Second Aegis VII Incident

The Second Aegis VII Incident is the event that takes place in Dead Space, Dead Space Extraction and Dead Space Downfall. The incident occurs 200 years following the discovery of the Black Marker on Earth.

History

Prelude

200 years prior to the incident, EarthGov had attempted to reverse-engineer the alien Marker that had been discovered on Earth in order to harness its capability to produce limitless energy. They succeeded, but the Red Marker produced on Aegis VII had the same mind-assaulting effects as its predecessor, leading to an outbreak of violence among the people working on the Marker. As the people killed each other off, their bodies were reanimated and reconfigured by the Marker signal, becoming Necromorphs.

While the First Aegis VII Incident was suppressed, it became clear that the Marker could not be controlled. The Red Marker was buried and Aegis VII was declared off-limits from that point on.

The Incident

In 2508, the Concordance Extraction Corporation had established an illegal mining operation on Aegis VII. Before the discovery of the Red Marker, the colonists had been experiencing insomnia and uneasiness. At the time of the USG Ishimura's arrival before the commencement of the planet-cracking, the Red Marker had been found. Many Unitologists believed this to be the Marker from their spiritual texts and desired it be moved to the colony. After its removal, many colonists began experiencing hallucinations, dementia, heightened aggression, and other psychological disturbances. Both the suicide and murder rates on the colony skyrocketed in the days following the Marker's unearthing.

When the Ishimura arrived to commence the planet-crack, they took custody of the Red Marker as they had also been contracted by the Church of Unitology to bring the artifact back to Earth. This, of course, led to the Marker's corrupting influence spreading amongst the Ishimura crew. As Necromorphs started overrunning the colony, so too did they spread aboard the Ishimura. As the crew began to go insane in the presence of the Marker, they became violent and suicidal, leading to many deaths and their subsequent reanimation as Necromorphs. Despite the bold efforts of a handful of the ship's crew attempting to contain the infection, the entire ship was overwhelmed.

Isaac Clarke

Some time later, the CEC shuttle USG Kellion arrived in the Cygnus system to conduct emergency maintenance on the Ishimura and determine the cause of its communications blackout. Shortly after docking, two of the Kellion's five-man crew were killed by Necromorphs in the flight lounge. The remaining Kellion crew - commander Zach Hammond, computer specialist Kendra Daniels and engineer Isaac Clarke - were separated and unable to leave after their vessel was destroyed by the creatures.

Isaac Clarke began investigating the ship, trying to restore whatever systems he could whilst dispatching the attacking Necromorphs with whatever weapons he could scrounge. Over time, however, he unknowingly fell victim to the influence of the Red Marker. Isaac had originally joined the mission to find his girlfriend Nicole Brennan, the Ishimura's chief medical officer, and had supposedly encountered her several times as well as received various messages from her. The terrible truth was that Nicole was already dead, having committed suicide as the Necromorphs were overrunning the ship, though Isaac never found her body. The hallucination of Nicole that Isaac had seen was urging him to return the Marker to Aegis VII and with the help of Dr. Terrence Kyne he succeeded in repairing the Ishimura's executive shuttle and used it to take the Marker back to the planet.

When Isaac returned the Marker to its pedestal, the treacherous Kendra appeared and attempted to steal it, revealing to Isaac the truth about Nicole before she departed. However, Kendra never made it off Aegis VII as she was killed by the Hive Mind, the giant Necromorph entity that was apparently controlling the others. Isaac fought against the Hive Mind even as the planetary chunk extracted by the Ishimura during planet-crack came plummeting down as the ship's gravity tethers had been deactivated earlier. Isaac succeeded in defeating the Hive Mind and boarded the escape shuttle, fleeing the planet as the continent-sized rock came smashing down upon the colony. Aegis VII was fractured by the impact as Isaac left the system, but what he did not realize was that the Marker had not been entirely destroyed. Worse yet, he was still being haunted by the Marker-induced apparition of Nicole.

Casualties

With the exception of Isaac Clarke and Lexine Weller, everyone involved with the incident was killed. Below is a list of key individuals.

