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jakob187

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Digging Into Dead Space: The Supplemental Materials (Pt. 2)

By jakob187 5 Comments

Hey folks.  Welcome to our second week of Digging Into Dead Space, your shorthand source for the expanded universe that surrounds this popular franchise.  Today, we'll be looking into the big instigator in the Dead Space franchise:  the USG Ishimura.  Let's cut the shit and get right to it! 
 
***WARNING!  This blog may contain spoilers to any and/or all of the games, books, comics, and other forms of media in the Dead Space universe.***
 

The USG Ishimura

Coming in at somewhere between a half-mile to a mile long, the USG Ishimura was the first Planet-Cracker class ship of its kind.  As The Resource Wars raged on Earth, the Ishimura was created in the hopes of solving the problem.  Its primary goal was to mine and smelt entire planets, while its secondary function was also as a high-end medical research facility.  The significance of the USG Ishimura is rather obvious to anyone who has played the video games:  it is responsible for the resurgence of the Necromorph contagion.  Because of an illegal mining operation begun on the planet Aegis VII, the Red Marker was discovered, having been buried deep by Earthgov years before in an attempt to hide their secrets.  This led to the Hive Mind being awakened, leading to a massive Necromorph contagion that led to the deaths of everyone on the USG Ishimura except for Gabe Weller.  Eventually, after the events on Aegis VII, a CEC crew aboard the USG Kellion consisting of Kendra Daniels, Zach Hammond, and Isaac Clarke made their way to the Ishimura in an attempt to find out why she had gone silent.  As Isaac Clarke made his way through the Ishimura after they crash landed into the docking bay of the ship, it eventually became clear that Kendra Daniels was working in the interests of the government all along in hoping to recover the Red Marker.   
 
The USG Ishimura carrying its tectonic load that destroyed the Red Marker after Dead Space 1. 
The USG Ishimura carrying its tectonic load that destroyed the Red Marker after Dead Space 1. 
After Clarke escaped from Aegis VII on a shuttle, the load of planet that was removed from Aegis VII by the Ishimura fell back to the planet, crashing onto the Red Marker and shattering it into shards that flew out to space.  Many of the shards hit and were embedded into the Ishimura, and the subsequent explosion on the planet sent the ship floating through space in the Aegis system.  Some time after, a group of illegal miners known as the Magpies shock into range of the Ishimura, and they decide to board the ship after scanning the ship.  Once aboard, they find shards of the Marker and begin to go crazy, with the only survivor sending out the coordinates of the Ishimura for the government to find it.  The first responding ship is the USG O'Bannon, which ends up suffering a less-than-optimal fate that leaves only four survivors after a shard of the artifact was recovered.  This leads Earthgov to send out a second rescue ship, which eventually brings the Ishimura back to the Sprawl, a massive colony ship run by Titan Corporation.  Oddly enough, former CEC employee and Ishimura contagion survivor Isaac Clarke also happens to be on the Sprawl, leading to the events found in Dead Space 2. 
 
The significance of the Ishimura is found in its "involvement" with every single event of the Dead Space universe.  Literally, it's one of the remaining consistencies in every story told throughout the franchise.  It is responsible for:
  • The rediscovery of the Red Marker after being buried on Aegis VII by the government
  • The original Necromorph contagion that has been spanning the universe
  • The death of protagonist Isaac Clarke's girlfriend, Nicole Brennan
  • The Church of Unitology's knowledge of the Red Marker's existence (as former captain Benjamin Matthius was a devout Unitologist)
  • The madness and insanity of the Magpies
  • The slaughter of the USG O'Bannon
  • The infection of the Sprawl, leading to the destruction of the Marker 3A
 
It is currently unknown if the Ishimura was destroyed on the Sprawl or if it has found a way out.  
 
Materials related to the USG Ishimura include everything in the Dead Space franchise, mainly focused on with Dead Space, Dead Space: Downfall, and Dead Space: Salvage.
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That about does it for this week's edition.  If you have any questions or comments, please ask them or make them.  Next week, we'll get into the two biggest antagonists in the Dead Space universe:  the Black and Red Markers!
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