As the starships of humanity travelled first across the solar system and then to distant stars,
they carried with them the failings of human civilization. Civil strife,
religious fanaticism and overpopulation all became staples of the new interstellar age.
Gravity manipulation and shock-drive technology promised to provide relief to an increasingly
overpopulated Earth, but instead only perpetuated an inexhaustible drive for raw resources.
Bolstered by extensive subsidies from EarthGov, the mining industry came to dominate every aspect
of interplanetary commerce. Put it back
The USG Ishimura was the culmination of this prevailing doctrine. A starship designed
to provide uninhibited resource exploitation. Stretching over a mile long from prow to stern,
it was the largest vessel ever constructed, and quickly followed by others in the so-called
“planet-cracker class”. At the time of its introduction into service within the fleet
of the Concordance Extraction Corporation in 2446, it was a truly historic vessel.
The scope of its operations were unprecedented,
marking a turning point in humanity’s exploration and exploitation of space.
Despite the revolutionary technologies and designs it incorporated, the Ishimura was first
and foremost a mining ship, working to locate and exploit valuable resources in deep space.
Its target objects ranged from asteroids, moons, and even entire planets. Using it’s
powerful gravity tethers, the USG Ishimura was able to exert massive pressure onto a planetoid
and literally crack apart its crust. The resulting debris would be scanned for heavy metals,
mineral deposits and other valuable ores to then be pulled into the ship itself for wholesale
smelting. A battery of mass-drivers allowed for the active interception of potentially dangerous
space debris during this procedure, making the USG Ishimura both an incredibly effective
and reliably safe platform for macro-scale astro mining. Once a target was cracked and
its materials recovered, these would be shipped back for industrial use on Earth
and other colony worlds. Put it back
The vessel’s superstructure was dominated by its engineering, mining and ore storage decks,
principally located on the bottom of the ship's hull, and within twin cargo towers
positioned towards the stern. Alongside these were extensive habitation and hydroponics decks,
as well as a large flight bay and maintenance substructures. The bridge was located at the
vessel’s prow, and featured an atrium in which the command crew operated,
and a private observation area known as the Captain’s Nest.
They are watching The Ishimura also featured a
dedicated hospital wing which, aside from serving conventional medical needs, acted as a laboratory
that could study alien toxins and virology. This allowed the Ishimura to maximise its usefulness
as a pioneer vessel at the edge of known space, studying and recording alien ecosystems even while
splitting them apart for their raw materials. They are watching
With a crew of approximately 1300 souls, the USG Ishimura carried relatively few
human personnel for its operations. Yet those aboard enjoyed extensive habitation
decks featuring exercise areas, lounges and other amenities. These provided a comfortable
living space both for the ship’s crew and its mining teams, but also their families.
Roughly 200 of those aboard were not involved with the running of the ship in any capacity,
but instead onboard dependents and relations. Their inclusion onboard allowed the Ishimira
to operate longer from port than it otherwise might have been able,
without damaging the ship’s morale. Vast hydroponics bays ensured that the crew always
had extensive stores of food on hand, further extending the Ishimura’s deep-space operations.
Put it back It’s ability to operate within deep space and its
cutting edge shock-drive, meant the USG Ishimura also served as a de facto exploration ship.
Its scanning runs would take it deep into areas only briefly passed over by previous exploration
missions, placing it at the forefront of both stellar cartography and practical astrophysics.
Over its 63 years of service the USG Ishimura made several notable discoveries in these fields,
and was routinely marketed as a shining jewel within the CEC fleet. By 2508 however,
after 62 years in service, the Ishimura was scheduled to be decommissioned after its record
breaking 35th planet crack. They are watching
It was during the cracking of Aegis VII, the Ishimua’s final target, that the ship’s
legacy would take a darker turn. During the process, an alien artifact was uncovered,
designated the A3 Red Marker. A device with extreme religious significance to the influential
Church of Unitology, of whom the Ishimura's captain was a member, it was extracted from
the planet with the intention of transporting it back to Earth. The Marker’s recovery prompted the
outbreak of a recombinant extraterrestrial infection that had been present on Aegis
VII. Spread throughout the ventilation system, the infection took hold of the ship, each deck
descending into chaos as it’s crew was converted into extremely aggressive mutated life forms.
The bridge held out the longest, sending out a distress signal before it too was overrun,
prompting the arrival of the USG Kellion rescue vessel.
After this rescue failed, EarthGov and the CEC would fabricate the story that the vessel was
destroyed by a terrorist attack. Put it back
Left adrift in the wake of the incident, the derelict ship was inadvertently picked up by
a group of scavengers, who would too succumb to the infection and turn upon each other. As
EarthGov forces arrived to shut down the illegal operation and reclaim the ship, the infestation
again reconstituted itself, striking out and killing numerous personnel before being contained.
The Ishimura would then be relocated to the vast industrial and prison complex known as The Sprawl,
located on the remains of Saturn’s moon of Titan, as part of a cleanup operation intended to hide
its original fate. Instead, the infection again ran rampant across the ship and the surrounding
facilities before both were seemingly destroyed in an explosion that sent the final remnants of the
Ishimura plunging into Saturn’s atmosphere. They are watching
Put it back The USG Ishimura was
a vessel intended to mark a turning point in human history, it achieved this, in more ways
than could have ever been imagined. For all its power, the Ishimura was a pale reflection
of those that awaited in the dark. And they are coming. They are hungry. They are here.