Chapter Text
Heart pounding on his chest as the skylight above was shredded with the force of sudden pressure failure, Isaac slammed his helmet shut and ran for his life. The vacuum of space burst the reinforced glass into dust with the explosive crumpling of the frame holding the panes, loose furniture and light fixtures whipped past him through the gaping, growing hole above him, the air rapidly leaking from the facility was causing him to loose ground with every step, heavy boots slipping and sliding on the floor. His suit had roughly four minutes of oxygen, it wasn't meant for more than short space walks, he'd suffocate before he froze to death, and that was if his ridiculous fortune held out long enough for the Necromorphs to freeze before they ripped him limb from limb.
"Oh, fuck, not... like... this!" He punctuated each word slamming his gloved fists into the metal floor to make hand-holds.
Brain racing a million miles a minute, he knew his options were limited, and only growing fewer by the second. A brilliant blue light suddenly blinded Isaac, he winced but tried to focus on the source. There was a hole in reality, like a swirling window peering into a different place entirely. It - it looked like Earth? Fuck it, no time to think. He wedged his boots underneath him into his hand-holds, perched precariously as the floating station he was inside fell apart around him, he launched himself with all of his strength, diving head first through the glowing "window"as the floor ripped apart behind him. The portal or wormhole, window-thing blinked out of existence the second Isaac crashed to the ground on the other side, leaving him sitting in the dark, only the light from his helmet visor to help him see.
An office? No. Perhaps a museum. The technology was far too old, LED monitors, primitive computers, computer towers. As Isaac made his way slowly through the room, which he guessed must be a recreation of the old world "cubicle farms", he wondered what place had such an extensive model of historical Earth items. When he found a doorway he stared for several moments, there was a handle on the door. He searched the frame of the door for the motion sensor or RIG detector. It had neither.
"What the fuck?" He breathed inside his luminous helmet.
No place in the system had publicly accessible areas without RIG monitors, it was against the law. Reaching for the handle slowly, Isaac was surprised when it turned, he'd half expected it to be fake. The door swung inward towards him, he didn't like that, it offered no cover. Peeking into the hallway, he checked both directions, it was pitch black inside wherever he was, and uncomfortably silent. Plasma cutter-turned-handgun at the ready, he stepped into the hall. Out of curiosity but little hope it would help, he checked his navigation module. The blue light flicked on from his palm, aimed at the floor. He watched the light cycle for a moment, like a glowing worm breathing, before flickering off. As expected, it offers him no clues. Casting a paranoid glance over his shoulder, Isaac knew he needed to keep moving if he wanted to stay alive. Maybe he could find some answers to where he was and how he'd gotten here, and most importantly, if it was safe here.
Measured footsteps muffled the heft of his metal boots as he stalked the dark corridors, the flashlight he'd welded to his makeshift plasma cutter gun casting enough light to help him avoid running into walls. His shoulders ached, he was so tense he could feel his muscles starting to cramp. There were no scattered papers, no upturned furniture, no arterial spray, no mangled limbs and mutated monsters. It set his teeth on edge. After clearing the floor he was on, he made a mental note that the HVAC ducts here didn't seem big enough for engineers to maintenance. None of the doors were automatic, all of them had handles that turned or were pressed to open it. There were no windows, which lead him to believe he was underground or in an inner part of whatever building he'd appeared in. As he began to double back, he decided to investigate the rooms individually.
Many of them were small offices with locked file cabinets, tiny desks, and those same, ancient computers with wires and analogue keyboards. There were even telephones on every desk, Isaac was beginning to question if he'd gone back in time.
"I choose not to deal with that right now." He said to himself more to hear a voice than for any other reason.
After only a brief consideration of the possible consequences, Isaac began breaking open the locked filing cabinets and rifling through the documents. He was somewhere vaguely referred to by the papers as "Site A", and it appeared they produced and stored massive amounts of unstable energy. Nothing gave him enough information to form an idea of where he was, though. If he was in a secure facility, would the execs be higher up? Or further down? Perhaps it was the memories of his home city, buildings high enough to break through clouds, and cushy top floor offices for all the shit holes making millions and skipping out on taxes or reasonable work conditions for their employees. He shook his head, now was really not the time to get lost in such a petty line thought. Who gave a shit about tax evasion when his government has been letting a cult feed bodies to aliens like it was their job?? He mentally slapped himself, why was it so hard to focus?
In a far corner he found an old elevator beside a staircase. The elevator had two glowing buttons, an up arrow and a down arrow, at least the building had power. Isaac glanced at the stairs, he didn't see a light switch. Nope, not getting cornered in a dark, creepy staircase today. He pushed the up button and the doors slid open. He could hear the mechanism pulling the doors open, this whole thing was mechanical? Swallowing, Isaac stepped inside with a new appreciation for the electromagnetic elevators he was used to. Plasma cutter shaking in his trembling hands, weak from exhaustion and coming down off his tenth or twelfth adrenaline high, Isaac slumped against the elevator wall as it shuddered and began it's ascent. How long had he been awake? When was the last time he'd eaten? He couldn't remember. He was still hoping he might not even be awake right now...
SHHUNK
The elevator came to a stop with a jerk, throwing Isaac off his feet, his helmet bouncing off the floor. Dazed, he felt his stomach shift, the elevator brakes gave way, he could hear it when the pulley snapped. With a deafening screech, he was suddenly plummeting hundreds of feet down. Scrambling to get to his feet, Isaace prayed there was any charge left in his stasis unit as he aimed it, already countless stories beneath the floor he'd appeared on. Aiming his hand at the roof of the elevator, he sent a pulse of stasis energy into the wheels above him attaching the metal box to the frame of the elevator shaft. The lift stopped abruptly again, this time he caught himself on the railing and immediately climbed through the hatch in the roof of the elevator. Forcing the doors to the nearest floor open, Isaac tumbled to safety with a grunt. Panting to catch his breath, he glanced around his environment, his blood went cold. The familiar glow of dancing candlelight was flooding the hallway from a nearby room. Readying his weapon once again, he crept forward, letting his gun lead him into the next area.
It was laboratory, but a much more familiar sight. Bloody sigils painted on the walls, candles covering every surface, and in the center, a massive, stone sarcophagus with symbols carved into the lid.
"What the fuck now..." He mumbled, plasma cutter aimed at the crypt.
What sounded like a friendly robot replied with a smooth voice from somewhere around him, "Hello, my name is Vega."