• Deakin Abbott - Aegis VII colonist; 1st-class engineer and devout Unitologist. He led several Unitologists in a mass-suicide following the unearthing of the Red Marker and his body was later converted into a Necromorph.
• Jennifer Barrow - Head of the CEC extraction team that initially unearthed the Marker. Under the Marker's influence, she killed herself in front of her husband Collin. Her corpse was converted into a Necromorph by an Infector as her body was being transported to the Ishimura.
• Collin Barrow - Dig foreman for the Marker extraction site. After watching his wife Jennifer kill herself, he panicked and took a shuttle to the Ishimura to get help. An Infector had also boarded the shuttle and reanimated Jennifer's corpse prior to the shuttle docking. Collin was killed by his Necromorph wife, causing the shuttle to crash into the Ishimura's docking bay. His arrival on the ship only hastened the spread of the Necromorph contagion.
• Sam Caldwell - CEC engineer who served as the playable character in the prologue of Dead Space Extraction. After the Marker is unearthed, it emits a pulse that disrupts much of the equipment. It also causes Caldwell to experiences hallucinations of deranged colonists attacking him, and so he "defends" himself by killing them. After being mortally wounded, he becomes lucid again and hears his shooter state that he had just murdered several innocent people.
• Hanford Carthusia - Head of the Aegis VII colony. A Vested of the Church of Unitology, he allows the Necromorph contagion to spread unimpeded and sacrifices himself to the creatures willingly.
• Vera Cortez - P-Sec officer and Unitologist. She takes part in the mass suicide orchestrated by Deakin Abbott. She becomes a part of a large Necromorph biomass that spreads out from the colony morgue.
• Brant Harris - A CEC miner whose mind was twisted to homicidal mania by the Marker. He is taken to the Ishimura after murdering a nurse where he is examined by Terrance Kyne and Challus Mercer. It is strongly implied that Harris is the man who is turned into the Hunter Necromorph by Mercer.
• Hans Leggio - A CEC miner taken aboard the Ishimura after succumbing to dementia. He is killed by a Pregnant and later reanimated.
• Nathan McNeill - P-Sec officer who barely survives the Ishimura infection. He manages to make it aboard a shuttle and escape, but dies from the wounds he previously sustained and is reanimated as a Slasher by the Marker signal.
• Abraham Neumann - P-Sec officer and main character of the Dead Space comic series. While he appears to survive up until the end of the series, it is unknown what exactly happens to him. He never falls under the Marker's influence, though still loses the will to live as he witnesses the death and destruction that overwhelms the colony and likely takes his own life.
• Nicole Brennan - Senior medical officer of the USG Ishimura and girlfriend of Isaac Clarke. As the Necromorph infection spread throughout the ship, she loses all hope and commits suicide via an air embolism with an empty syringe. When Isaac Clarke arrives on the Ishimura, he is unaware of Nicole's fate and regularly interacts with a Marker-induced apparition of her. After learning of her death, Isaac continues to be haunted by Nicole's apparition which becomes more sinister and murderous.
• Jacob Temple - An engineer aboard the Ishimura who manages to survive the outbreak for an extended period. He is eventually captured and murdered by the deranged Dr. Mercer.
• Benjamin Matthius - Captain of the USG Ishimura. Driven insane by the Marker signal, he becomes unstable and is accidentally killed by Dr. Kyne when he tries to administer a sedative, accidentally stabbing him in the eye and puncturing his brain. The captain's body is found in the morgue by Isaac Clarke who watches an Infector turn Matthius into an Enhanced Slasher.
• Samuel Irons - Engineer and Unitologist. He tries to assist Alissa Vincent's team in disposing of the Marker but is mortally wounded by Necromorphs. Unable to go on, he allows the horde to claim him as one of their own.
• Alissa Vincent - Head of security aboard the Ishimura, the main character of Dead Space Downfall. When her entire squad is killed, she resolves to warn any other ships to stay away. She is forced to open an airlock to send her comm beacon into space, allowing herself to be blown out into the vacuum.
• Challus Mercer - Deranged scientist and Unitologist. He intentionally sabotaged all efforts to stop the spread of the contagion and actively assisted it by murdering several crew members, allowing the Marker to convert them. He created the Hunter and sent it to kill Isaac Clarke. After the Hunter was destroyed, Mercer sacrificed himself to an Infector and was turned into an Enhanced Slasher which was later slain by Clarke.
• Zach Hammond - Chief security officer of the USG Kellion. Was killed by a Necromorph Brute.
• Terrance Kyne - Chief science officer of the USG Ishimura. He managed to outlast the rest of his crew and struck a deal with Isaac Clarke, hoping to return the Marker to Aegis VII. He was shot and killed by Kendra Daniels.
• Kendra Daniels - Crew member of the USG Kellion along with Isaac Clarke and Zach Hammond. She is secretly an EarthGov operative assigned to retrieve the Marker and betrays Isaac when he prepares to send it back to Aegis VII. She and Isaac confront one another down on the colony and she is killed by the Hive Mind.