Friendship In The Void

'The Marker knows all?' a purple pony as she was sitting under a tree. 'Where have I heard that before?' she inhaled through her nose, smelling the sweet scent of the flowers and grass around her.

"Hey Twilight! You comin'?" shouted a familiar voice from a distance. She looked up from her book to see five ponies and a dragon waiting for her at the end of a cobblestone road.

"Coming!" the purple pony, Twilight Sparkle, got up from the ground beneath her and dusted herself off. A strap of a purple saddlebag opened and she locked the book inside of it. Encased in a pink aura, she levitated and fixed it to her back.

She looked down the road. Despite the bumpy and hilly nature of the area, it remained even and tranquil. It was a bright Summer day. Birds and other animals scurried about the hills as she galloped down said road to her friends: Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and her number one assistant; a dragon named Spike.

"We must hurry to the picnic grounds if we want to outrun that storm, Twilight." her best friend, Rarity, told her. "Otherwise, we might have to take our picnic inside and miss this brilliant weather." the ivory pony bounced her hair with a hoof.

"Yeah, Twilight." Rainbow Dash, a pegasus, started. "The weather team has a tight schedule this week. We missed last week's storm remember?" the rainbow maned mare explained.

"I don't want to be caught in the rain... what if I get sick and there's nopony to take care of my animal friends?" the timid pegasus beside Applejack looked like she was about to cry. Applejack comforted her.

"Don't you worry, sugar cube. Even if ya do get sick, we'll be there for ya." the farm pony slung a foreleg over Fluttershy's shoulder. "That's what friends are for, right?"

"Exactly. Now let's get to the picnic grounds or we'll all lose a good lunch. I'm starved!"

Everypony shared a quick chuckle and headed down the path to the picnic area...

Meanwhile...

"No God dammit!" exclaimed Issac Clarke from inside his own mind. Issac's helmet covered his head with a satisfying hiss and he turned to face his dead girlfriend, Nicole Brennan.

"But Issac. I love you. Don't you want to become whole?" the apparition of his girlfriend held out her arms, welcoming him into a warm embrace. But instead, Issac lifted his Plasma Cutter and aimed it's blue laser sight right between her eyes.

"No. I'm not going to. Not after all you've done. Not after all you created. You and the Marker are the same. So I only have one last thing to say to you Nicole; Fuck you! And fuck your Marker!" he fired a shot into her face making her wail in pain. Suddenly, a giant representation of the Marker appeared behind her. Issac raised the weapon to it. "Die you motherfuck-"

Just as he was about to shoot, a Pack slashed at his arm, causing him to pull it back. Narrowly avoiding the last swipe from the Pack, Issac punched it in it's face sending it flying over the edge of the rocky platform. As the engineer looked around him, more of them showed up out. They appeared out of seemingly nothing and ran directly at him. Undead screeches could be heard from all around as he turned and saw a Brute accumulate out of thin air. It charged at him, hitting and killing any Packs who stood in his way. Issac hit it with stasis and turned to kill any Packs emerging from behind him. One or two of them came from behind rock formations on the platform. Another three came from behind the faded form of Nicole as she lay there, seemingly in pain. Being the smart guy that he was, Issac immediately saw that he was outnumbered. Even with there only being a couple of Packs and a Brute, there was bound to be more to come after he killed them. So, he did the only thing he could do; shoot the pained form of Nicole once more and hope for the best.

The man fired his Plasma Cutter at his dead girlfriend once more, only to have the Marker beyond the platform explode in a series of symbols. All of the Necromorphs around him evaporated into thin air, leaving only him and his girlfriend. After the explosion cleared, only a beating heart remained which Issac could only assume was the Marker's lifeline. So he fired at it again and again. Each hit resulted in a reaction from Nicole as she twitched and screamed with every hit. Finally, a last shot from the Plasma Cutter ended the Marker. The heart exploded, sending Issac cascading out of his mind and back into the real world, where everything was falling apart.

"Ugh..." his head pounded like a drum. Every part of him felt numb. He didn't know what was happening. The engineer looked up and stared at the Marker. It was falling apart. Crumbling, as if instead of killing the Marker in his mind, he killed it outside as well.

"Warning: Reactor Containment Destabilized. A reactor breach is imminent. Evacuation of all personnel required. This is not a drill."

Issac sat down on the hard steel floor of the Marker platform. He sat there for a minute. There was no worry of a Necromorph attack. There was no worry of some ungodly creature springing to life from behind him. And finally, there was no worrying about Nicole. Nicole was gone. And so was the Marker. There was no reason to keep on fighting.

"Engaging auxiliary power systems."

Isaac furrowed his brow in thought. 'Did I really just make it through that?' he silently asked himself. He gave one last look at everything around him. 'Yeah, I guess I did.'

