On Pandora's orbit, inside the Ishimura, Marcus headed directly to the engine room after concluding his communication with the Star of Entrepreneurship. The ship's most valuable asset, the Shockpoint Engine, was located here.
In front of the massive Shockpoint Engine, Chief Engineer Jacob led over twenty engineers in conducting the final inspection. The Shockpoint Engine had been inoperable for a long time due to damage inflicted by followers of the Unified Church, influenced by the God Seal. However, after nearly half a year of dedicated repairs, Jacob and his team had finally fixed the engine. This meant the Ishimura could, at last, perform faster-than-light (FTL) travel!
"How's the engine?" Marcus asked Jacob once the inspection was complete.
"Everything's normal, ready to enter shockpoint space at any time," Jacob replied, providing a satisfactory answer.
Marcus nodded. "We'll perform faster-than-light travel in 24 hours, with our destination being Earth in this universe."
"Earth, huh—" Jacob felt a pang of emotion, recalling the Earth of his own world, the Dead Space world, which had been completely depleted of resources and ravaged by an extremely harsh environment. "What's Earth like in this universe?" During this time, although Jacob had been continuously performing various spaceship maintenance tasks on the Ishimura and training talents from the Resident Evil world, he had learned about the situation on Pandora and seen its incredibly magnificent environment through visual data.
"It's better than the Earth in your world, but not by much," Marcus shook his head. "In another decade or so, the humans of this world will begin large-scale colonization of Pandora."
"Do they have environmental transformation technology?" Jacob inquired.
"No."
Jacob understood. The so-called "large-scale colonization" would ultimately benefit only the powerful and wealthy. The majority of people in the middle and lower classes of society would be abandoned on the harsh Earth, left to fend for themselves.
"Get ready. The humans of this world may not be benevolent towards us," Marcus warned before leaving the engine room.
Returning to the captain's quarters, Marcus observed through the porthole the Courage and the Sanctuary shuttling back and forth between the Ishimura and the Star of Entrepreneurship, transporting personnel and supplies. With the help of the management who had signed the Psychic Contract, Marcus also successfully signed contracts with most of the Star of Entrepreneurship's crew. As for the small number of crew members who were unwilling to sign the contract or simply did not want to return to Earth, Marcus directly sent them to Pandora to participate in colonization efforts. Wesker would ensure their proper placement. After all, most of those who could board the Star of Entrepreneurship had their own particular excellences.
Soon, after several transports, most of the crew from the Star of Entrepreneurship were transferred to the Ishimura. These curious crew members also witnessed firsthand the Ishimura, a vessel boasting a significantly higher technological level than their own Star of Entrepreneurship. Just the casually used power modules by the Ishimura crew widened their eyes in awe, and the stasis energy left them exclaiming in disbelief.
However, these new arrivals were soon gathered into designated areas. Marcus had not brought these people onto the Ishimura for sightseeing. The reason he went to great lengths to sign contracts with each of them was part of his "peaceful contact" strategy. Compared to an unidentified spaceship appearing inexplicably in the solar system, a ship carrying RDA employees would obviously be more likely to gain the trust of Earth in the Avatar world.
Twenty-four hours later, everything on the Ishimura was ready. Everyone received notification that the Ishimura was about to enter shockpoint space for faster-than-light travel. The old crew members from the Dead Space world remained calm; after all, as a planet cracker, the Ishimura had often performed FTL travel alone between various planets for mining operations. Meanwhile, the new crew members from the Resident Evil world, as well as the RDA crew members from the Star of Entrepreneurship, were a mix of nervousness and excitement.
It's worth mentioning that there were currently no PDF Soldiers on the Ishimura. All security personnel came from the Resident Evil world and had been rigorously trained by Security Chief Hammond. Additionally, the T103 Tyrants also formed a powerful internal ship security force. As for the ship's firepower, after half a year of extensive armament modification, the Ishimura could almost be considered armed to the teeth. The number of original ADS cannons had expanded more than tenfold, no longer limited to merely intercepting asteroid fields. In addition to these railguns, a large number of missile launch bays were installed throughout the Ishimura's hull. Most of these came from sponsorship from the Resident Evil world, with a small portion disassembled from various Hive Cities on the planet Avarax in the Warhammer world. Marcus also had personnel dismantle a dozen giant laser anti-aircraft gun arrays from the Central Hive City and install them on the Ishimura's broadside and front. Their power was sufficient to deal with human ships in the Avatar world; a single shot could completely penetrate a commercial transport spaceship like the Star of Entrepreneurship. Even against military armed vessels, the Ishimura could outmaneuver them, engaging from a distance using its own super-high maneuverability.
"Commencing countdown to enter shockpoint space. All crew members, please prepare yourselves and hold onto all sturdy objects around you," Jacob's voice echoed throughout the Ishimura via broadcast. Following that, a blue countdown appeared on the equipment screens in front of everyone. Ten minutes.
Inside the captain's quarters, Marcus sat in his command seat. Beside him, Jacob and some of the Ishimura's veteran crew members were responsible for monitoring and operating the most critical facilities, such as the Shockpoint Engine and the field generator. On the bridge outside, more crew members were responsible for monitoring less critical facility conditions. Most of these crew members came from the Resident Evil world and had been trained by the older, more experienced members. In addition to the Ishimura's inherent faster-than-light travel capability, a sufficiently skilled control team was also indispensable; neither could be lacking.
"10! 9! 8! 7! 6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1!" As the countdown ended, the field generator activated first, enveloping the entire Ishimura in a special, invisible field. Immediately, the pulse engines for regular travel activated, accelerating the Ishimura to a specific speed. Finally, the Shockpoint Engine officially roared to life. Everyone could see that the space around the Ishimura seemed to be distorted. Especially the normally calm cosmic space directly in front of the Ishimura's bow appeared to be kneaded together by an invisible pair of hands. And the cosmic space behind the Ishimura's stern seemed to be torn apart, with the distances between celestial bodies continuously expanding, swelling like water absorption.