Dead Space: My Little Marker

Chapter 2: Confrontation

Isaac stepped out into the blinding light. He held his hand in front of his visor in an attempt to block out the rays of light streaming at him. As he placed his foot on the ground he noticed something he hadn’t felt in a long time. The ground beneath him was soft, not hard like the metal plates he had been accustomed to walking on. It gave way under the weight of his suit, causing him to leave footprints as he walked.

He held his rifle up to his shoulder as he scanned his surroundings. He noticed rolling hills off to, what he presumed was, the west. He noticed tall mountains directly in front of him that seemed to touch the sky. To his right he noticed some sort of orchard off in the distance. As he continued to scan the area, rifle still at the ready, he noticed something a little odd. Under a tree just a few steps from his current position, he saw a checkered pattern blanket which appeared to have a basket and several plates with food on top of it. It’s not like he had never seen a picnic before, but what caused some confusion was the fact that whoever had been eating there seemed to have fled the scene before he had arrived. He then noticed several other things strewn throughout the area. Several appeared to be toys of some sort and there was also a hefty amount of books and other items. It looked as though everyone cleared out in a hurry, leaving whatever they had been doing behind.

This made Isaac wonder, If this was Earth, why would everyone flee at the sight of a ship landing? On the Earth Isaac remembered, seeing ships flying around and landing was a daily occurrence. In fact, it had been a common sight for long before Isaac was even born. So why did these people flee as if they had seen some sort of horror raining from the sky?

Isaac raised his rifle again. He was certain that something was amiss and was determined to find out what’s going on.

“How’s it going out there Isaac?” came Ellie’s voice through Isaac’s helmet comm.

“It seems as though everyone around cleared out in a hurry. I’m going to go see if I can find anyone. Stay in the ship until I give the all clear, copy?”

“Loud and clear. Keep me updated with what’s going on. I’m gonna lock down the ship just in case.”

“Good call,” Isaac replied. He turned his head back to the ship and noticed the door begin closing and a series of metal plates began to cover the glass of the cockpit. Isaac put his attention back on the objective at hand. He needed to find out where the hell he was, whether it was Earth, and whether or not it’s hostile here. Isaac decided that his next course of action should be to make his way towards that town they had landed near. Hopefully he would get some answers once he arrived. Isaac walked on until he found a road that lead into town. He lowered his rifle and held it across his chest. He wondered if he should remove his helmet, but decided against it. Can’t take that chance. If this turns out to be some sort of alien planet, I need to be prepared for a fight. After Isaac’s last run in with “aliens” he wasn’t too big on the idea of meeting another set of them.

“God, please let this be Earth,” Isaac pleaded as he began his march towards the town.

“Hey! Applejack!” called Twilight as she approached Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack was on the front porch of her home, but as soon as she saw her friend approach she ran up to greet her.

“Well, howdy there Twi. What brings yah out here?”

Twilight got straight to the point, “Applejack, did you notice a strange looking object land around here?” asked the lavender unicorn.

“Umm nope. Can’t say that Ah have. Though Ah ain’t quite sure whatcha mean by “strange object?”

“Oh, well... I saw something flying around near here and It looked as though it had landed somewhere in the area. Are you sure you didn’t see anything?”

“As sure as cider Ah am!” responded the orange earth pony in her signature southern accent.

“Oh. Well, would it be okay if I had a look around then?”

“Go ahead Twi! You’re free to look wherevr’ yah please!”

“Thanks, Applejack.” The unicorn then trotted through the orchard looking high and low for the object she had seen earlier in the day. To her dismay, she wasn’t able to find any clues that could tell her where that object had went.

Isaac arrived at the outskirts of the town. It seemed that everyone in the town had just up and left. Isaac began to worry. What if it wasn’t my ship that caused all these people to flee? What if something bad has happened?) Isaac clenched the gun in his hand tightly and began to walk through the barren town. Isaac walked passed what appeared to be several stalls in what seemed to be the town's market. Once again, the area was empty. A deathly silence filled the town. Isaac couldn’t help but feel... like something was watching him. He spun around and aimed his rifle. He darted around the area, pointing his weapon in all directions. He saw nothing, but he knew that something saw him. He turned back to one of the market stalls and noticed several small gold coins on the surface of the stall. His interest peaked and he picked them up in his hand. He examined them, one by one.

“What sort of currency is this? Metal coins? We haven’t used money like this in ages. I wonder if-”

“Stop right there!” came a loud voice from behind, causing Isaac to drop the coins in his hand. “Place the coins back where you found them and turn around slowly. We are placing you under arrest, by order of Princess Celestia.”

“Princess Celestia?” Isaac began to turn around, “What are you talk-” Isaac lost his words as he saw the sight before him. Several creatures had him surrounded. They stood on four legs and were up to Isaac’s shoulders in height. They were a bright white color and each one seemed to look exactly like the other. Isaac couldn’t help, but think that these creatures looked like... horses? They also appeared to be wearing some form of armor on their bodies. The armor that they wore was gold in color, similar to the coins Isaac was inspecting just moments before. The one in the middle appeared to be the leader.

