DISCOVERY OF A RED MARKER

At the time the Red Marker was discovered on Aegis VII, the Ishimura was 62 years old. She was still in remarkable shape, with much of her equipment upgraded and many sections refitted to take advantage of continuing advances in technology. Despite her long years of service, the Ishimura was still the pride of the C.E.C fleet, along with her venerable prestige as the largest Planet-Cracker class ship. When the C.E.C learned of Aegis VII Colony's discovery, the Ishimura was dispatched to recover the Marker and transport it back to Earth. Upon arriving at Aegis VII, the Ishimura's commanding officer and devout Unitologist Captain Matthius gave a no-fly order with the exception that the Marker, all related data and corpses be moved to the Ishimura. Once this was accomplished, the crew of the Ishimura began planet crack operations, with the cover put in place to hide their true agenda. Coinciding with the planet crack, the Ishimura briefly lost all contact with the colony. Once contact was re-established, the crew discovered that the entire colony had been slaughtered. Further contact with one of the mining teams revealed nothing of the colony's fate, as they were soon killed by unknown hostiles. Several survivors attempted to reach the Ishimura using the colony's remaining shuttles. After navigating through the debris field created by the planet crack, the shuttles were fired upon by the Ishimura's ADS cannons for violating the no-fly order. Two shuttles successfully reached the Ishimura; the first, flown by Colin Barrow, crash landed into the hangar bay. The second, flown by Gabe Weller, crash landed on the hull near the Crew Deck.