The Ishimura was the spaceship featured in the plot of the first Dead Space game, a horror game Emrys had played in his previous life.
Dark visuals, mutated corpses, out-of-control elevator doors, monsters suddenly appearing in his face from corners and ceilings, and an oppressive atmosphere—all these elements combined to form the nightmare shadow of his childhood.
But he never expected that one day, the System would actually throw him onto the Ishimura!
Originally, Emrys just found it familiar, but as soon as he saw the reanimated corpse that ambushed him upon opening the door, he immediately remembered:
This was the Ishimura, Dead Space!
"The Ishimura?" Winnie looked at him curiously, "So, you know what this thing is?"
"I'm more than familiar with it—" Emrys grinned proudly, "It's no exaggeration to say that returning to the Ishimura is like coming home!"
He wasn't boasting; back then, he had gone in and out seven times, slaughtering countless mutated creatures.
Even the Captain of the Ishimura probably didn't know this place as well as he did.
"Simply put, a small incident occurred on this ship, causing the crew to undergo mutations, which is what we see now."
Emrys pointed to the mutated creature, dead with its limbs severed, and explained, "They are things formed by infection and mutation from certain devices, collectively referred to as 'mutated creatures.' To some extent, they are already dead things, without the concept of death.
Even if their limbs are severed, they will revive after a while, or form a symbiotic relationship with other flesh and blood, unless their flesh and blood tissue is completely incinerated."
"That sounds a lot like Nurgle's curse." Winnie frowned slightly, finding it a bit difficult, "Do they spread viruses? What are the prerequisites for infection?"
As is well known, in the Warhammer Universe, encountering Khorne is considered good luck. As for Slaanesh and Tzeentch, they are just a bit tricky. But if you encounter Nurgle's plagues, viruses, and rot, those are the most troublesome problems.
A slight misstep could lead to the extinction of a world!
"Probably not that bad."
Emrys had seen Nurgle once, and even though it was only in its early stages, the sight of the Plague Garden still left a huge psychological shadow on him.
"The device that infects them is a filter set up by some civilization. Infected people suffer mental control, similar to psychic illusion attacks, and that's how they eventually turn out like this."
Psychic power? Illusions?
These two keywords triggered Illyria's passive ability. She immediately narrowed her eyes.
"Don't worry, with me here, there won't be any psychic or illusion attacks!"
Are you kidding? She was a sister of Silence, a soulless one. What kind of mental attack could affect her?
It would be good if she didn't attack the 'Marker' instead!
'Humans' without even a soul, soulless ones with a black hole-like domain, are basically the natural enemies of such devices and enemies!
Unless the Marker's mental manipulation could reach a 'Primarch' or several levels higher than Illyria, it would never work on her.
However, judging from its performance in the game, the Marker's brainwashing and twisted mental manipulation were really quite ordinary. People like Isaac were almost ubiquitous in the Astra Militarum, let alone with Emrys, who carried an Emperor-brand Wi-Fi with him?
With a Living Saint present, who would dare to cause trouble!
The System's prompt indeed corroborated Emrys' guess: this was indeed the Ishimura, the plot of Dead Space 1.
"Since we already know the enemy and the cause of all this, what should we do next?" Winnie asked.
"Do you even need to ask?"
Emrys chuckled, a meaningful glint in his eyes as he looked at this section of the ship.
"Of course—a one-hour speedrun of the Ishimura."
Since he already knew this was the Ishimura, there was no need to waste any more time. A quick decisive battle was the most appropriate course of action for the current situation.
"What about the 'Marker' you mentioned?"
Hilda showed great interest in these mental control devices.
According to Emrys' understanding of her, she was most likely contemplating how to use this thing to cause some trouble for the Dark Eldar.
"With the 'Marker' present, the Space Marines might not handle it well," Winnie also expressed concern.
After all, with these mental control devices, no one knew if they would pose a threat to the Space Marines, unless it was an organized force of sisters of Silence or Grey Knights.
