Dead Space: Isolation

“B-but sir!”

“No buts. You’re the one with wings here, you can make it back to the transport easier than any of us ground ponies.”

The four of us had made it to an abandoned street after escaping the horde of monsters in the apartments. It had been an easy escape between all the adrenaline pumping through me and the creatures tripping all over each other. Still the mad dash was exhausting. The armored mare beside me as well as myself were still huffing even though we had already stopped running for several minutes. I was no soldier and I could tell Short Fuse wasn’t either. She didn’t seem like the soldier type with the way she talked to Captain Cutter. I’d never seen a soldier talk to their superior like she had with him. And I had seen a lot of Unitology soldiers, my mother being a politician who invested a lot of her faith in the military.

The Captain was set on getting rid of one of the only two trained fighters we had with us for the time being. I didn’t like the sound of that but I could understand why. Sometime during our investigation of the apartments and our sprint to this street we lost contact with the transport and Tight Wind would have the easiest time getting back to our ride. Fuse was convinced something was wrong with the long range receiver on the vehicle that allowed to talk with us further out in the city. As for me... those creatures made me paranoid.

“Y-you can’t send me back to the transport! We need to get the power back on!” Wind argued futilely.

“I understand your concern for the mission and the repair fillies-”

“That’s not it,” Fuse cut in, sneering under her helmet. “He just doesn’t want to be sent back alone. He’s scared of what he’ll find,” She let out an irritated humph before facing the hovering pegasus. “There’s nothing wrong. Something just broke on the damn receiver! The antenna probably snapped. It’s freezing and hardware for those trucks is getting cheaper and cheaper.”

“As I was saying...” I assumed Cutter was scowling behind his visor. “I can handle anything that gets in the way of the power plant. And if you run into trouble just use those wings the Ancient Ones blessed you with.”

“B-but-”

“Enough soldier! Get back to our vehicle or you’ll be worse off than the poor buck the techhead wasted!” I heard Fuse mutter something about that ‘poor buck’ being a sick bastard that deserved much worse. Tight Wind let out a defeated sigh and flew off back where we came. I pitied the pegasus and at the same time thanked the spirits I wasn’t in his place. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to go back on my own either after what we saw.

“Alright ladies,” Cutter began, bringing up a holographic map of the area we were in. “looks like we need to go through the Healing Through Faith hospital up ahead if we want to get to the power plant anytime soon.”

“A hospital?” I interjected in disbelief. “We just got away from a horde of zombies and you expect us to go through a hospital!?”

“It’s either that or try to find a quicker way in the dark,” Fuse pointed out. I honestly wasn’t sure which I’d prefer to do.

“Is that smoke?” Cutter cut in, looking off in the distance. I followed his gaze to a small pillar of smoke in between a few tall buildings. It wasn’t all too far away and was near our route to the hospital.

“Do you wanna check it out?” I suggested. “It wouldn’t divert us that far, it’s right there.”

“Yeah,” Cutter agreed. “I want to see if there are anymore survivors.” If we did, I prayed they weren’t like the pony we saw earlier. Short Fuse audibly disagreed with the idea.

“C’mon fillies,” Cutter ordered, ignoring Fuse’s comments.

It hadn’t taken long to make it to the source of the smoke. On our way, we heard sporadic gunfire in the distance on the way. Once we reached the scene, we saw the smoke came from a severely damaged civilian transport and the gunfire was from several bloodied ponies with small firearms shooting at a rooftop and an armored unicorn that was taking cover around the corner of a building.

One of the bloody ponies jumped out of their cover of the ruined transport to fire a shot at where the unicorn hid and took a bullet to the head from a rooftop. He fell in a heap, staining the snow around him red as blood spilled from his body. A unicorn and earthpony charged toward the unicorn with pickaxes, the bloody unicorn let out a shriek like I never heard a pony make. The armored pony peeked around the corner, levitating a Plasma Cutter and fired the tool into the charging ponies’ legs. The screaming unicorn tried to evade the shot and managed to get her forelegs out of the way but fell over with another scream of pain as the shot reduced her hindleg to a stump. I watched in stunned horror when the molten hot bolt of plasma cut into the earthpony’s foreleg. It didn’t cut completely through but it cut through enough for the pony to trip and bend the leg a way it really shouldn’t. The red fluid in her leg spilled onto the snow and concrete below. The pony yelled out in pain before a vertical bolt of plasma brought the pony’s suffering to a violent and messy end. The armored pony tried to do the same for the unicorn but she rolled out of the way with tears in her eyes and a look of sheer rage before throwing her axe. The weapon stabbed into armored unicorn’s shoulder who went back into cover with a somewhat masculine yelp.

