Nicole Brennan

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**Nicole Brennan** was a human female who lived in the 25th and 26th centuries. She was a Senior Medical Officer of the USG *Ishimura* during the Second Aegis VII incident. An initial survivor of the Flood outbreak aboard the *Ishimura*, Nicole tried to help save as many survivors as she possibly could. She was a lover of Isaac Clarke, the lone survivor of the events on the *Ishimura*.

After her death, she becomes a hallucination haunting Isaac throughout his exploits in 2511.

## CEC Career

Prior to her attachment to the USG *Ishimura*, Nicole lived with her boyfriend, Isaac Clarke. She was uncertain of her future career aboard the *Ishimura* at first, but changed her mind when encouraged to take the job by Isaac.

## Second Aegis VII incident

Two days after her departure from Earth on the *Ishimura* in 2508, Nicole defers to Dr. Terrence Kyne on the matter of Brant Harris’ deteriorating mental state. She believes Harris shows no signs of recovery and should be locked up. Kyne, satisfied with her opinion, asks if she’s heard of the “horror stories” currently circulating about Aegis VII. Nicole makes an insensitive remark about the Mission Square Suicides and their connection to Unitologists, inadvertently offending Kyne with her blanket statement on hysteria and religious zealotry.

Prior to the planet crack, Nicole contacts Isaac on Earth and thanks him for pushing her to take the offer to join the ship before it was decommissioned. Their conversation is cut short by connection problems and she promises to call him back.

On the day of the planet crack, Nicole and her partner Perry deal with the sick crewmen aboard the *Ishimura*. Nicole lies to Perry about being confident that the “no-fly” order will keep the *Ishimura* safe from the sickness affecting the planet. Secretly, Nicole believes the no-fly order will do little to help them deal with crewmen going mad aboard the ship.

Sometime after the ship loses communications with the planet, Nicole’s workload is doubled when the announcement of a “small outbreak” on the crew deck is announced. As she tends to her patients, Perry announces they’ve got wounded from the flight deck that need their help. Moments later she is contacted by P.C.S.I. Security officer Alissa Vincent. Vincent tells the Senior Medical Officer that her team has arrested four colonists who snuck aboard the ship. Nicole believes they still remain in her jurisdiction. Vincent tells her they’ve already been arrested, but she wants them checked for signs of the infection spreading across the ship.

During her inspection of the four survivors for potential infection, Nicole is quick to spot unusual brain activity and blood pressure in Lexine Weller. After completing her examination she begins to release Lexine's friends one-by-one. When Warren Eckhardt collapses, she fails to release Gabe Weller from his cryotube and triggers a quarantine lockdown. P-Sec officer Nathan McNeill, volunteers to disable the lockdown by crawling through the vents. When his mission is complete, Nicole accompanies the survivors to the morgue where McNeill waits for them. There she discovers Captain Benjamin Mathius has been killed. The situation worse than she believed, Nicole and the survivors head for the medical deck where Perry is looking after other patients. There, they are attacked by Flood slasher forms and Perry is killed. They make for the barricade where she decides to remain with the other P.S.C.I officers, knowing other survivors would come looking for help.

Alone with the security officers, Nicole tries to examine Lexine’s brainwave patterns with the security panel to no avail; when she overhears a call for help in Sick Bay 2, she is barred from leaving the barricade by one of the security officers. Frustrated, she continues to examine Lexine’s scans until the sudden breach of the barricade drives her and the security officers to run for another safe haven. Armed with a 211-V plasma cutter, Nicole is the only survivor of the group when she arrives at Sick Bay 2. The situation in the bay deteriorates quickly; within a half-hour they’re out of med packs to help the injured.

She records a frustrated log hailing for more help from anyone on the ship and detailing the staff’s inability to handle the injuries that were beginning to swamp them. Nicole begins to regret not following Lexine and the others to the engineering deck. During another examination of Lexine’s scans, she begins to notice a pattern in brainwaves and hallucinates being attacked by a swarm of Flood.

No sooner than she awakens, Sick Bay 2 is breached by a real Flood attack; Evans and Nicole drive them back with a defibrillator and the plasma cutter. They seal up the vent using various metal objects and sheeting. Nicole, desperate to create an anti-virus for the “recombinator virus”, speculates she could have used the medical packs to spread the proposed anti-virus. However, with none at her disposal, she begins to believe her theories are merely spun from a desperate hope to survive. Evans warns her of another Flood attack. She manages to escape the Sick Bay to a safe place. Coming to terms with what would be her final hours, she sends a message to Isaac via video log. She commits suicide, by inducing an air embolism with an empty syringe, to avoid being slaughtered by Flood.

## USG Kellion rescue mission

Isaac was part of a rescue operation sent to the Ishimura aboard the USG *Kellion*. Unaware of his girlfriend's fate, Isaac journeys through the ship in search of her. "Nicole" makes her first physical appearance to Isaac from a distance when he was instructed to obtain the mining key in the *Ishimura* Mining Deck. She offers her help to open the door for Isaac while he defends her from Flood at a distance. Successfully doing so, she promises to find a way to him and runs, remaining unseen until the penultimate level.

Isaac reunites with Nicole again after Kendra Daniels revealed herself to be a UEG agent and escaped the *Ishimura* with the Red Marker. The two called the shuttle back to the *Ishimura*, forcing Kendra to eject from the shuttle in an escape pod. The two of them descend to the planet's surface to place the Marker back on its pedestal. In doing so, Nicole disappears as the intense light from placing the Marker consumes her. She thanks Isaac for his efforts, declaring they were "whole again". Shortly after this, Kendra confirms to Isaac that Nicole has been dead the entire time and the woman who spoke to him was a hallucination.

After Isaac escapes Aegis VII, Nicole makes her final appearance as a decrepit and bloody hallucination that screams at Isaac, a sign of Isaac's developing dementia.

## Titan Station, 2511

On Titan Station, the Site 12 Marker feeds off of Isaac's dementia, using Nicole's bloodied visage as a tool against him. Throughout the course of events, she manifests as a voice or an image in his mind. When she makes physical appearances to taunt Isaac, she is covered in blood and with an eerie light shining from her open mouth and eyes. As Isaac progresses through the station, Nicole becomes more disturbing and violent, making attempts to harm and even "kill" Isaac.

Later, "Nicole" threatens to kill Isaac unless he explains why he can't "let [her] go". Isaac reveals if he lets her go, he has "nothing left." Seemingly satisfied with this answer, "Nicole" sheds her haunting visage and appears as she did when she was alive and releases Isaac. "Acceptance" was the final step in Isaac's "recovery", she believes he's ready to finish his mission.

"Nicole" continues to appear to Isaac in order to offer encouragement and advice on how to reach the Marker. However, she still displays behavior similar to a hallucination; after Isaac sends Ellie Langford away, "Nicole" continues to plead to be "made whole" by Isaac, something he's afraid he can't do. Eventually, "Nicole" leads Isaac to the machine that Nolan Stross mentioned as the first step in destroying the Marker. Isaac follows her instructions to use the machine.

After Isaac dispatches Hans Tiedemann, "Nicole" suddenly drops all pretense of being anything more than a hallucination broadcast by the Marker. She explains that Isaac, the maker of the Site 12 Marker, must be killed and absorbed for Convergence. Feeling betrayed, Isaac destroys the phantom "Nicole" inside his mind, destroying the Marker in conjunction with his connection to it.