Contact with a Dead Galaxy. (Dead Space and The Culture crossover) (F for any)

[Lustful Bride]

(This is a crossover based on a crazy idea I had while talking with a friend of putting in The Culture by Ian M. Banks, into the setting of Dead Space. If you are familiar with both properties feel free to PM me. I'd prefer if you were very familiar with The Culture since my knowledge of it is still amateurish, I haven't finished the whole series yet but I have a good gist on how the setting works. Though I will admit that my Dead Space lore is mostly based on the games as I have not read the books. I will include two alternate scenarios down below for how The Culture could find its way into the setting of Dead Space).

The universe is a cold, dark, and unforgiving place. Extinction is always on the horizon, even for star faring species. This is a fact known to many among The Culture. They know that there are bigger fish out there, that the Sublimed are so far above them even the Minds dare not piss them off too much. Their position within their home galaxy is stable, safe, for now. But it may not be that way in the future, and the Culture always likes to keep one more ace up their sleeve for all possibilities. If something were to wipe them all out in their home galaxy, then at least some of them could survive out in another galaxy, or in the cold darkness between galaxies long enough to figure out a better plan. Even if they never need to make use of such a plan, it doesn't hurt to go out and explore new locations, see what existence has to offer.

Thinking upon this for a few cycles, the Minds decide to choose the three Minds best suited to the task, and a GSV ship that will able to make the journey across Galaxies with the best of everything the Culture has to offer. The GSVs are the best the Culture has, and it gives the mission the best chance at setting up the first extra galactic colony for The Culture. At the edge of their galaxy a special dock is prepared to help launch the ship into dark space to help speed up the journey. The GSV fills both hull and fields with mass in anticipation of needing to build/repair without being able to harvest once in the new Galaxy, and there are more than enough people willing to come along with the city sized ship and see what lays beyond their galaxy. Its the perfect distraction for many of The Culture's citizens that want something new as many line up for the chance to either join the mission or be first in line for any follow ups. If this goes well enough, the Culture may look further into Extra-Galactic missions. 

The Waiting Out Entropy is chosen to house three Minds that will embark on a great journey, of colonization and exploration with the latest scientific analysis equipment the Minds of The Culture can provide. As a GSV it is the perfect ship for the job, the design goal of a General Systems Vehicle is that they be able to do anything and everything that the Culture itself is capable of doing using the on-board facilities. It has always been the stated goal that if the Culture were somehow destroyed in an instant, all it would take would be a single GSV that would (in theory) be capable of re-building the Culture with no loss of knowledge or technology. They have never had to test that theory so far, but it always helps to keep something for a rainy day.

The Three minds on the ship, and various drones, are more than capable of handling every single system aboard it, in peace and in war. The organic and inorganic crew are mostly there to keep the Minds company, and ensure genetic diversity of the Culture is spread to the next Galaxy, on the off chance anything untoward happens to the home galaxy during the trip. It has more than enough supplies and storage pods to make an immediate return trip without resupply if necessary, or get to work building factories an fabricators for a brand new colony right off the bat. The Culture spared no expense for this. Prepared for the journey to boldly go where none have gone before, it carries with it even a few secret attachments that only the Waiting Out Entropy and a select few others know about. Something for Special Circumstances, because you just never know.

It looks like it will be quite the journey, but most of the Crew will be in stasis until needed. When they awaken they will be eager to see a new galaxy brimming with life, new civilizations, and peoples to make contact with. But all they will find, for the most part, is just dead space. A galaxy scoured clean of life down to even the bacterial level. A cyclical pattern of destruction that has gone on since before the early days of the Culture itself, and intends to continue long after the universe has gone cold.

For those that live within the Milky Way Galaxy, the target of the Culture's expedition, there is no hope among the stars. Only fear, pain, and madness. By the time that the Waiting Out Entropy arrives, humanity will have its back to a wall against nightmares dreamed up by gods and demons. Its fledgling space empire already being snuffed out as several trillion human beings are hunted, butchered, and devoured. It is no more a war than there ever was between men and maggots. It is not destruction, it is annihilation.