I was in awe as I saw the grievously injured pony start to crawl her way to the other unicorn. The a blue dot appeared on the unicorn’s head that could be traced back to Fuse’s pistol. It was surprising that she could aim the gun so quick from this distance, being that she was a technician but she managed and sent a bullet into the wounded pony’s head with ease.

The unicorn in deep red security armor pulled the axe from his shoulder, panting heavily as he did so and looked toward our group. Captain Cutter wasted no more time charging into the battle. He aimed his rifle toward a pony hiding behind a mail shoot and shot a small round object from it. The object exploded on contact, tearing through the shoot and into the pony behind it just as a grenade should.

I followed Fuse behind a transport where she took to shooting. I couldn’t see who she was shooting at, instead focusing on Cutter. A pony with a Rivet Gun similar to mine in their magical grip fired at him but the shots barely penetrated his armor before he slammed into her. She yelped out in surprise as the bundle of stallion and metal struck her and fell over clutching her shoulder. Cutter let out a single shot of his pulse rifle into her skull. Another unicorn charged him with a plasma saw. I gasped. That thing would tear through his armor like tissue!

Cutter couldn’t move fast enough but whoever was on the roof was able to tear out most of the unicorn’s chest with a large caliber round. The pony fell into the snow with a crunch. A bullet ricocheted off the transport I took cover behind, causing me to scream and jump back, bumping into Fuse and knocking her over as she fired her gun.

“Hey! Watch it!” she growled, rising back to her hooves and regaining her composure.

“Sorry...” I apologized, feeling bad for getting in the way in an already intense moment. Fuse sighed and looked over the transport at something.

“There’s somepony behind that bench, I could use some covering fire,” she told me. I wasn’t sure if she really did need help or if she just wanted me to feel useful but I suppose it didn’t really matter. I aimed the rivet gun on my battleframe, taking from what I saw the mare Cutter killed doing.

The blue line shot from my tool, aimed at the bench and began firing rivets into it. Fuse did the same with her pistol. What we didn’t expect was for the pony to be a pegasus and swoop over the bench, firing a plasma cutter from his mouth. the bolt struck the transport but the vehicle protected us from the hit. We fired as he flew but none of my rivets hit him. One of Fuse’s bullets was buried into his side but it didn’t slow him down. Soon he was right above us and a bolt of plasma struck a metal plate on my back. Searing pain lanced through me as it burned through the armor and into my hide. Something in me kicked into overdrive and time seemed to slow as I screamed. It was like nothing else was there except for me and the pegasus. I hurt and I sure as hell wouldn’t let him do that again. My rivet gun quickly pointed up right at his wing. The pointed hunk of superheated metal embedded itself into his wing before he could aim another blow. He shrieked and dropped the tool before slamming into a building with a loud crack and a shower of blood. The corpse landed nearby with a meaty thud.

I stood there, frozen for a moment as the moment vanished and the pain flooded over me. I slumped over against our cover, panting heavily which echoed from inside my helmet. The cramped helmet made it hard to breath but I really didn’t want to take it off in the middle of a fight.

“Good shot,” Fuse commented with a smirk. “Your R.I.G is almost red, take a health pack.” I nodded and pulled up my inventory screen. A hologram projected off my R.I.G, showing me what supplies my suit contained. I selected a medium med pack and my suit began healing my wound with the supplies given to it from the medicine. I didn’t feel better right away but over time my suit would heal me better. The process took time, up to a half hour with more severe wounds.

I looked out to the battle, it didn’t look like many ponies were left. I heard Fuse reload her pistol beside me. “Damnit, used up a whole clip. I think Cutter can handle the rest.” I think Cutter could have handled them all...

Him and the unicorn stranger were fighting beside one another, corpses of the crazed ponies all around them. Cutter loomed over a fallen one and bashed the poor pony’s head in with a single hoof. His legs were glistening with blood and his armor had numerous small dents yet his R.I.G was hardly in the yellow. The unicorn’s R.I.G had read a full blue despite having taken an axe to the shoulder and Ascension knows what else. I assumed he had med packs as well but the blood coating his armor made that difficult to confirm.

