Rosetta: The Preserved Alien Specimen
Rosetta was the name given to a perfectly preserved alien corpse found in the ice of Tau Volantis. Its unaltered DNA held the key to building a Codex capable of interfacing with the Alien Machine.
Rosetta was the name given to a set of pure alien remains recovered from the ice of Tau Volantis by the Sovereign Colonies research expedition. Because its DNA had never been altered by the Necromorph infection, the specimen became the key to building a Codex able to interface with the Alien Machine, and it later guided Isaac Clarke and his companions to the truth about the Markers.
Discovery and significance#
Rosetta was the name assigned to the corpse of an alien entity found encased and perfectly preserved within the ice of Tau Volantis by one of the Sovereign Colonies Armed Forces digging expeditions. Dr. Earl Serrano described the creature as almost fish like in appearance and anatomy. The remains were taken to a facility for study, where Serrano and his colleagues came to understand that the Alien Machine they were also investigating could only be interfaced with using the unaltered DNA of the aliens themselves. That made Rosetta, frozen solid and protected from the Necromorph infection, essential to the work of creating a Codex capable of interacting with the Machine.
Scenario Five and the order to hide#
When General Spencer Mahad ordered the destruction of all scientific samples and data as part of the Scenario Five purge issued by the Sovereign Colonies Council, Dr. Barton aboard the CMS Greely transmitted an encrypted message to the scientists on the surface instructing them simply to hide Rosetta. By that time the frozen body had been cut into a number of cross sectional slabs. Amid the chaos, at least a few scientists who survived the early stages of Scenario Five managed to carry slabs out of the Biology Wing and scatter them through different areas of the research complex.
Rediscovery#
Two hundred years later, Isaac Clarke first heard of Rosetta through Jennifer Santos, who intercepted an encrypted transmission being sent from the CMS Greely to the surface. After Isaac explored the Greely and decrypted the message, the two at first speculated that Rosetta might be a key female scientist in need of protection from the purge. Isaac and the remaining crew, Ellie Langford and John Carver, later learned the truth and were forced to locate the frozen sections of the body scattered through the wings of Facility Two. Once all the slabs were recovered, a machine capable of probing the dormant mind of the alien was used to uncover what had happened to its race and the secret of the Markers. Rosetta's body was presumably destroyed when Isaac triggered the facility's sterilization sequence so that he, Ellie, and Carver could escape Jacob Arthur Danik and his men, though the encasing ice may have shielded it from the gas.
Sources
- WikiRosetta — Dead Space Wiki entry
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