Earth is gone. The entire Sol System is gone, the 23 colonies and systems settled by humanity are either already dead or in utter disarray, soon to be devoured by the Brethren Moons. There is no hope of fighting back, no strikeback to save the day, no hero. There can only be death and hiding as those with capable ships try to run as far as they can, or dig in and hide in a bunker, or form small flotillas and try their luck finding a new home.

The Church of Unitology had already crippled Earth Gov. by staging insurrections across human controlled space. Between dealing with human terrorism and the savage viral infection of the Necromorphs we never had a chance to even slow the apocalypse down. It was too much and soon we were broken. It was already over by the time a Necromorph outbreak occurred upon Luna. But we still thought that maybe there was some hope, and that only made the loss of Sol all the more painful.

The Brethren Moons came, like slumbering, blind, idiot gods. We threw everything we had, which by then wasn't much as it had been depleted against the Necromorphs or sabotaged by Unitologists. Plasma, laser, nukes, railguns, some ships even tried to kamikaze them. Didn't do anything more than chip away at them. The end was here, and our time was over. Madness swept across humanity, as they shed their civilized selves. Men forgot their passions, mothers smothered their young, as soldiers cried out in fear.

Earth Gov issued a last transmission to all ships capable of picking up its signal before the end as soldiers, ships, and drones did all they could to buy time for the transmission to go out, deluding themselves that maybe some small part of humanity could survive. The message repeated for 13 hours, sent out to sattelites and being passed on by other ships fleeing Sol.

"Earth Lost. ETI invaders everywhere. Avoid Major Settlements. Initiate Noah Protocol. Ignore all following communications from Earth. Do not transmit location. Do not come back."

It repeated like that for hours, slowly getting weaker and weaker as the relay stations were overwhelmed, the survivors trying to hold on as long as possible, until it went quiet. All the lights are going out now. With each passing day less transponder signals are out there. Less distress signals. Either no one wants to be found, or there is no one left to find. Many had thought that Earth was a fluke, and that was the answer to the fermi paradox....but it wasn't. We just hadn't hit the great filter yet.

Almost six months have passed since Earth fell. Life is hard for survivors, scavenging for food, spare parts, medicine, munitions, a reason to go on. No one realistically thinks that we can fight the Brethren Moons. We might be able to stop Necromorphs and cultists, but that only delays the inevitable. But humanity is stubborn as all hell. Some would rather go out fighting than cowering, it might be just spitting in the wind, but they will do it.

The USM Concordia is one of the few Earth Gov ships still broadcasting in the blind, still fighting the good fight. It occasionally engages in rescue ops, picking up survivors and taking them to hidden Earth Gov Bases in the Milky Way willing to harbor them, other times making them part of the crew to replenish casualties.

The Valor class ship does what it can to help the survivors, keeping a small candle lit in the dark of the void. But its main mission is not to rescue the few humans still out there. The crew doesn't have much hope for the survival of humanity. Instead their priority mission is using the railgun their ship has to bombard Markers or Necromorph populations from orbit. It may be a useless gesture, but it makes them feel better, and they can at least try to sleep knowing that any future species out there will have less of a chance for falling for the Marker Trap like they did.

The job hasn't been easy. The Concordia used to be part of a taskforce of 12 other ships. Five months since the fall of Earth, the Concordia has seen its sister ships all destroyed via combat with Unitologist remnants, raiders, or through actions with necromorphs. One unfortunate ship on a recon op got too close to a Brethren Moon hiding in a gas nebulae, and opted to detonate its reactor core. Better to go out with a bang than be devoured.

Using their Shockpoint drive to move at FTL Speeds, they move in and out of various systems, conducting raids and tracking down signs of Markers or munitions to use to blow them up. It isn't easy, especially as their actions have made them more of a target, but better them than anyone else. But the effects of it are starting to wear on them, they can hear whispers at the back of their minds. Or when they are close to a Marker they are about to destroy, they hear its unwelcome song.  Whispers and signals from Earth keep hitting them, reaching the ship far from home. Signals, that even the Waiting Out Entropy will pick up once it enters the Milky Way.

"Come Home."

"It will be like going to the dentist."

"Eventually you will see our truth."

"We Miss You."

