Brant Harris
Aegis VII Miner and Mercer's Subject
Brant Harris was an Aegis VII miner driven to violence by exposure to Marker 3A, transferred to the USG Ishimura for treatment, and turned into the Hunter by Dr. Challus Mercer''s experiments.
Brant Harris was a miner at the Concordance Extraction Corporation colony on Aegis VII whose exposure to Marker 3A drew him into the experiments of the Unitologist doctor Challus Mercer aboard the USG Ishimura. What began as Marker-induced dementia ended with Harris turned into the Hunter, a regenerating Necromorph that Mercer kept under study.
Exposure on Aegis VII#
After the discovery of Marker 3A, Harris was among the colonists struck by insomnia and the other symptoms that spread through the workforce. He sought treatment from the colony doctor Sciarello, but it had no effect, and his condition worsened into vivid hallucinations brought on by Marker-induced dementia. Blaming the doctor for his suffering, Harris took Sciarello hostage. He was subdued by Planetary Security officers, among them Abraham Neumann, but in the struggle he struck the doctor's nurse, Katie Evans, with a line cutter and killed her. Harris was arrested and sent up to the orbiting Ishimura, a decision that placed him off the planet before the Necromorph outbreak and left him one of the colony's few survivors.
Aboard the Ishimura#
On the Ishimura, Harris was kept under close watch. He did not deny killing Evans and expressed no regret, insisting that she "wasn't a nurse" when he killed her, and he covered any surface he could reach with writing, saying that "the dreams need to speak" and that he was trying to "make it whole again." He became the patient of Nicole Brennan, under whose care his condition seemed to improve. The Unitologist doctor Challus Mercer, however, judged Harris' delusions to be religiously significant and had him transferred into his own care.
Mercer's experiment and the Hunter#
Mercer interrogated Harris for what the Marker had shown him, but Harris could not hold onto the knowledge, describing it as slipping away each time he reached for it, as though it were stuck behind his eyes. Mercer's answer was to inject Necromorph biomatter directly into Harris' brain, after which Harris could read the Marker's codes and warned that "they're hungry, they're coming, they'll make us whole." The procedure also began his slow transformation. As his body changed, Mercer moved him to a concealed room to observe the mutation, and in a final lucid moment Harris described himself as "dead, awake, whole." The Necromorph tissue forced into his mind turned Harris into the Hunter, the regenerating creature that Mercer kept confined and studied as his prized experiment.
Frequently asked questions
- Who was Brant Harris?
- Brant Harris was a miner at the Concordance Extraction Corporation colony on Aegis VII. His exposure to Marker 3A left him with severe dementia and hallucinations, and after he killed a nurse he was arrested and transferred to the orbiting USG Ishimura, which made him one of the colony's few survivors of the initial outbreak.
- What did Dr. Mercer do to Brant Harris?
- The Unitologist doctor Challus Mercer had Harris transferred to his care and interrogated him about the Marker. When Harris could not articulate what the artifact had shown him, Mercer injected Necromorph biomatter into his brain, which let Harris read the Marker's codes and began his slow mutation into a Necromorph.
- Did Brant Harris become the Hunter?
- The Necromorph tissue Mercer forced into Harris' brain transformed him into the Hunter, a regenerating creature Mercer kept under study aboard the Ishimura. Harris was the patient Mercer referred to using in his experiments, and his transformation was carried out against his will.
Sources
- WikiBrant Harris — Dead Space Wiki entry
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