"Warning: Reactor containment failure. A reactor breach is now in progress. Evacuate immediately, all personnel, all civilians. This is not a drill."

'Well...' the disgruntled man thought to himself. 'I had a good run.'

It was true. He did have a good run. Every part of the Sprawl was pitted against him. Zero gravity, low oxygen environments. The freezing temperatures of space. And the Necromorphs. Plus Nicole was waiting for him around every corner to drive him nuts.

He chuckled, 'That sounds about right.'

"Warning: Life Support failure. Seek protection immediately."

And all of the sudden, Ellie Langford appeared on his RIG Link, scaring the living shit out of him.

"You complete bastard! Was this your great plan? Dump me off and die?" she sounded pissed.

"I'm full of bad ideas, remember?"

"Yeah, well, here's another one: I'm crashing through the roof to get you. Now move your ass!" Ellie continued to fidget with the controls of the Gunship. Issac got up off the ground, his mood turning from mellow to serious.

"Wait! No! Ellie! Ellie, it's too late! Steer clear of the station!" the engineer protested.

"Yeah, well you don't really have a say this time. Heads up!" Issac looked up just in time to see a Earth Gov Gunship crash through the roof of the Marker chamber. And explosion tore the roof apart as the room's Life Support went offline.

"Warning: Hull breach. Decompression."

'Fuck.' his helmet enclosed around his head with a chorus of satisfying clicking.

"Warning: Gravity failure."

'Double fuck!' he looked down in alarm as his feet slowly left the ground of the huge room. It felt like any other time in deep space, but this time he had to also deal with the compression leak causing him to rocket into the hole in the ceiling.

Crumbling around Isaac, the Marker bid him one more farewell present; a shower of debris raining down upon him. Weightlessness made things worse considering that his movements were slowed significantly. And the no air situation meant that if he didn't hurry and get in the Gunship he would suffocate. Another problem had to be that the reactors powering the Earth Gov facility were failing and having a critical meltdown. Issac thought that things couldn't get any worse.

Well.

They did. Because right as the engineer was about to meet hands with the pilot of the Gunship, everything went dark. That same weightlessness accompanying him in the Marker chamber was here, too. Not only that, but the eerie feeling that he was being watched lurked over him. Isaac was confused. One second he was fighting for his life to get out, the next he was floating in a seemingly endless void. The lights of his suit shown overwhelmingly bright, hinting that not only was this place dark, it had been dark for a VERY long time. After a few minutes floating there in the darkness, Issac came to a conculsion; he was in the border between dimensions. Dimensional Borders were being studied not too long ago by the CEC, but thanks to a horrific accident involving one of their lead scientists, the project was canceled. He had only heard rumors about their existence.

Still, though. That didn't explain why he was here. Dimensional Borders was supposed to be only theory, something the CEC was trying to prove. As the engineer continued to float there, unaware of his surroundings, an incredibly bright flash of light popped into existence behind him. It only lasted a few milliseconds, like a strobe, but he knew what that meant. Somebody else was there with them. And judging by they said next, Issac guessed that they weren't too happy.

"Where the hell am I? Hey, wait... who the hell are you?!" asked a mysterious voice from behind him. It sounded male. Isaac turned to see who it was.

"I could ask you the same thing." he asked the man before him. The guy before him was gruff and stern. And judging from the look in his eyes he probably was an experienced war veteran. The uniform he wore was unlike any Isaac had ever seen. Even more peculiar was the lack of any kind of face plate or helmet.

"Says the guy with a helmet on." he smirked. Isaac sighed as his helmet stretched back into his suit. "Cool suit. Where does somebody get armor like that?" the man attempted to walk towards him. He awkwardly failed to do so.

"Well, first you have to get credits... hey, wait a minute. You still haven't told me your name. Give me your name or I'm not answering shit." the man frowned.

"Commander Shepard, HSA Special Forces. You?"

"Isaac Clarke, CEC Systems Engineer." Isaac boasted.

"A civilian? That figures." A thoughtful expression adorned his face. "What's a civilian doing here anyway?"

"Well, you see-" all of the sudden, a flash of light blinded him and Shepard causing them both to shield their eyes. "God dammit, what now?" Isaac exclaimed. He looked to his left and right to find the source, only to come back to looking at Shepard who was pointing behind him.

"Hey. Do you mind telling me where we are?" a gruff, deep voice called from behind him. Isaac looked back to see yet another man floating there. He was wearing some kind of dark green armor.

"Who the hell are you?"

"That is no way to address a superior officer. And judging from your armor, you're not UNSC. So that can only mean you are a civilian. As for now you may call me Spartan-117. Or Master Chief. People seem to like that one more." he turned his head in all directions before turning back to Isaac, "How did this happen?"

"UNSC? Never heard of it. Anyway, just like I told Shepard here, I'm a systems engineer working for the CEC."

