After a gentle pat on Daniels's shoulder, Marcus led the remaining dozen or so survivors away from the flight deck. Once he'd arranged for these individuals to help care for the Ishimura's wounded, Marcus sought out Isaac. He found him slumped silently in a corner of the flight lounge, seemingly lost in a daze, all his former drive extinguished. Seeing him like this, Marcus understood immediately. Isaac had clearly learned of Nicole's death.
As Marcus approached, Isaac spoke, his voice heavy with grief. "Hammond said he searched the entire ship and couldn't find any trace of Nicole. Daniels told me to watch the video Nicole sent me, and in the end—" Nicole had not died at the hands of a Slasher. Instead, after a desperate struggle for survival on the Ishimura, she had injected poison, choosing to commit suicide out of sheer despair. And her suicide had occurred shortly before Isaac even boarded the ship. "If I hadn't persuaded Nicole to work on the Ishimura—if I had arrived a little earlier—"
Watching Isaac, this normally tough man, shed tears, Marcus could only offer meager comfort. "At least Ms. Nicole passed away without pain." The words felt hollow even to him. I haven't even been in a relationship yet, he thought, a touch of awkwardness. How am I supposed to comfort this guy?
Once Isaac's emotions had somewhat settled, Marcus stated his purpose: he hoped Isaac would help release the Ishimura's gravity tethers. Fuelled by Nicole's death, Isaac now harbored a profound hatred for the Marker, the Unified Church, and the Necromorphs. He agreed almost without hesitation. "Mr. Jacob, the acting chief engineer of the Ishimura, will carry out the mission with you," Marcus added, leading Isaac to find Jacob.
After the two engineers briefly discussed the procedures and intricacies of releasing the gravity tethers, they prepared to leave the flight lounge. Their destination was the Ishimura's mining area, where, after various complex operations, they could activate the release sequence. It was only then that Isaac and the others were surprised to discover that Marcus did not have a RIG device installed on him. Every human under the Earth Government, without exception, had a RIG device implanted shortly after infancy. Marcus offered no explanation, only keeping Elizabeth by his side to facilitate communication with Isaac, so he could grant the necessary permissions remotely.
Soon, Marcus departed the flight lounge with Elizabeth, returning to the Captain's Room in the Bridge area. According to Isaac and Jacob's estimation, releasing the gravity tethers would take at least one to two hours. Marcus was in no hurry; after all, the Hive Mind was down there and wouldn't be escaping.
Minutes ticked by, and soon, Elizabeth received an update from Isaac and his companion. "The gravity tether release procedure is ready, authorization is required—" Before Isaac could even finish speaking, the Shield's intelligent system had already fully unlocked the release authority for the gravity tethers.
"Authorization received, release procedure initiated."
The moment the announcement fell, the Ishimura began to tremble slightly. Hundreds of blue gravity tethers, extending from the ship's belly, began to retract one by one. The trillions of tons of rock payload, suspended by these tethers, also swayed gently.
"Current gravity tether count: 44. It is estimated that in another minute, all gravity tethers will be fully released," Isaac's voice confirmed.
Marcus stepped forward and opened the camera monitoring system in the Captain's Room, which displayed a view of the Ishimura's underside.
"3, 2, 1, all gravity tethers have been released!"
As the last gravity tether retracted, the massive payload, now free from the Ishimura's grasp, began to slowly fall under the influence of Aegis VII's gravity. Soon, the payload broke through the atmosphere, generating intense friction, and a sky-high blaze completely enveloped it. Marcus stared at the screen, meticulously observing the entire process as the payload slammed into the Aegis VII colony.
Then, with an unimaginable force, billions of tons of mass slammed into Aegis VII's surface, erupting in an incredible display of light and heat. An immense mushroom cloud soared skyward, even breaching the atmosphere. At the center of the impact point, the temperature was comparable to the sun's core. A powerful shockwave instantly spread out, rapidly sweeping across the entire planet. If converted into nuclear bombs, the power of this strike was almost equivalent to tens of millions of Tsar Bombs exploding simultaneously. Even the Ishimura in space was affected by the shockwave generated by the explosion, its hull swaying slightly.
Marcus steadied himself, unable to help but think that, in a way, this could also be considered a form of "Extermination Order." Under such a massive impact, the Hive Mind at the center was immediately and utterly vaporized. Not even a single cell remained.
The system's voice chimed:
[Detected host has completed mission objective 1. Evaluating mission. Evaluation passed, distributing mission reward. Obtained random draw chance x 1. Obtained title 'Enemy of the Blood Moon'. Title effect: Greatly increases your damage dealt to the Blood Moon, and the Blood Moon faction will consider you a mortal enemy. Detected host has completed the second phase of the main mission objective. Evaluating mission. Evaluation result: Excellent. Obtained random draw chance x 1. Detected host has completed all mission objectives in the current world. Obtained World Anchor x 1. Shuttle count + 1.]
Marcus did not rush to check the new rewards, but continued to observe the aftermath of the impact through the screen in front of him. "Finally, it's all over—" Elizabeth murmured beside him, a profound sense of relief in her voice.
"Not necessarily," Marcus shook his head and said. "The Marker here is merely a replica from the Earth Government, and there are many such replicas across the galaxy. Humanity will sooner or later perish due to its own greed and desires." The Marker itself did not possess self-awareness; the Necromorph disaster it caused was due to the madness induced in humans who were lured by its influence. In the later two generations of Dead Space, human civilization attracted several Blood Moons, ultimately leading to its destruction.
Marcus was acutely aware of his current capabilities; he was not yet strong enough to contend with a planet-sized Blood Moon. The title "Enemy of the Blood Moon" sounded impressive, but it had only been obtained by a trick, by killing a juvenile "Blood Moon." After everything on the Ishimura was sorted out, Marcus would temporarily leave the Dead Space universe. Due to the inherent danger of the Blood Moon, the peril here was not much less than in Warhammer.
Marcus opened his system panel, took out the World Anchor, and affixed it to Aegis VII. This way, he could travel back and forth between the Warhammer Universe and the Dead Space universe.