Gabriel "Gabe" Weller is a veteran of the Resource Wars and former officer of the USG Ishimura. He was present during the second Aegis VII and Ishimura Necromorph outbreak and one of its survivors. He would later join P.C.S.I. Security as a Sergeant stationed aboard Titan Station and was present during the Necromorph outbreak aboard the space station.
Biography
Early career
Not much is known about Gabe other than the fact that he and Nathan McNeill served together in the Resource Wars, after which he became a security officer assigned to the Ishimura.
The Second Aegis VII Incident
Gabe Weller was one of the P.C.S.I. Sec officers aboard the Ishimura sent to recover the bodies of Aegis VII's suicides from the colony's morgue. There, he reunites with his old friend, Detective Nathan McNeill, and requested directions to the morgue. Gabe, and a rookie named Private Karklins, traveled with Nathan to the morgue but found the bodies missing. Moments later they are attacked by morgue personnel exhibiting similar symptoms seen in Sam Caldwell, but they managed to get out.
The effects of the Red Marker plunged the entire colony into chaos, civilians and soldiers attacked or killed anyone in sight. Weller, McNeill and Karklins found more chaos outside. The two security officers moved on while McNeill helped out in a hostage situation.
McNeill found Weller and Karklins again and they watch as the chaos in the colony intensified. Weller was sucker-punched by a mad Karklins, who succumbed to the influence of the Marker. Nathan kills the private in self-defense. Weller and Nathan were then forced to barricade themselves inside the P-Sec Office. They heard a strange transmission informing them to shoot the limbs off "the things" assaulting P-Sec and were thoroughly confused. They assume whomever was transmitting had also gone mad.
After an elevator ride to the main control station, they are attacked by a Necromorph, but managed to kill it utilizing their new information. Assuming the creature of alien origin, the two continued to the control room and found more Necromorphs. They survive the attack and find a weeping Lexine Murdoch hidden in a corner. Affronted by her lack of assistance, Gabe objected to Lexine joining him and Nathan, telling her to barricade herself inside her house. Nathan, however, accepts her request to join them, wanting to minimize the number of missing persons cases. The group moved on, hoping to reach the shuttle bay, where Gabe's men waited in his shuttle, to escape the infected colony. Along the way, they learned the true origin of the Necromorphs after witnessing an Infector transform one human corpse into a Slasher. The group found their way to the shuttle bay, where they saw a two shuttles losing altitude and crash back into the hangar bay, destroying the rest of the ships in the process.
Weller spotted an elderly man, Warren Eckhardt, a CEC executive, among the debris. After helping Eckhardt, he informed them that he knew of a surveying shuttle, the Vestri, located near the Megavents. The group decided that the fastest way there would be through the Megavents. When they entered, the group find a man hiding from the Necromorphs. He agreed to help them find the shuttle bay. With Nathan's help, Weller sealed an open vent shut, slowing the approaching Necromorphs down.
They traveled along the Necromorph-infested path and lost their guide to a Drag Tentacle in the process of rescuing Lexine, but made it to the shuttle. Weller's other two officers also reached the shuttle by an alternate route. After a small battle with Necromorphs, a Hive Mind tentacle appears and kills Weller's two officers. Weller fires wildly at the Hive's tentacle, trying to hold it off while Nathan hacked the shuttle door.
Weller boarded the ship after the tentacle retreated, but soon the whole Hive Mind emerged from behind the Megavents and tried to stop the fleeing group. Weller and Eckhardt, however, manage to pilot them off-planet and to safety.
Incident on the USG Ishimura
After narrowly making it through Aegis VII's new asteroid belt, they came into view of the Ishimura. The Planet Cracker, however, denied them permission to dock, and began firing at them with its ADS cannons. Weller and Eckhardt manage to avoid the incoming fire from the Ishimura and crash their shuttle on the hull of the ship. Weller and the group used the suits in the shuttle to "space walk" to a nearby maintenance airlock and enter the Ishimura. The developing circumstances changed severely since Weller's departure. After entering the ship, they discover that the Necromorph infection reached the ship.