One of the creatures looked at Isaac quizzingly, “Did you just speak our language?”

“Did you just... speak?” replied a very confused Isaac.

“Well of course we did. Can’t you see our mouths moving?” the tone at which the creature responded caused Isaac to become a little irritated. “Now, we have one question before we take you away. Who are you, or rather What are you?”

“My name is Isaac Clarke. I’m a human engineer from-” Isaac stopped his monologue as he realized what else the creature had said. “Did you just say you’re going to take me away?”

“Yes. We have orders from the princess herself to bring whoever was in that object in for questioning. We promise that you will not be harmed.”

“I barely trust my own species. You really think I’m gonna trust you? I’m not going anywhere.”

“You don’t have any say in the matter. Sergeant!” the creature looked over at one of the other creatures. “Arrest this thing and prepare it for transport!”

“Yes sir!” responded the other. The creature pulled some object, which resembled handcuffs, out from the bags at it’s side and began to approach Isaac.

Isaac noticed a crowd forming behind the creatures in the armor. The others were coming out of nearby houses. Isaac saw a sea of colors as they poured from their homes to view this intruder to their world. Isaac was becoming increasingly popular. He then noticed the creature with the cuffs was just a few feet away. I didn’t go through hell just to be arrested by a bunch of talking horse-things.

Isaac raised his rifle and aimed it at the approaching creature. “Back off!” Isaac ordered. “I didn’t come here to be taken in by a bunch of talking horses.”

The creature stopped its approach and looked at Isaac’s rifle in confusion, but soon it began to walk towards Isaac again.

“It seems you don’t know what this thing is," Isaac paused before continuing, "I’ll give a demonstration.”

Twilight nearly jumped out of her coat as she heard a series of loud bangs came from the direction of town.

“What in Celestia’s name was that?” asked Twilight as she looked over at Ponyville. Applejack came running at Twilight before stopping right in front of her.

“Hey Twi!” said the orange pony, “Did ya’ll hear that?”

“Yes Applejack, I did. Let’s go see what’s going on. Come on!” they began a sprint back to town to investigate what was the cause of that noise.

“Now that I have your attention,” began Isaac, “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

The creature that had attempted to arrest him was now shaking after hearing the loud sound that came from Isaac’s rifle as he fired it into the air. The crowd that had formed had decreased in size as the firing of the rifle caused several of the onlooking creatures to flee in terror.

“Now, would you kindly get out of my way so I can return to my ship? I can meet your princess another tim-”

“Guards! Seize that thing’s weapon!”

“Yes, Captain!”

Two of the creatures that surrounded Isaac took into the air. These ones seemed to have wings. Great, Isaac thought They can fly too?

As the two creatures prepared to tackle Isaac to the ground, they were met with a hard metallic object. Isaac smashed the butt of his rifle against the side of his attackers' heads, sending them crashing to the ground.

“Big mistake,” Isaac scoffed as he looked down at the two unconscious bodies before him. Several of the other creatures now charged at Isaac. One of them was flying but the others were trotting at him at full speed. The flying one met the same fate as the other two as it felt the hard metal of a pulse rifle impact against its head. However, Isaac suddenly found his rifle flying from his hand as he was tackled to the ground. The creature who had tackled him was doing it’s best to hold him down.

“Heads up!” Isaac called at the thing on top of him as he smashed his helmet into the face of the creature sending it flying off off him before falling to the ground with an audible thud.

Isaac sprung to his feet just as another attacker tried its hoof at this strange metal monster who had defeated the others in its squad. The creature swung its hoof at the monsters face, only to have it dodged. Isaac lashed back with a barrage of punches. Isaac finished off his attacker with and right hook to its head. He stood there for a second, looking around at his failed attackers, before turning his attention to the leader of this group of creatures. The leader was shaking and had a look of extreme fear on its face as it stared at the rows of lights that made up Isaac’s visor.

“What? Aren’t you gonna try to arrest me? Or have you realized that I’m not going down without a fight?” Isaac began to slowly step towards the creature.

“Everypony run! It’s gonna kill us all!” yelled a terrified pony as she ran past Twilight and Applejack.

“What monster?” questioned Twilight, but before she could get an answer, the horrified pony disappeared into a house and slammed the door shut. Twilight noticed a small stampede of ponies all fleeing from this “monster.”

“Come on Aj! We have to see what’s going on!”

“Ah’m right behind yah, Twi!”

As they made their way through the crowd of fleeing ponies, Twilight tried to ask some of them what was going on. However, the ponies were too scared to respond or even acknowledge that Twilight had spoken to them. Something has really got these ponies spooked, Twilight noted.

