Crew Deck
Residential Quarters of the USG Ishimura
The Crew Deck was the residential section of the USG Ishimura, a self contained district of sleeper bunks, mess halls and recreation built so that miners and technicians could live aboard the Planet Cracker. During the Necromorph outbreak it became a slaughterhouse and a site of mass Unitologist suicide.
The Crew Deck was the residential section of the mining vessel USG Ishimura, set in the lower forward portion of the ship. It served as the home of the crew who lived aboard the Planet Cracker during its long extraction voyages, and it was central to the events of the Necromorph outbreak that destroyed the ship.
Layout and purpose#
The Crew Deck was a large area built to house everyone who worked aboard the Ishimura, from miners and technicians to doctors and the senior officers. It was designed so that the crew would feel at home through the long extraction voyages, and it held the necessities of life on a working ship: spacious common rooms, sleeper bunks that could be arranged and closed off for privacy, a large Mess Hall, and recreation areas including a gym, a fitness center, a cinema, a chapel and a Zero-G Basketball Court.
A Tram Station connected the deck to the rest of the ship by way of the Tram Tunnels, with a service entrance leading toward the Bridge Security Station. At the heart of the deck was the Central Nexus, a crossroads marked with guide arrows pointing to the sleeping quarters, the Mess Hall, the fitness center, the chief steward's offices, the shuttle bay, the cinema and the chapel.
Living quarters#
Crew housing was divided by rank. The Standard Quarters, set closest to the Mess Hall, held the lower ranked workers, with a common area of tables, chairs and vending machines opening onto a large room of bunks. The Deluxe Quarters served higher ranking staff and offered more privacy in smaller bunk rooms, along with guest consultant suites. Dr. Challus Mercer kept his personal room among the Deluxe Quarters.
The Executive Quarters housed the ship's most senior staff, including Captain Benjamin Mathius, First Officer D. White, and Chief Science Officer Terrence Kyne. The executive block was furnished more richly than the standard sleeper blocks, with carpeting and sofas. Nearby was a shuttle bay holding the Executive Shuttle USG-09, a craft reserved for senior officers and kept separate from the ship's other shuttles, which left it aboard after the rest were jettisoned during the early chaos of the outbreak.
The outbreak#
The Crew Deck was tied to the spread of the catastrophe aboard the Ishimura. From the Central Nexus, the security officer Zach Hammond hid in the air vents and watched Unitologists carry Marker 3A from the Cargo Bay into the Nexus. As he relayed the scene to Isaac Clarke and Kendra Daniels over a live transmission, the Marker released a massive signal pulse that cut his transmission and struck both listeners.
Challus Mercer used the deck as a killing ground, pumping toxic gas from the Hydroponics Deck into the Standard Quarters and poisoning the crew sheltering there. In the original account of the disaster, the sleeper blocks became the worst infested part of the deck, as the personnel who had retreated there to survive the first wave were later driven by the deranged Mercer to commit mass suicide. The common area near the gym was turned into a chapel where the Unitologist faithful who had fled to the deck took their own lives in ritual fashion.
Sources
- WikiCrew Deck — Dead Space Wiki entry
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Related entries
Bridge
The Bridge of the USG Ishimura was the command and control center of the Planet Cracker, a large open section at the front of the ship from which its crew ran the vessel and its mining operations. By the outbreak its displays read only System Failure.
Hydroponics Deck
The Hydroponics Deck was the USG Ishimura''s internal farm, growing the food and producing the oxygen needed to sustain the ship''s crew. During the 2508 outbreak the deck was overtaken by the Leviathan, which polluted its air and destroyed the ship''s food supply.
USG Ishimura
The USG Ishimura was the flagship of the Concordance Extraction Corporation and the first Planet Cracker-class mining ship. After recovering Marker 3A from Aegis VII in 2508, it became the site of a catastrophic Necromorph outbreak that wiped out its crew and bound its name to the history of the Markers.
Benjamin Mathius
Benjamin Mathius was the captain of the USG Ishimura and a high ranking Unitologist, placed in command to retrieve Marker 3A from Aegis VII for the Church. His devotion and the Marker''s influence drove him to madness, and he died restrained on his own ship as the outbreak began.
Challus Mercer
Challus Mercer was the Second Science Officer of the USG Ishimura, a fanatical Unitologist who experimented on the crew in the belief that Convergence was the gateway to life after death.
Executive Shuttle USG-09: The Ishimura Escape Craft
The Executive Shuttle USG-09 was a private shuttle reserved for the executives of the USG Ishimura. Sabotaged during the outbreak, it became the craft Isaac Clarke repaired to return Marker 3A to Aegis VII.
Mentioned in9 entries
Bridge
The Bridge of the USG Ishimura was the command and control center of the Planet Cracker, a large open section at the front of the ship from which its crew ran the vessel and its mining operations. By the outbreak its displays read only System Failure.
Challus Mercer
Challus Mercer was the Second Science Officer of the USG Ishimura, a fanatical Unitologist who experimented on the crew in the belief that Convergence was the gateway to life after death.
Flight Deck
The Flight Deck was the central port complex of the USG Ishimura, where shuttles arrived and departed and the ship''s tram system was operated. It was where the USG Kellion crashed and Isaac Clarke''s ordeal aboard the ship began.
Nicole Brennan
Nicole Brennan was the Senior Medical Officer aboard the USG Ishimura who tried to halt the Necromorph outbreak before taking her own life, and whose image the Marker then used as a hallucination to manipulate Isaac Clarke toward Convergence.
Terrence Kyne
Terrence Kyne was the Chief Science Officer of the USG Ishimura, a Unitologist Marker expert whose conscience turned him against the Church and who fell to the artifact's hallucinations of his dead wife.
The Hunter
The Hunter was a Regenerator Necromorph deliberately engineered by the Unitologist Dr. Challus Mercer aboard the USG Ishimura, grown from the living patient Brant Harris. Able to regrow severed limbs in seconds, it could not be killed by dismemberment and stalked Isaac Clarke across the ship.
Tram System
The Tram System was the USG Ishimura''s automated monorail, which carried crew between the decks of the vast mining vessel. Built around a single rail, it linked the ship''s major sections through a network of stations and a central maintenance bay.
USG Ishimura
The USG Ishimura was the flagship of the Concordance Extraction Corporation and the first Planet Cracker-class mining ship. After recovering Marker 3A from Aegis VII in 2508, it became the site of a catastrophic Necromorph outbreak that wiped out its crew and bound its name to the history of the Markers.
Zach Hammond
Zach Hammond was the Chief Security Officer of the USG Kellion who took command after the Necromorph attack on the Ishimura and died on the wrecked USM Valor saving Isaac Clarke.
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