Dead Space: Downfall is a prequel to Dead Space, taking place after the limited comic series published by Image Comics. Set aboard the planet mining ship USG Ishimura, it details the events following the transportation of an extraterrestrial artifact called the "Marker" from the planet Aegis VII during a mining operation, leading to the deaths of nearly everyone on board as a result of the Marker's influence creating monsters dubbed "Necromorphs" from human corpses.