Two more ponies fell before the unicorn’s Plasma Cutter. The bloody dismembered corpses around them made me realize this wasn’t much of a fight and more of a slaughter. A small number of well armed and armored ponies vs a swarm of poorly equipped ponies with nothing more than a few packs and bandoleers for protection. A few of the bodies even had large holes that none of our weapons could have caused. It made me wonder what weapon the pony on the roof was using.

Things got quiet. I could practically hear Cutter’s heavy breathing over mine even from a distance. That’s when one of the bloodied ponies charged out of cover with two pistols and some sort of warcry. A barrage of pistol rounds rained upon Cutter and the unicorn buck, mostly the former. The buck with the dual weapons tried to make for a transport for cover while he fired but the Captain wasn’t having any of that. He grunted and took the hits, his RIG’s health meter slowly dropping with each shot that hit home, and fired a grenade from his rifle. The grenade hit the wall behind him, launching fire and shrapnel all around it. The buck with the pistols wasn’t hit directly but he was close enough to the blast that he was knocked off his hooves and took several wounds.

As the buck tried to rise to his hooves while Cutter ejected a spent canister from his rifle. The armored pony aimed his Plasma Cutter for the finishing blow but the bloody pony had different plans. He pulled a grenade from a pocket and pulled the pin. There was a gunshot and he exploded into a mess of goop. The sniper shot his grenade before he even had a chance to throw it. Fuse laughed beside me.

“Damn, I gotta meet this pony!” Clearly she was impressed. As for me I was still in shock from the fight and the fact that I had killed somepony was starting to sink in. With the danger passed, I made my helmet recede to breath easier and ignored the chilling wind that was nipping at my face and ears. My sweat didn’t help with that. The group started back towards eachother, I followed Fuse absent mindedly. I was still stuck on what I’d witnessed, what I’d done. The past hour or so I’ve been here was too much stress for me. I was just an engineer, how did I get caught up in this? I could blame my mom but really who could expect something like this would happen? So far I witnessed the aftermath of a brutal massacre, an insane cannibal eating ponies, ...zombies ugh, and the deaths of a few dozen ponies, one of which I was responsible for. I still couldn’t fathom the act I committed and I really didn’t want to think about it while I was stuck out here. I needed to go home, and the only way to do that was to cooperate. I shoved my thoughts away from the horror and guilt, instead focusing on what needed to be done. Grieving and therapy would have to wait until I got back home.

We reached eachother near where the unicorn buck took cover and soon a pegasus in similar security barding as the unicorn landed lightly beside us, a Seeker Rifle on their side. Soon Cutter’s helmet was away and Fuse’s followed. The two security ponies did the same. Under the unicorn’s helmet was a solid grey buck with a black mane, his appearance similar to mine aside from his coat being a darker grey and striking hot pink eyes. His face however was covered in small cuts and bruises. The pegasus was a mare with a long blonde mane that was done up in a bun for her helmet. Her coat was dirty and white with wounds much like the buck’s. Her eyes were a dark orange and they screamed that she’d seen too much.

“Thanks for the help,” the buck gave a small smile and holstered his tool. “I don’t think I would have made it if you didn’t show up.”

“It’s a pleasure to help, sir,” Cutter told the buck politely. “Maim,” he added to the mare. “I’m Captain Cutter of the Unitology Armed Forces by the way,” He announced, extending his hoof as a gesture. The buck grinned and bumped his hoof in return.

“Jury Rigger,” he informed us. “And that’s my marefriend Trigger Happy.” What kind of a name was Trigger Happy. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to find out. Trigger Happy grinned as well clearly happy about something.

“I was waiting for the military to show up, you gonna get us out of here?” she asked almost too hopefully. My heart ached, wishing we could. The Captain grimaced.

“Sadly we can’t...” Trigger Happy’s expression was turning sour fast and Fuse cut in.

“Some idiot only gave us enough fuel in our transport for a one way trip,” Fuse scoffed, shifting the blame away from us. “Now the only place to get the right fuel for our ride home is from the science facility. So because of some fucking idiot we’re just as stuck here as anypony else.”

Trigger’s face softened from anger to disappointment. “So we’re not leaving yet...” She growled and stomped her metal encased hoof on the ground. “We’re never getting out of here!”

