"I'm going to Diana." Isaac gave me his decision.

"And you don't care about the Marker?"

“Yeah.”

"Do you think someone needs you enough to save you?"

“Yes! And don't stand in my way. Thank you for saving me, but I'll go on my own.”

"What an independent you are, however.” I chuckled. “All right, I'll accompany you to Diana, and you'll see yourself that I'm right."

After that, Clark went to meet his fate. The funny thing is, he pretended all the way, as if he didn't know me, even though I didn't walk away from him one step, and sometimes even saved his ass from necromorphs.

Pretty quickly Isaac assembled a plasma cutter and even a system of 'pocket telekinesis' from the improvised material. I became interested in this technology, and while I was following the obstinate hero, I explored this mechanism. Surprisingly, this technology was very different from the technologies of the Ancient and Reapers. I even wondered if this approach would work in another world.

Along the way, we met another 'hero' of this story. It was a psycho named Nolan Stross was another test subject, on which they tested technology of the Marker. He kept calling for Isaac to follow him to destroy the Marker. I was not inspired by such an ally, because he was a clear nutcase and a maniac. It was even strange how he managed to avoid necromorph attacks without any weapons.

As we made our way through the deserted corridors of the station, I registered the effect of the Marker on Franco's brain. Soon enough, he started to see glitch, in which Sarah began to explain to him how to destroy the Marker. Her testimony was consistent with Stross's, so I didn't pay much attention to her.

I was much more interested in a certain astral formation attached to Isaac Clarke. It looked like some kind of demon or ghost. This creature was clearly trying to influence its host, but most of its efforts were in vain, because Isaac had blocked the parts of the brain through which this influence was supposed to affect the human consciousness.

Pretty quickly I came to the conclusion that this thing is the Marker. More precisely, the Marker was the physical body that this demon created for himself. And now he was struggling to move himself close to his receptacle to merge with him.

As I watched the creature's actions, I began to better understand how the Obelisk interacted with the necromorphs and the people it consumed. All the astral interaction I have ever known was to establish direct contact between two astral bodies. But here, the effect was more like radio communication. The transmitter adjusted to the frequency of the receiver and broadcast to the world its qualities, that is, in fact just information. And somehow, at the endpoint this information was transformed into an influence or even energy.

The necromorphs themselves were rather blunt creatures. They had brains like a cockroach, with the only difference is that at the sight of a man they did not run away, but on the contrary attacked him. But when the Marker took over the management, the necromorphs became geniuses of strategy and joint activity. However, at the same time, some pattern of actions was visible. Apparently, without the host, Marker's ability to plan his actions was limited.

The astral creature from time to time communicated with the Marker using astral radiation, but used other 'frequencies'. It had no direct contact with the necromorphs. I suspected that the reason for this was the 'pernicious' influence of the Obelisk. Upon contact with it or necromorphs, the astral body of a person literally melted. And it is likely that such a fate could have been expected by the demon. Apparently, his immunity to such effects was limited.

While I was researching the nature of the Marker, Isaac reached Diana's hideout in the Church of Unitology.

"You go alone for now, and I'll come and see you later." I instructed the unlucky hero, stopping in the corridor.

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Throughout the entire journey, Isaac never mentioned that anyone else was walking with him. I turned on my identification chip only to open the doors, which had time to close after my companion passed through them. So, in fact, like a hare, I got to this place unnoticed by anyone.

I listened Isaac's conversation with the fanatical fools through an eavesdropping spell. And as soon as it became clear that Diana's goal was not just to save Isaac, but to use him to produce new Markers, I immediately broke into the room and banally chopped all of the unitologists to pieces. They did not expect such a turn of events, and therefore did not even have time to moan.

Just as I was shaking the blood from my blade, an assault spaceship appeared outside the window and started trying to shoot Isaac. It was ruled by agent Hans Tadman - the man who behind of the creation of the Marker. He was raving about using Obelisk as a source of energy, although in fact his brains had long been 'washed' by a demon sitting in Isaac's head.

