Detective Pendergast makes his way to the landing bay, seeking survivors within the depths of death and sorrow of the Ishimura….

After the seemingly endless crawl through the maintenance shaft he had felt he had enough. Kendra had been guiding him since his departure from the core, and with all the detours required to avoid the countless terrors of the vessel Derek was ready to leave the cramped quarters.

"Kendra, I'm at the landing bay maintenance hatch."

With a hiss the hatch opened, revealing the landing bay they had used to gain entrance to the Ishimura…it felt so long ago. The still-smoking remains of the Kellion sat at the bottom of the bay, no crews available to remove the melancholic sight.

"Is he still in the control room?"

"Not for the main landing bay," Kendra informed him, her voice echoing in as a video her face appeared shimmering in front of him, generated by his RIG suit. "He's in the control room of the main shuttle bay, head through the flight lounge and work your way up, I can unlock the doors from here."

"He may be trying to find a working shuttle; I'll check the bay when I get there." Derek followed the ramp up through the newly unlocked gate, the expansive bay area greeting his arrival.

On a ship such as the Ishimura there were several bays such as this, each one holding a handful of shuttles reserved for specific expeditions and ship executives. While most of the pads were empty, one held the battered remains of a wrecked shuttle obviously in no state to fly. Working his way deeper into the room he noticed on the far end near the control room sat what appeared to be an undamaged shuttle.

"Kendra you are going to love this," he shouted into his RIG, a widening smile on his face. "Most of the shuttles are gone or scrapped, but I got one that looks as if it hasn't been touched!"

"I can see it from here," she responded through voice only. "See if you can get inside, and pray all the systems are working."

Derek made his way to the sealed shuttle doorway, searching for a way in; quickly he started working on the control pad.

"Dang, no good Kendra, the shuttle is sealed tight and it has a security code in place. Can you override it, says it requires authorization from a Doctor Ky…" his conversation was cut short as a legless necromorph, the same kind as the one from the ambush on the bridge, leapt from the roof of the shuttle, landing mere feet from him.

Backing into the shuttle door he opened fire, blasting away its arms as it made a mad dash for him faster than he could have possibly imagined something without legs could move. As the last of its arms fell away Derek dived to the side, its lifeless body slamming headfirst from its momentum into the shuttle door, its body exploding on impact.

With no chance for respite more necromorphs burst forth from the air vents scattered all over the bay, the spinning of the vents causing the rancid smell of rotting flesh to hit Derek like a wave.

More legless ones dropped in from the ceiling while more human-shaped ones like what they had first encountered emerged from the vents, some sprouting massive pulsating yellow tumors growing from their arms. Lurching his way they blocked the escape route back to the flight lounge.

"Kendra, there are way too many, are there any alternate routes out of the bay?"

Kendra's face flashed over the RIG, a welcome sight despite visually hampering Derek as he ran from the creatures, firing what few bullets he had left. "I…I don't know," he could see her fingers were moving furiously across the keyboard before her. "I don't see any other than the control room, but that's a dead end as well."

The creatures gained ground, he had taken out all the leaping necromorphs, however, the rest moved in, and he was down to his last clip once more.

"Derek, this way!" shouted a voice from the other side of the shuttle.

Confused Derek turned to the direction of the familiar voice, standing before the wrecked shuttle.

"Neumann?" Derek shouted at his old friend. He was standing next to the destroyed shuttle, unlike the pristine shuttle its doors were wide open, with a single hand Neumann motioned for Derek to join him.

"This way, get inside."

Unloading his final clip into the mob of creatures Derek made a mad dash for the shuttle, through sheer luck one of his bullets struck the glowing tumor of one of the creatures, causing it to explode, blowing many apart and throwing the mob into disarray.

As he rushed towards the opened hatch Abraham Neumann turned and took a single step into the darkened shuttle, disappearing from sight.

Sprinting as fast as his legs could carry him Derek followed, reaching the shuttle just as the necromorphs had recouped from the explosion, some maintaining chase despite several limbs blown off.

"Close…close dangit!" Derek shouted, hitting the keypad, each strike causing the door to close a little more at a snail's pace. With only inches to close a nearby creature erupted a volley of mucus-covered spikes from its mouth, slamming into the door, a single spike making it through, piercing Derek through the shoulder.

The shuttle door clanged shut, sealing him inside the utter blackness.

"Son of a bloody…," Derek groaned, pulling the spike out with a grunt, covering his bleeding wound with his free hand. "Whew, thanks for the save Abe, I thought I was a goner there…"

"Kendra….Kendra!" he shouted, bringing up his video link, using it to illuminate the shuttle interior.

As the image of Kendra flickered into life he saw a single flash of his best friend standing before him, before the video shorted out, restoring the utter blackness. Not a moment later the image shimmered into being, there was no sign of Abraham Neumann.

Despite the external damage suffered the shuttle itself had little worse for wear on the inside, only a few shorting out panels and disheveled equipment hinted at any problems.

"Derek? Dear god I thought I'd lost you, where are you now?"

"Inside a damaged shuttle, from the looks of it I think this came from the colony, you think this is how the things got aboard?"

"That or from the corpses the Captain ordered brought up, some kind of mass suicide from the colony, I'll relay the logs to your RIG. How are you doing?"

Derek tilted his wounded shoulder towards the vid screen before bringing his pistol into full view, ejecting the final clip.

"Fresh out, though if it hadn't been for your magazines I would be long dead, how many RIG signals are you detecting in the shuttle bay?"

"Don't mention it," she paused once more at Derek's second question. I'm only detecting yours and the survivor; he is still in the shuttle control room. Look around you, those shuttles usually come equipped pretty heavily for colony emergencies, see if you can find some meds and a plasma cutter or some tool you can use as a weapon."

Sighing Derek started rummaging through the shuttle, the scratching outside making it very hard to concentrate. To his dismay nearly all the lockers and storage spaces in the shuttle were bare, empty plasma cutter rounds and spent bullet casings littered the floor. Each locker had been ransacked; only a few small med kits still remained inside.

Taking one of the med packs he rammed it violently into his wound, fighting the pain as he injected the medicine. After several moments the pain subsided, the medicine had done its work, though a searing scar remained across his shoulder the wound had closed. Tossing the spent injector away his eyes fell on the final locker.

It was much larger than the others and heavily reinforced, the security lock remained tight, no one had gotten inside it, the insignia of P-Sec adorned the front.

"What is it?" Kendra asked, able to see through Derek's still activated screen.

"A Planet-side Security storage locker, they keep one of these aboard shuttles in case of emergencies, but you need to have P-sec officer level clearance in order to open it. If we're lucky they stockpiled some weapons inside before take off."

Approaching the pad Derek leaned in close, pressing the center key the pad shimmered to life.

"Enter au-au-authorization," the console boomed, its voice fragmenting as it spoke.

"Detective Second-Class Derek Michael Pendergast, badge number: Earth-5712, code word…Convergeance.

The locker hummed, a bright light flashing down the center releasing the lock, with a prolonged hiss the door swung open.

Derek's eyes grew wide, a smile forming as he could scarcely contain his joy at the sight before him.

"What is that?" Kendra asked, trying to get a good look at the inside of the locker.

"That Ms. Daniels…is a P-sec anti-riot combat RIG suit…"

Soon to be armed with the means to fight back against the Necromorphs, Detective Pendergast continues his mission to discover the secret behind the monstrous outbreak….and save as many people as he can….

Sorry for the delays, with recent developments chapters may take longer to get out, but rest assured I'm still working on this! =)