off of the building, taking the creature on top with it, a satisfying explosion ensued as the large spell batteries powering the tram released all of the magic contained inside in one short burst, incinerating the tram, the creature, and anything else nearby. “When I said ‘even if it kills me’, I didn’t mean it as a challenge!” I yelled aloud at nopony in particular, but it felt good to voice my frustration.

I sat on my haunches catching my breath as I attempted to wipe the blood out of my eye, but it kept flowing. The only thing I succeeded in doing was staining my grey RIG red. Slowly but surely I was being broken down, my back still hurt from the first creature, and after the tumble from the tram the rest of my body felt just as bad. I got up and moved towards the door to get off the roof, but my body protested with every step. I was too weak to buck the door open, so I let Isaac do the work for me. The lock melted from the heat of  the magic bolt, and the force of the shot threw the door open, breaking one of the hinges. I had been in this building checking its spell batteries before, it was right next to the airlock and one of the more important buildings on Eclipse. Only the richest ponies could afford to live here, now it was deserted and filthier than my own apartment.

        After clearing two floors looking for anything to stop the growing pain throughout my body, and the blood pouring from my eye I concluded the building was deserted. I had yet to see signs of anypony or any of those creatures. I made my way into the buildings medical bay expecting everything to be looted and destroyed, which  was partially true. The entire bay had been cleared of anything useful, the only thing untouched was the lone safe near the end of the bay. Walking was beginning to get more and more difficult, I slowly made my way over to the safe and fell against it, using it to support my weight. 

        The lock required both a numerical combination and a password, neither of which I had. I spent all of five minutes trying as many combinations as I can until I finally gave up. Fuck this I thought. The voice in my head didn’t bother saying anything this time. Isaac’s spell battery charged as it folded out. I fired at the safe, a small circle of red appeared where the shot had hit. Several shots later the small circle had nearly consumed the entire front of the safe.  What was left of the door swung open revealing the contents of the safe. Inside the safe had been an obscene amount of bio gel vials, but in my carelessness I had melted most of them, bio gel now began to pool on the floor. I flopped on my back in the puddle of bio gel, the cool liquid felt like a gift from Celestia herself. The wounds on my back thanked me. 

I took in my surroundings as I lay there recovering, I caught a glimpse of myself in a mirror. I hadn’t been awake for more than a few hours and my face was already covered in blood, some of it not even mine. Dried blood was caked around my eye and on my cheek, my hooves stained red with Orbit’s blood. I had two gashes nearly the entire length of my back, blood was splattered on my RIG’s spinal display, but I could see it was glowing an ominous orange. I looked like I walked straight out of Tartarus. Not only that but I had already begun losing my morals. It took all of a few hours with no society for me to give up my self promise to not swear. I was turning into the old Nova, which scared me, I left that part of my life behind and didn’t want to return to it.

My spinal display gave off a slightly healthier yellow light when the bio gel had stopped working its magic. I walked over to the safe and took as many vials as I could, I knew their importance now. I ached slightly, but it was bearable. Moving was infinitely easier than before but nothing like what it should be. I was tired, my eyelids becoming almost too heavy to hold up. I found a door labeled “SECURITY” and figured it was the best place to find some place at least halfway safe to sleep. 

I pushed open the door cautiously ready to jump back from bladed forehooves. A searing bolt of magic whipped by my ear, scorching my mane. With a yelp I jumped behind the door, the foul smell of burnt hair filling the air. “WOAH! What the hell is your problem!” I yelled, poking my head around the door. I was greeted with the sight of a pony in a severely damaged teal RIG. I could see the visor lights were flickering, about to go out completely, leaving the pony behind the helmet nearly blind. 

The RIG called out “Ah’m sorry! Can’t see too well in this here suit!”
“Applejack?” I called out, a friendly face is exactly what I need right now.
“Thats me, but who’s out there?”
“It’s me! Nova!” I exclaimed gleefully as I trotted up to Applejack. Looking at Applejack’s RIG I noticed she didn’t have a spinal display, this could only mean she scavenged it off a dead pony or killed for it. “Um, Applejack... Where did you get this RIG?” I asked nervously.        
“Well, after those things started attackin’ ah decided ah needed some protection. Figured a dead pony wouldn’t mind.” Applejack stated, “The back thingy didn’t wanna come along, so ah left it.” She added, looking at her spine.
“Let me help you out a bit” I said as I hit the disengage switch on Applejack’s RIG. The helmet lowered and I was once again greeted by that friendly face and vibrant green eyes. 
“Nova! Ya look like ya lost a fight with an ursa major!” I knew what I looked like, Applejack must of gotten quite a surprise when her helmet dropped.
“Nothing big,” I assured her, “just made a few friends.” 
“Ya look like ya need a good sleep, follow me, ah know where we can hole up for th’ night.” I wanted to throw my hooves around her right then and there, it was as if she was reading my mind. 

Applejack planted her forehooves on the handle of an immense steel door, and with a large effort opened it, revealing her hiding place. She had taken refuge in a walk in safe. “As far as ah know, them things can’t get in here.” She waved a hoof, beckoning me to join her. “There’s a handle in here, we can’t get locked in.” She added, sensing my reluctance to be locked in a safe.

Once inside the safety of the safe we began chatting as if we were old friends. We caught up on what had happened after I left her and Twilight, shared stories of how we survived, our close encounters. We each recalled our experiences up until where we sat now. As the conversation continued we somehow ended up on the subject of family again. Applejack had nothing but cheerful, playful, and proud memories of her family, I couldn’t bring myself to tell her the truth about mine. 

I never knew my real family, I was adopted by a family of unicorns when I was just a filly. What a family of unicorns wanted with an earth pony like me was beyond my understanding. I didn’t have fond memories with them, to say the least.
“Well, my father was a doctor, my mother an engineer, and my older brother ended up at Celestia’s College for Gifted Unicorns in Canterlot.” I told her, leaving out the enmity I felt for each and every one of them.
“Twi went ta that school,” Applejack noted. After a long pause she finally added “Ya sure are fortunate ta have such a diverse family. Ah bet they’re proud of ya for finding yer own way.”

The doctor, engineer, magical prodigy, and construction pony. They were REAL proud. I thought to myself as I closed my eyes for some much needed sleep. Sleep didn’t come easy, thoughts of my “family” filled my head. After a long while my stream of consciousness faded, and I dropped into a fitful sleep.