“Hey,” Jury said softly, moving by her and giving her a nuzzle. “We’ll get out. We just gotta keep fighting until we do.” Trigger sighed and nuzzled him back, her face softening once more.

“Who were the ponies you were fighting?” Cutter asked, cutting into their moment.

Trigger glared at the many freshly killed ponies with clear malice. “Cultists,” she growled. We each looked at her questioningly. “Fucking loonies think this is our salvation. That this is what Unitology was leading up to. This isn’t the Unity we were promised!”

“Why would they think that?” I wondered.

“The Visions...” Rigger muttered.

“The what? What exactly happened here?” Cutter questioned.

“I’m not sure how this began,” Rigger started. “But about two weeks ago, there were several ‘incidents’ that Trigger Happy told me about. Ponies kept on going crazy and murdering each other. Not normal murder either, bloody and gruesome. Excessive dismemberment, disfiguration, cryptic writing on the walls much like you see around now.” He sighed. “Have any of you had the Visions yet? Of passed away loved ones or messages?” Cutter and I looked at eachother and I shrugged, Fuse, however, looked a bit shaken. “Don’t listen to them. They drive you mad and make you think things are different from what they really are. No matter how convincing they are they’re lies!” He ended with a huff

Trigger wrapped a hoof around him and continued for him. “A week ago, somepony made it here from the facility and from there it all went to hell. The Necromorphs, the zombie ponies that infest everyplace in the colony, started taking over. Within three days they had half the city, survivors flocked to the stadium. With the help of the Cultists they had the whole colony in five...” Before any of us could ask she iterated. “Throughout the two weeks of the murders and necro invasion, the Cultists were rapidly gaining power. I don’t know how they started or how they grew so fast, though I have a few ideas, but they became large and organized enough to bring down the stadium. They trashed the place from the inside and promised ponies safety if they followed the Cultist, death for anypony who opposed them.” She paused for a moment, as if thinking back to then was painful. I felt the others along side me listening intently. “They... they were true to their word. Rounding up anypony who would join them and opened the place up for the Necros once they left. It was a slaughter...”

“The ones we fought we call Berserkers,” Rigger told us. “They’re ponies who’ve fallen to the Visions. They’ve gone completely mad, almost as bad as the Necros in the sense that they’re reckless and don’t seem to care about their lives.”

“Where exactly can we find these Cultists?” Cutter’s tone didn’t mask his intentions. After hearing what they did I wanted to make them pay too, but I really didn’t want to get in there way if they were as big and organized as Trigger claimed they were.

“Dunno,” Rigger answered with a shrug. “That’s what we’ve been trying to find out for the past two days.”

“It’s hard enough to survive let alone fight these asshole,” Trigger growled.

“Listen,” Cutter began, “I can give you the coordinates to our transport to your R.I.Gs, we have enough food to survive there for awhile. It’s not that far from here. Rest up as much as you need.”

Rigger smiled and Trigger looked relieved to have someplace to stay for the night. The buck saluted. “We promise we won’t make that much of a mess,” he gave us a wry grin. The pegasus slapped the back of his head. I think I blushed.

“What are you going to do?” Trigger questioned.

“We were going to get the power back on and try to find some fuel for our transport or a different one fit enough to take us home,” Cutter told them, nodding to each of us. “These two fillies here should be able to bring the station back online.”

“I hope so,” the mare sighed. “It’d be nice to have some light again. Be careful though, we haven’t been up there, don’t know what it’s like.”

Cutter nodded and his helmet wrapped around his head once more. “You should get going before it’s night. There should be some ponies down there already. Tell them we sent you.”

Soon the two were on their way to our vehicle, Trigger carrying Rigger as they flew. We watched them for a few moments before Cutter finally turned to us. “It looks like we’re in something bigger than we were prepared for.”

“Crazy ponies, zombies, we should have brought more soldiers,” Short Fuse rolled her eyes and her helmet covered her face once more.

I just looked down, trying to push those thoughts away. This would be hard to deal with even without thinking about our situation. I just needed to think about what we had to do now, I didn’t need to remind myself of all that was happening. Fix the power station, that’s all I needed to know. That’s when I noticed my companions were looking at me.

“Cassi?”Cutter asked with a surprisingly gentle tone.

“Let’s just get to the station,” I responded before my helmet extended around my head. The stallion nodded and lead our way to our objective. We were going to be stuck in Harmony for a while.