They found a startled crew member in a closet, and they move off to the bridge, hoping things would be safer there. After fighting swarms of Necromorphs, and losing their startled crew member, a roaming security squad find the group in the empty dining hall. Weller tried to explain who he was, but they ignored him and tased Nathan and apprehended the group.
Weller regained consciousness up inside a medical observation tube on the Medical Deck being run by Nicole Brennan; however, he couldn't open his tube when quarantine was breached. Nathan entered the air vents to override the quarantine and was successful in his mission. Weller and the others moved along with Nicole and picked up a hallucinating Nathan in the morgue. When Nicole sees the dead body of Captain Benjamin Mathius, she fears the worst for the ship. Weller and Nathan continue to protect the group, fending off more Necromorph attacks in the ER and eventually helping rivet a piece of metal to a barricade while a Drag Tentacle tried to attack them. A security officer then asked him to help another group down on the Engineering Deck. Weller agreed, and they proceed to the Ishimura's Tram Stations.
The group reach the station and discover the trams are offline, Weller suggested they walk the tunnels as the engineering deck wasn't far. As the group moved down the empty tunnel, a small area of the track broke beneath their feet and they fell into the sewers. After taking in their surroundings, they decide to find a way out of the sewers. Soon after, Lexine was attacked by a group of Swarmers and vanished underwater. Weller urged the group to continue on, figuring she was lost. Eckhardt and Weller butt heads, Eckhardt believing that Weller wanted Lexine gone. In her absence, the group began to hear voices and experience hallucinations.
Winding up underneath the Hydroponics Deck, they meet Doctor Catherine Howell hiding up on a catwalk. She invites them up onto the catwalk she currently occupies, but a massive Necromorph suddenly appears and attacks them. Doctor Howell runs off, Nathan and Weller sever its tentacles using the rotating blades on the sides of the waterway. Weller and Eckhardt argue the status of the beast, Eckhardt snappish over Weller's constant sarcasm. Nathan reminds them that there's still the option of heading to Hydroponics, a decision Eckhardt feels is unwise. Weller, however, wastes no time and proceeds to the route that will take them to Hydroponics.
Weller and the others finally escape the sewage systems and reach the Hydroponics Deck. Nathan was in the process of locking the Necromorphs in the sewer system when Howell arrived unharmed with Lexine. The survivors' goals aligned, they decide to escape the ship and move to find a working shuttle. He, Lexine and Nathan left Howell to locking down the sewage system with Eckhardt protecting her.
The trio reach the tram without incident, waiting for them, but only Eckhardt arrives to the Tram Station. Weller slams Eckhardt violently against the wall and demands to know what happened to Howell. Eckhardt explains that Howell chose to sacrifice herself to the Necromorphs, locking herself in the room on the Hydroponics deck.
As more Necromorphs arrive, they escape on a tram and Weller splits the group into two. Eckhardt and him search the maintenance bay while Nathan and Lexine checked the flight deck. When Eckhardt inquires about why Weller chose him, Weller replied he "didn't want to split up lovebirds". They found a working shuttle, but a young security officer refused to let them into the control room. Even after fending off swarms of Necromorphs, the officer still wouldn't let them in. Without warning, the control room was invaded by an Exploder, who kills the officer and destroys the glass barring Weller and Eckhardt entrance. Weller realizes the shuttle is locked in place by four gravity tethers and enters Zero Gravity and unlocked them.
Returning to the coms room, Weller found Eckhardt completing message intended to be sent to a Unitologist, and replayed the message. The message revealed Eckhardt was high-ranking Unitologist, sent to Aegis VII to find Lexine, who has an apparent immunity to the effects of the Red Marker. The video also reveals he had a hand in Doctor Howell's demise. Eckhardt shoots Weller after he watched the log. His plan is to bring Lexine to the church for study, but a Leaper sneaks up on Eckhardt and kills him.
Weller managed to grab his pistol just in time and kills the Leaper before it can attack him and passes out. Lexine brings him out around and Weller tells her and Nathan of Eckhardt's betrayal and his being Unitologist, leaving Lexine's importance out of his explanation. He told Nathan that in order for them to escape, he has to shut off one of the ADS cannons. After Nathan left, Weller's condition worsened, and Lexine began to worry. She managed to find some painkiller to help Weller after he regained consciousness a second time.
