- "I worked with people like you on Aegis VII. They'd steal my power nodes. Leave me to dig with no light. But when they abandon you in the dark, it's not empty. The Marker whispered its revelations there. Now, I understand them. Do you want to hear?"
- —Harris, shortly before killing a fellow miner.[2]
Brant Harris was a miner who worked at the colony on Aegis VII. His exposure to Marker 3A while on the planet led to him being transferred to the USG Ishimura for treatment, eventually becoming a focus of Dr. Challus Mercer's experiments.
Biography[]
Exposure to the Marker on Aegis VII[]
- "God speaks through the Marker. It needs to be heard."
- —Harris after being exposed to the Marker signal.[3]
Brant Harris was one of the many miners suffering from insomnia and other similar symptoms after the discovery of Marker 3A, and went to Dr. Sciarello for treatment. However, the treatment had no effect on Harris and his condition only worsened as he began to experience vivid hallucinations due to his Marker-induced dementia.
Blaming the doctor for the cause of his suffering, Harris took Sciarello hostage, but was ultimately subdued by P-Sec officers Abraham Neumann and Vera Cortez. However, in the struggle, Harris struck the doctor's nurse, Katie Evans, with a line cutter and sliced her in half. Harris was arrested and subsequently sent to the orbiting USG Ishimura, a decision that ultimately saved his life from the initial Necromorph invasion on Aegis VII, making him one of the colony's few survivors.
Transformation into the Hunter[]
- Mercer: "I hear it too, Mr Harris. Others find the Marker's signal a burden, but for me it's... inspiring. New surgical techniques, new technical designs... A pity I can't grasp the deeper nuances like you do."
- Harris: "You mean the codes? Or the voices that are hungry to be heard? Hungry, like stars are hungry..."
- —Challus Mercer attempts to extract information about the Marker from Harris.[3]
Upon arriving on the Ishimura, Harris was put under extensive watch by its doctors, most notably Chief Psych Officer Dr. Warwick. According to Warwick's report, Harris was completely unable to sleep without medical aid, and although he did not deny the fact that he murdered nurse Evans, he admitted that he did not regret his actions nor did he consider them to be wrong, claiming that Evans "wasn't a nurse" when he killed her. He also exhibited writing behavior on any available surface, stating that "the dreams need to speak" and that he was attempting to "make it whole again".
Afterwards, Harris became Dr. Nicole Brennan's patient and her treatments were seeming to improve his condition. However, the Unitologist doctor Challus Mercer insisted that Harris' delusions were "religiously significant", and was able to get Harris transferred to his care for his own experiments. Mercer interrogated Harris for information on the Marker, but the miner told him that every time he tried to give it to him, it slipped away from his mind, almost like it was "stuck behind [his] eyes". Mercer then devised a possible solution to this problem, injecting Necromorph biomatter into Harris' brain in the hopes of unlocking the secrets of the Marker; this resulted in Harris being able to see the codes that the Marker had given him and telling Mercer that, "They're hungry. They're coming. They'll make us whole."[3]
This experiment also began Harris' slow transformation into the Hunter as a result of the Necromorph material injected directly into his cerebrum. He was eventually sent to the Mining Deck by Mercer with instructions to bring back osmium for the doctor's experiments. There, Harris was confronted by a fellow miner who attempted to stop him from taking the osmium, prompting Harris to push the man into a Suit Kiosk, crushing him with the machinery.[2]
As Harris' condition continued to deteriorate, Mercer began regularly taking him to a secret room on the Hydroponics Deck in order to observe his transformation. In a final conversation before Harris lost the ability to speak, he claimed that he now felt "Dead. Awake. Whole." and asked Mercer what the doctor would do if he tried to kill him. Mercer reassured Harris that he would use a "containment module" to prevent his Necromorph form from attacking him, finally telling Harris that it was time for his "first real hunt" as the miner fully succumbed to his mutations.[1]
Trivia[]
- Mercer's experiment of attempting to unlock the Marker knowledge in Harris' mind - inserting a sample of Necromorph tissue through his ocular cavity and into the right region of the brain - was a process very similar to what would later be used by EarthGov for Project Telomere with the Noonlight Diagnostics Machine, though the latter did not involve Necromorph material.
- In the original game, a woman named Eileen Fisk recorded an audio log when she woke up inside of a room on the Ishimura alone. As she began frantically calling out for help, she heard someone approaching and saw Harris, who she recognized as having killed the nurse on the colony. She then began to scream as the audio log cut out, suggesting she was attacked by Harris.[4]
Gallery[]
Sources[]