"CEC? As in Concordance Extraction Corporation? But that's impossible. The only thing with your company's name on it is a one hundred thousand year old metal plate. Who are you really?"

"Wha-" Isaac suddenly started to feel a sharp pain in his head. He put his hands to his forehead and held them there until the pain ceased. When he looked up, everything was a color of orange and a noise somewhat like static droned on in his ears.

'Crap... I guess that wasn't the last Marker.'

"No Isaac... it wasn't the last one... you will never be free of us."

"Us?! There's more of you bastards?" a crowd of necromorphs came into existence all around him, attempting to slash at him. But every time they got close they would phase through and disappear. He started to panic and started to thrash about, attempting to make them go away.

"There are hundreds, if not thousands of us in your galaxy..." a ghost of Nicole appeared in front of him and then another until there were hundreds of her around him, "You will not survive... make us whole before it's too late..." they all held out their arms, then disappeared altogether, leaving a screaming and thrashing Isaac behind.

"What is the matter with you?" Isaac stopped thrashing and looked back at the spartan, "Cortana, run a scan of his vitals. I need to see if he has any threatening diseases."

"Performing vital scan. Vital scan complete. He appears to have a severe case of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Scans have also verified a unique kind of schizophrenia. Don't be too hasty around this one. He may be dangerous."

Chief looked back to Isaac to see that he wasn't thrashing about anymore. "Listen, Isaac. Just stay calm alright? We need to get you some medicine."

"I'm not crazy. It's the Marker, it's spreading! It's making more of itself. You two have to get away from me, now. I don't know what could happen if you get too close."

"What are you talking about?" Shepard asked him.

"The Marker is some kind of alien artifact. It emits a self-replicating signal. The entire reason I'm going crazy is because of the Marker signal in my head. But I'm afraid that if you stay too close for long enough, you might turn."

"Turn into what, exactly?" Chief began but was interrupted when all of the sudden, a strange sensation passed over the three. It felt like they were being pulled in six different ways. It kept getting stronger and stronger before it went away all together.

And then they fell. Where they were falling they didn't know. Isaac didn't respond as quickly as the others did. Chief didn't look like he was concerned about it and Shepard was contemplating whether or not he was going to hell. But Isaac was having none of it. His helmet enclosed around his head and the thrusters in his boots activated, slowing him down significantly. Next, he shot the two of them with stasis. At this point they were over some kind of strange forest. It was nighttime as the darkness could entail. The only way Isaac could identify the two of them was for either their armor or weapons glowing in the dark. Either way, he had to find a way to get them down safely. He turned around to look for a good spot to land. Thankfully he spotted a shallow pond nearby. So, he used his Kinesis to fling the two of them down that way. Whilst flying through the air, the two of them picked up speed as the Stasis wore off. Isaac boosted towards them and landed with a hard thud beside the pool of water.

A hand reached out of the pool of water and slammed hard down in front of him. From what Isaac could tell, it belonged to Shepard. Shepard climbed slowly out of the water, gasping for breath.

"What's the big idea?" he asked, a look of frustration and annoyance plastered on his face.

"Well, it was either this or fall to your death." Shepard was about to protest before he was interrupted by John practically jumping out of the water.

"Thanks, civilian. But I would rather not do it again."

Shepard slowly lifted himself off of the ground. "Well now what?"

"I don't know. This seems to be an uncharted planet. I can't really say for sure considering there's no signal here. Normally I would be able to connect to the CEC Databases with ease. I wonder what's causing the interference." Isaac's helmet unfolded, leaving them to see his face contorted in confusion.

"Same for me." Shepard and Isaac turned their attention to Chief. "I can't access any of the UNSC Databases. Something is definitely wrong here."

"What about you Shepard? Any luck?" Shepard groaned in annoyance. How Isaac learned of that annoying nickname he would never know.

He turned on his Omni-tool and attempted to search for a signal. "No. I can't access anything out here. So that means I can't call for help." a red light then started beeping on Chief's faceplate.

"What are you about to explode?" asked Isaac nonchalantly.

"No. That's just my radar. Something big is nearby. And it's moving pretty fast. Also, judging from the color, it doesn't look too friendly." Chief stood there while the two of them tensed up somewhat. The engineer's helmet reactivated and Shepard readied his weapon, a Tornado class Shotgun.

"Look, all I said that it was moving fast and it was nearby. That doesn't mean that its coming for-" the super-soldier was interrupted by a huge creature bursting through the bushes nearby. "Or not..."

*HEY! Hope you guys liked this new story of mine. I know, I know. "Wuh unt u werkin un tat utr fuc Hzrd?!?!?!" Well, because I need fresh material. FRESH. As in, minty fresh. Minty clean. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I tried to write this as hard as I could. It wasn't that difficult, it was just I had to TRY and do it. I didn't feel like writing at the moment.

And I hope you guys like the introductions. I think I did better this time.*