Weller and Lexine ward off swarms upon swarms of Necromorphs, waiting for Nathan's return. Lexine manages to get the ship ready for launch, but Nathan has yet to return. As Weller begins to believe his friend dead, the two are greeted by a badly injured Nathan fending off Necromorphs with one hand. Weller holds the creatures off, allowing Nathan and Lexine to launch the shuttle. As they escape the stricken vessel, Nathan tells Weller he is officially retiring from the force. He asked Lexine to plot a course to Titan Station, and proceeded sit down, exhausted. Weller did the same and commented on Nathan's choice of destination, unable to believe they'd return to the Sprawl.
The USG Kellion begins hailing the Ishimura for a response. Lexine hears them and tries to raise them, but the debris field from the planet crack prevents the signal from going through. Soon afterward, Weller then began to fall asleep.
Flashes of symbols appear and several shots of Weller's men and Warren Eckhardt are shown, complimented by the Red Marker and Necromorph attacks. The scene ends from the point of view Nathan who succumbed to his wounds and Necromorph infection.[note 1] Now a Slasher, he attacks an unsuspecting Lexine. She falls to the ground, but at the last moment she grabs the hand gun and kills the Slasher.
Action on the Sprawl
- "Isaac isn't the only one fighting through the Sprawl."
- —Gabe Weller[1]
Following the events on Aegis VII, Gabe became a security officer with the rank of sergeant on the Sprawl and subsequently married Lexine. Weller served there for three years. When Titan Station fell under attack to the Necromorphs, all Sprawl security teams were activated in order to protect the Sprawl and its citizens.
Gabe, a Sergeant on the Bravo team, was sent into the Titan Mines to deal with the Necromorphs at their presumed origin. His team, with the exception of Cpl. Price (who was later infected by an Infector and transformed into a Twitcher), was quickly wiped out. Realizing that the Sprawl was done for, Gabe warned Lexine about the incoming danger and fought through the Sprawl to reach her.
Upon exiting the mines, Gabe is betrayed by his superior, Col. Victor Bartlett of Alpha team, who intends to follow Hans Tiedemann's orders to eliminate persons of interest on the Sprawl. Gabe fights his way through the Titan Memorial Medical Center, inadvertently leading Victor to Lexine whenever she contacts him about her present position inside the hospital. When he finally reaches Lexine, Victor has captured and intends to kill her.
However, the intervention of two men in white renders Victor unconscious and they take her away with the intention of carrying out orders unfamiliar to Victor's. Gabe is blockaded at every turn by Necromorphs whenever he gets close enough to reach Lexine; he eventually finds her fleeing into a Gunship in the hospital shuttle bay. He kills the men in white, now Necromorphs, and orders Lexine to prepare the shuttle.
To allow the ship to lift off, he has to open the sealed door by hacking the control panel. As the only one who was wearing a space suit, he volunteers and tells Lexine to stay inside the ship. Just as he is about to open the doors, Victor appears with a live grenade.
He attempts to kill both of them, but Gabe manages to fend him off. However he doesn't get out of the way in time to avoid the explosion, which severs his right leg and damages his helmet. Bleeding out, he tells Lexine that he's not going to make it, but he can allow her and their child the chance to escape.
He destroys the final failsafe on the door, opening the door and allowing the ship to escape. He eventually succumbs to his wounds after a final "I love you" to Lexine. He is presumed dead from blood loss and vacuum exposure, his suit was also badly breached. A report shown following his death establishes his status as "deceased", his remains collected for studies.
Personality
Gabe is a hardheaded, bull of a Sergeant who shows little concern for those he considers weak. He is the foil to the kindhearted Nathan McNeill and seems ready to pick a fight with anyone at any given moment. He doesn't trust anyone, save Nathan, and above all else, he wants to get out alive, even if its means severing any weak links, like Lexine or Eckhardt. In a gunfight, he is quick to shoot and aside from Nate, is the only survivor in the group trained to use a firearm.