"No need to worry." Emrys had already considered this.
"The 'Marker' on the Ishimura is merely a human replica. The true 'Marker' is on the world below us."
The Dark Angels officially entered the scene.
Chapter Sir Olsen personally led the First Company, entering the Ishimura from the lower deck.
What followed was a bloody slaughter!
From the information Emrys provided, they already knew the various types of Necromorphs and their weaknesses,
So they handled them with ease.
Disgusting? Horrifying?
Not at all. As Dark Angels, they had seen far more disgusting enemies. A mere aggregation of flesh and blood, no matter how terrifying it looked, could it be more terrifying than the fiends of the Warp?
The Blood Marker seemed to sense that the flesh-and-blood aggregated Necromorphs it controlled were being rapidly purged. So it immediately sent out more, larger Necromorphs, attempting to halt the Dark Angels' furious cleaning progress.
But it was destined to be disappointed.
Olsen and his men were like a wall, pushing through the corridors. No matter what kind of mutated creature, whether hiding in ventilation shafts or feigning death, they were all dragged out and pounded into a pulp.
Compared to bolters, the Dark Angels found that pure fists seemed to be more effective.
They revive?
No problem. As long as they're pounded into a pulp and thoroughly mashed, they naturally won't move again.
Wherever the eye could see, swarms of Necromorphs were efficiently cleared by the Dark Angels. tech-priests and Servitor Skulls followed behind, using plasma incinerators to completely destroy their flesh.
Until the Dark Angels found the 'Blood Marker' device, replicated by humans.
Olsen and his men, carrying black Stone devices that suppressed the Warp, walked step by step towards it. And the Blood Marker seemed to sense their threat!
The next moment, the Blood Marker, spiraling upwards like a DNA helix, had red light and runes on its surface swimming like tadpoles, emitting an eerie glow that enveloped Olsen and his men!
At this moment, different voices appeared in their minds; some were wailing for help, others were tempting. This was the Marker's most skilled technique: to incite human compassion, exploit biological weaknesses, and break through their psychological defenses.
But unfortunately... the Blood Marker had chosen the wrong people.
"Heretic!" Olsen's veins bulged on his forehead, his voice filled with anger, "You think you can shake our faith with that?!"
Buzz!
The Dark Angels' movements were completely unimpeded, treating all the illusions the Blood Marker showed them
As if they were nothing.
No wonder, it was their specialty!
The corruption faced by Space Marines is often dozens of times more intense than this. A mere Blood Marker was almost like an itch to them.
Want to infect a Space Marine?
It's not impossible, but the difficulty is high. Typically, inside every Space Marine's power armor, sacred incantations and Mechanicus defensive runes are carved to interfere with psychic infiltration.
Besides external defenses, every Space Marine, from the moment they join the Chapter, undergoes intense and rigorous psychological training to develop an unwavering will of iron, enabling them to maintain their rationality amidst Warp whispers and psychic attacks.
Aside from the issues of the Second Imperium, the gene-seed of the Dark Angels, in terms of purity, is actually the same as that of the Ultramarines,
With almost no issues of mutation.
This also laid the foundation for the Dark Angels.
Pure gene-seed meant they were harder to corrupt and had a natural resistance to psychic attacks like mental interference.
Emrys had even considered that since the Marker originated from a high-dimensional civilization, he custom-made black Stone badges for each Dark Angel.
If it were the genuine Marker, it might be hard to say, but for a human-replicated fake—Olsen and several Dark Angels lifted the entire Marker and directly threw it into a black Stone-crafted box.
"What kind of trash thinks it can corrupt me?!"
Olsen sneered, then waved his hand.
"Go, eliminate everything on the ship that can still move and is related to this thing. Leave no one!"
In less than an hour,
The Dark Angels' cleanup operation had already concluded successfully. The entire Ishimura returned to peace, and even the Blood Marker was sealed in a black Stone containment box and handed over to Emrys.