After missing the assault spaceship's shots above him, Isaac abruptly opened a hatch in the floor and leaped through it, hiding from the heavy machine gun fire. I did not hide, but took the fire 'on the chest', while forming a powerful blaster in my hand. A couple of shots turned the assault spaceship into a fireball, which exploded, spreading flaming debris.

I jumped into the hatch after Isaac. As far as I knew, there was a huge necromorph waiting for him, which the mere mortal could not cope with. After flying ten meters, I landed right on the back of this creature. Isaac was lying down there, frantically pouring a fat body with fire from his cutter. I did not slow down and immediately cut off the necromorph’s a limb and then performed an autopsy of its body, spilling out the guts.

Although necromorphs were not alive, they copied the structure of the creatures from whose flesh they were created. Significant damage to the carcass switched the 'work' mode of this creature, causing it to go into 'waiting' mode. This meant that the necromorph did not die, but only decided to rest a little and think about the ‘eternal’.

"Damn it! I hate these things!!!” Isaac shouted, pulling his legs out from under the huge carcass. "Die! Die! Fuck! Die!!” He shouted, frantically kicking the necromorph.

"Ha, ha. I like the way you do it.” I noticed. “No respect for the dead."

Every time Isaac met someone's corpse, he necessarily kicked him several times in the head, trying to trample them. And in most cases, he succeeded.

"If you don't dismember the bodies and destroy the brains, they can transform into necromorphs at any moment.” A professional dismemberer shared his wisdom.

"They'll turn into them anyway.” I said lazily, leaning against the wall. "Only with a slight delay.” Isaac didn't say anything to that, just frowned. "What are you going to do next? As you may have already realized, there is no escape from here. The station is under quarantine, and all rescue capsules and private transports are blocked.”

The hero once again looked at me with a gloomy look and sat down on the necromorph.

"And what do you suggest?” He asked.

“Destroy the Marker. Then all the necromorphs will die, and we'll have plenty of time to solve the evacuation problem.”

"All right, lead the way."

It seems that without external guidance, Isaac didn't have the willpower to go anywhere. All he could do was a fight for survival here and now. We moved through the dark corridors of the station toward the government sector. It was at a distance of ten kilometers, and the shortest way to get there was through outer space. It seems that earlier, when the asteroid was still part of the planet, the government sector was built on the other side of a deep canyon. Now this canyon has turned into a deep furrow on the surface of the asteroid, making it look like a coffee bean.

When we got out of the Church, we encountered another survivor. It was a girl named Ellie - a military pilot and just a badass bitch At the same time, Nolan Stross came to contact with us again, something muttering about the destruction of the Marker with the help of some steps of his ingenious plan.

At first, the girl did not want to join our company, but after only fifteen minutes she realized that the crowd of necromorphs is better to be killed with another crowd. Where she broke through with the fight, we passed without any effort. Alas, the fact that we were going in parallel paths prevented us from unite immediately. But half an hour later, Isaac and I stumbled into the room where Ellie and Strauss were sitting.

"Hi.” I smiled to a pretty girl. "Why are you so gloomy?"

"I don't see any reason to be happy.” She answered.

"You're still alive. Is not this a reason to be happy?”

"We need to do the first step.” The madman interrupted my flirtation. "The dark equipment is waiting for us. We need to get into it and then tighten the screws securely.”

So, here we have someone clearly superfluous.

"Are you flirting with another girl?" Sarah's hallucination, which had appeared in Franco's mind, cut into my thoughts. "Before I was dead, are you find someone else?"

'What kind of madhouse is this!!? So, we will solve the problems consistently. First, I'll get rid of the Stross, then I'll get rid of the hallucinations, and then I'm going to get this Ellie into bed. Or I'll fuck her right here on the table, and then I'll take care of the Marker’. I thought with my rented brains.