His sharp military instincts have been dulled by inactivity on board the corporate mining vessel, but the survivors turn to him and Nathan to get them out of the colony and off the Ishimura. Extraction reveals Weller's overestimation of his skills tends to leaves him open to attacks he assumes he can handle. In Severed, under duress, Gabe cannot control his temper which can lead grievous errors of judgement.
Despite the hard edge to his character, it is clear that Gabe has a softer side. This is most apparent in his relationship with Lexine. Despite considering her a weak link and a hindrance when they first met, the two would later develop a close bond over the next two years and eventually marry.
It is ironic that Weller and Lexine developed a relationship since, at the beginning of Extraction, he was willing to leave Lexine on the Aegis VII colony. Also, throughout Extraction, it was hinted that Nate and Lexine had a sort of "connection". Gabe even referred to them as "lovebirds".
Trivia
- Weller is voiced by Ramon Tikaram, who provides his likeness to the character.[2]
- Weller is one of four playable characters and protagonists in Dead Space: Extraction. He is also the only playable character from Extraction to return as playable character in a later game.
- Weller's weapon of choice is the P-Sec Pistol in Extraction and the Pulse Rifle in Dead Space 2: Severed.
- According to Private Karklin, Weller doesn't like "handling corpses".
- Like Isaac Clarke and the Plasma Cutter, Weller is seen with the Pulse Rifle for most of the promotional pictures for Severed.
- Despite Earth Government listing Weller as "deceased", Steve Papoutsis indicated that Gabe Weller's fate remains unknown during a Q&A session on forumspring.com[note 2]. However, a later Q&A session revealed Popoutsis had no present plans to use Weller in future Dead Space games post-Severed[note 3].
- Next to Isaac Clarke, Karrie Norton, Alissa Vincent, and Nathan McNeill, Weller has had the most success in fighting Necromorphs.
- To date, Weller is the only (post-Dead Space) protagonist to not encounter any Necromorph regenerators, after Karrie Norton of Dead Space iOS.
- In the promotional trailer for Severed, Weller references Isaac Clarke by name with familiarity. However, Weller does not know nor mentions Isaac in either Extraction or Severed.
- Weller uses the same character animations as Isaac Clarke, including running and idle animations. This is likely due to the creators re-reusing in-game assets and not wanting to create an entirely new model for Weller.
- In Severed, much like when Isaac stomps rapidly, Weller also exclaims various short comments while stomping in succession.
- Strangely, despite showing clear signs of susceptibility to the madness caused by an active marker signal in Extraction, Weller never experienced any hallucinations during the events of Severed despite his close proximity to the Titan Station Marker. This is either an oversight by the creative staff or due to the "signal dampeners" installed by Titan station in an attempt to keep the Sprawl from experiencing widespread dementia, a tactic that supposedly failed to work.
- Though Weller was on the USG Ishimura and came into contact with the Red Marker, he was not taken captive by the Earth Government. It was later revealed that EarthGov needed Weller to impregnate Lexine so she could have a child and then abduct them/induct them into the "Oracle Program."
- In Dead Space 3, there is a frame called "Weller's Compact Frame." It doesn't allow lower attachments but increases the reload speed of the constructed weapon. Upon completion, the title of the weapon is "Weller's [weapon name]." (i.e. Weller's Revolver). This is a likely nod to players who played Extraction and Severed.
- Weller possesses a rather unique-looking variant of the Security Suit in Severed, complete with visor shields and monocular optics as opposed to the standard-issue Titan Security Force uniform.
- The peculiar design of the helmet, along with the Patrol Seeker Rifle given at the beginning however may suggest that Weller is a designated marksman and thus was given a special suit to accommodate his duties.
Gallery
Screenshots
Concept Art
Notes
- ↑ The in-game footage is unclear, as the last scene of Extraction simply depicts a Necromorph attacking a lone Lexine. However, Dead Space Executive Producer Steve Papoutsis clarified McNeill's fate while answering some fan questions. In addition, there is no mention of McNeil whatsoever in the Severed DLC.
- ↑ Anon: Hi steve A question about Dead Space 2: Severed, what made you decide to Kill off Gabe Weller?
leveluptime: Who said he's dead? :) - ↑ Papoutsis: Regarding Weller, as much as I like him I don't think we are going to see him again, at least not post the severed timeline post #5
Sources