They continued running through the crowd of horrified ponies and soon they found what had caused the other ponies to flee. Twilight and Applejack stopped dead in the tracks and stared at the sight before them. There were five unconscious royal guards on the ground, three were pegasi while the other two were Earth ponies. That, however, was not what caught Twilight’s eyes. It was the tall, metallic looking creature that was slowly making its way towards the last remaining royal guard. The creature stood on two legs, had a bluish tint, and had three rows of bright, blue lights that Twilight assumed were the creatures eyes. Twilight was frozen with fear and shock. It was obvious that this metallic being had defeated those royal guards and it seemed as though he was about to finish off the last one.

Isaac stopped two feet in front of the shaking royal guard, brought his helmet up to its face, and said, ”Boo!.” The guard fainted and fell to the ground hard. Isaac couldn’t help but laugh.

“I didn’t think that would work,” he said in between laughs. “Now then, where is my rifle?” Isaac looked around on the ground for a short time before spotting it. He picked it back up and checked it to make sure it hadn’t been damaged when he dropped it. “Looks good,” he said to himself. “Now I think I should probably leave before more show u-” Isaac froze and looked at the two figures that had been watching him. They didn’t look like the creatures he had just fought, at least not exactly. It was obvious that they were horses, but they were more colorful then the guards that tried to arrest him. One was a purple-ish color, had a horn, and seemed to be in extreme shock. The other, was orange and wore a cowboy hat. Isaac wasn’t quite sure why it wore that hat and was even more confused by the horn that the purple one was sporting on its head. He quickly realized that now was not the time to be questioning what he was seeing. He had just knocked out several of what he assumed were soldiers and he thought that he best not linger around here for too long.

Isaac heard a loud rumbling noise coming from behind him and turned to see what was causing it. To his dismay, he saw more guards... many more.

“Attack that thing boys, before it has a chance to harm anymore ponies!” yelled one of the guards.

Isaac figured now was a good time as any to make an escape. He activated his jet boots and deployed two wing-like flaps on the back of his suit. He then lifted off and began to fly back to the field he had originally landed in. The guards that were pegasi took off after him while Twilight, still shocked by what she had seen, turned to face Aj.

“We’ve got to go help those guards catch that thing!” announced Twilight as she ran off after Isaac with Aj not too far behind her.

Isaac tilted his head back and noticed that his pursuers were catching up to him. He made a quick halt, turned around, and brought his right hand up. Suddenly, a stream of blue light shot out of his hand causing the pursuing pegasi to almost freeze completely, their movements slowed to a snails pace.

“God, I love stasis,” Isaac said as he rocket off towards the fields where he would find his means of escape.

Twilight, having just witnessed Isaac freeze the trailing pegasi, nearly tripped as she came to an abrupt halt.

“Did ya’ll see that?” came to voice of her friend, who appeared to be just as shocked as Twilight.

“Yes, but... what did it just do to those pegasi?”

“Ah have no idea,”

Isaac came to a quick landing just mere yards away from his ship. He began to run towards the ship while yelling into the comms of his helmet.

“Ellie open the ship up! We need to get out of here!” There was no response.

“Ellie? Come on, Ellie! We have to go, NOW!” Once again no response.

“Damit! Where the hell is sh-” he stopped talking as a large group of guards emerged from behind his ship. They began to form a large circle around him as the ones that had been pursuing him finally caught up.

Isaac was once again surrounded, but this time, there was too many to take on. Isaac realized that if he wanted to escape, he’d have to use deadly force. He raised his rifle, put his finger on the trigger, aimed, and...

Isaac suddenly saw a purple aura engulf his rifle and he felt as though something was trying to rip it out of his hands.

“What the hell?” he questioned as he struggled to keep the rifle in his grip. He tried his best to hold onto it, but the pulling was too strong. He watched as his rifle was lifted out of his hands and was floated over to the purple creature that he saw back in the town. Its horn was now glowing as the rifle came to her side.

Isaac now began to worry, but he then remembered something.

“What did you do to Ellie?” Isaac yelled at the group that was surrounding him. One of the creatures stepped forward. It was the one that had fainted earlier, only now he seemed less afraid now that it had backup.

“You mean that other creature that was in that thing?” responded the guard, “She’s already been taken into custody. She was much easier to capture than you were.”

“I swear to god, if you hurt her I will rip you in fucking half!” Isaac was furious.

“Don’t worry. As long as you surrender no harm will come to her.”

Isaac reached for the plasma cutter at his side, but hesitated. He thought for a second and then raised his arms into the air.

“Fine. You win. I’ll come quietly. Ellie better be alright or else me and you are gonna have a big problem. And you better believe I won’t hold back like I did earlier.”

Several guards then approached Isaac and placed his hands in cuffs. A purple aura then surrounded the cuffs clamping them tightly around Isaac’s wrists. Great, Isaac thought, I can take out hordes upon hordes of necros, but a bunch of talking/flying/magic ponies manage to capture me. Isaac sighed. Isn’t life funny?