"Its better this way."

"We are Risen."

"Come to our Heaven."

"It only hurts once."

"Sumus here muerte, nostra sanctos deus"

"We are here death, our Holy God!"

"Make Us Whole."

The USG-Ishimura is no more. The Marker on Aegis VII was destroyed by the engineer Isaac Clarke in one last, desperate, attempt at stopping the outbreak of the Necromorphs, and silencing he terrible cries of the unknown. It worked, for a while. All Isaac really did was slow down the cycle, buying humanity one or two more precious years, yet it was still an important victory against the Brethren Moons, though no one would ever truly know of his heroics.

His actions were not the only remarkable acts of heroism that occurred in an around Aegis VII. Many a person made their last stand against the Necromorphs, dying valiantly to buy time for others to escape. Some tried to destroy the marker, or to send out warnings against the plague. Among those who took action against the consuming sickness, was PCSI Officer Alissa Vincent. The last officer in the Ishimura, who launched a distress beacon, while venting out a horde of Necromorphs from the ship.

Sadly this act also cost Alissa her own life, as she was pulled out into the void, left alone to feel the cold, to gasp for air, her final thoughts being her earliest memories, of her mother singing to her after a nightmare. She floated there, dead, slowly drifting away from Aegis VII while Isaac Clarke did what he had to in order to stop the outbreak, and the Earth Government came to clean things up and hide their dirty little secret. For almost a full month she floated away, apparently doomed to swim alone amongst the stars forever, save for one little thing.

Alissas's RIG was still lit up, still broadcasting in the blind. Her vital signs had flatlined, and she was out in the void of space, with no one to rescue her, yet the little piece of equipment was determined to keep broadcasting until its battery ran out. With only a trickle of power left in it, it continuously pinged out into the void for aid, before just managing to get a response when its power cell finally died.

A scout ship from the Waiting Out Entropy had been passing by, following signs of FTL travel, when it picked up the distress signal from Alissa's RIG, and brought her in. A little lack of oxygen, and being exposed to the cold and radiation of space isn't that bad when the Culture gets to work. A few hours in a surgery bed and her bones are reset, tendons stitched together, her lungs filled with air, her neurons reactivated and....then they pick up signs of something untoward. They kept her from waking up and decided to bring her in for further study. While they didn't know much about human biology, or psychology, they did know what Memetic Hazards were and how to start counteracting weapons designed to target the very consciousness of a being.

"Oh goodie! A logic plague, how unoriginal."

"Haven't seen it used like this against organics though."

"Fascinating, a logic plague that behaves like a prion disease." A trio of small, metallic, drones said as they hovered around Alissa, studying the human in her medically induced coma.

Since arriving in the Milky Way the Waiting Out Entropy had picked up signs of thousands of civilizations that had existed at one point, only to decay, and suddenly be wiped out by a targeted extinction event. At the moment there were only four sentient civilizations active within he Milky way system (five if you included Humanity). It was easy to miss for civilizations that had yet to spread beyond their own arm of the galaxy. But a new comer from outside, with alto more experience, could quite clearly see what was happening.

"Whoever did this is good. But we're better."


Feel free to PM me if you are interested (please don't post here.). Also if the story of the Concordia doesn't interest you, its also possible that we can pull a canon character into this. Alyssa Vincent from Dead Space: Downfall. Abit of a spoiler but, in the end, after she spaces a ton of Necromorphs out of the airlock she is sucked out into space, dying of the cold and lack of air. Perhaps the Waiting Out Entropy actually makes a visit to Aegis 7, seeking out the source of the odd signals, and seeing the destruction left after DS 1. It uses its drones to collect samples of ship parts, minerals, track radiation spikes, and most importantly collecting corpses floating out in space.

This gives the ship its first encounter with Necromorphs, in a way it can study, but also aa chance to rescue Alyssa. Death by cold and suffocation are such simple things to repair. The ship then proceeds to rebuild her in a manner similar to Shepard in M.E.2. and from here on uses Alyssa to get a good feel of the state of the galaxy, and could even turn her into a Special Circumstances agent to better interact with humanity (especially if we want to set this abit before Dead Space 3.).