Took a bit, not too great. It's a good enough of a try..

I own neither Dead Space nor Halo.

"Isaac… it's me. I wish I could talk to you. I'm sorry...I'm sorry about everything. I wish I could just talk to someone...it's all falling apart here; I can't believe what's happening. It's strange...such a little thing.."

The red and steely white colored Kellion roared into view. Her three boosters, though in vacuum, still sounded like some massive behemoth to those onboard.

Isaac Clarke, the Kellion's Ship engineering specialist, had watched the transmission over and over. Disbelief etched the ship's computer expert as she saw him watch it again.

"How many times have you watched that thing?" '70th time,' thought Clarke.

"Guess you really miss her."

Looking out at the warped space, Daniels nodded at the panels before turning back to Isaac.

"Don't worry. We're almost there. You'll be able to look her up once we're onboard."

"Sounds like you two have a lot of catching up to do."

Looking relieved, the dark-complexioned Chief Security Officer announced to the crew, "Alright, everyone, we're here; synching orbit now."

Kendra walked up to Hammond, staring out at the massive monolith the Ishimura had ripped out from Aegis VII.

"All this trouble over a chunk of rock…"

"Mining in deep space is a lucrative business, Ms. Daniels. Aegis 7 is a gold mine, according to prospector's reports: cobalt, silicon, osmium…now, where is she?"

"There she is! We have visual contact."

"So that's Ishimura. Impressi—"

Hammond's condescending voice interrupted hers, "The USG Ishimura, biggest planet cracker in her class…and it looks like they already popped the cork."

And so they had; suspended above the planet, and directly below the ship, was a monolith of vast proportions suspended from fourteen beams from above and below. Chunks of rock were still breaking off from the 'cork's sheer weight.

Something was not right about the ship.

"Why is it all dark? I don't see any running lights."

Ms. Daniels was correct. Not a single light was active aboard the giant craft. The ship, commonly referred to as the "Pillar of Light," was all but. The very darkness from every port made the Ishimura look like a sort of cancer had killed it, snuffing out every light.

Zach, as if this had happened before, turned to one of the pilots. "Corporal, take us closer in and hail them. And stay clear of that debris field, we're here to fix their ship, not the other way around."

After a lot of buzzing on the signaler, the pilot managed to clear the radio way and send his message

"USG Ishimura, this is the emergency maintenance team of the USG Kellion, responding to your distress call. Come in, Ishimura."

There was no answer.

"We're gonna need to boost our signal if their power's low."

"Yes, we know. Boost the signal."

The transmission, replaying in Isaac's head, sounded clearer and, in a way, more forceful.

"More."

"Never heard of a total communications blackout on one of these things, you'd think that with a thousand people onboard, someone would pick up the phone." Kendra was right. The silence from the Ishimura, the largest mining city in the CEC, was eerie.

A transmission from the mining leviathan found its way to the Kellion. However, it did not sound right; the message was heavily garbled. It was as if the relay had traveled through water before reaching the Kellion. Daniels spotted the problem first.

"Busted array, like we thought. Sounds like they're having problems with their encoder. You get us down there, and Isaac and I can fix it, 48 hours max."

Clarke knew he could go far under that dead line, having done repairs on countless encoding towers within numerous fleets. His record was 7 hours. Mr. Hammond curtly nodded and gave the pilots a command.

"Alright, you heard the lady. Take us in, let's see what need fixing."

A bluish light encircled the cockpit's windows, ionized tethers locking on.

"Gravity tethers engaged, automatic docking procedures a go."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

John had found it helpful to have an AI keeping the security cameras online. He'd managed to avoid those reanimated horrors quite a few times because of her.

Va'dum and Brennan had holed up under the captain's quarters. They had reported something big moving around outside and above, but the Sangheli found it best to not investigate, for their location might have been compromised.

Meanwhile, the Spartan had found a relatively clear dock to keep sending beacons from. They weren't particularly clear, sounding more like a drowning cat than a plea for help. But it would alert anyone nearby.

A crimson and white object outside caught John's eye, as it seemed to careen out of control. He had only three seconds to react and move out of the way, as the smaller craft smashed into Dock G-313. Rubble smashed against his shields, flaring the air around him into a bright, electromagnetic bubble. By the time he got out of the crash field, John's shielding unit was blaring red on his HUD.