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"Let CEC clean up their own mess. I'm saving what I can."
—Hammond[1]

Zach Hammond was the Chief Security Officer of the USG Kellion. Hammond was one of the three survivors aboard the Kellion that made it past the Flight Deck on the USG Ishimura along with Isaac Clarke and Kendra Daniels.

Biography[]

The Second Aegis VII Incident[]

By 2508, Zach Hammond had worked with Corporals Aiden Chen and Hailey Johnston for several years.

During the CEC mission to the stricken USG Ishimura, Hammond was in charge of the operation. After the initial Necromorph attack which resulted in the death of Chen, Hammond tried to adhere to standard emergency protocol in order to prevent any more losses, despite the increasingly disturbing events which began to unfold. Soon after, with the death of Johnston as well as the destruction of the USG Kellion, Hammond took skillful command, making his way to the ship's Bridge and assisting Isaac Clarke in restoring the Ishimura's systems and the ADS. During this time, Hammond was stalked by the reanimated Chen, which deeply disturbed him. Eventually, he trapped the creature in a damaged escape pod and promptly jettisoned it, finding himself unable to confront his former friend.

DSR Hammond Vents

Hammond observes the Unitologists from his hiding spot in the ship's vents.

Afterwards, Hammond made his way to the Crew Deck to look for survivors and was not heard from for sometime until he managed to contact Isaac and Kendra Daniels to inform them that the deck had been taken over by Unitologists. He later provided visual confirmation that the Marker was brought to the Crew Deck by the cultists, and additionally discovered an Executive Shuttle that could be used to escape the Ishimura.

After fully reestablishing comms with Isaac and Kendra, Hammond made his way onto the crashed USM Valor to assist Isaac with recovering the ship's singularity core in order to repair the Executive Shuttle. While on the Valor, Hammond began showing signs of dementia caused by the Marker, as he began hearing Chen's voice on the RIGlink and was convinced that he was still alive. Shortly after, the discovery of the Valor's logs and the realization that the military ship had been fully prepared to eliminate all witnesses pushed him further into a delirious state, as he came to the conclusion that the fate of the Kellion crew had been sealed the moment they arrived in the system.

Death[]

"Another malfunction - half the Ishimura's in the red... Someone get the door open! Chen? Christ, what did that thing do to you? Help me get him to the Kellion."
—Hammond in a delusional state state on the USM Valor, reliving his first moments on the Ishimura.
Necro-Chen

The reanimated Aiden Chen fatally wounds Hammond.

Arriving at the Valor's engine room and meeting up with Isaac, Hammond then encountered the Slasher form of Chen once again, whom he saw as his former friend in an alive but injured state due to being under the Marker's influence. Although he was fatally impaled by "Chen" due to his delusions, Hammond then had a brief moment of clarity and saw the creature for what it truly was, before sacrificing himself by pushing "Chen" into the singularity core of the Valor, which killed them both. Hammond's final act brought down the singularity core's containment field and allowed Isaac to grab it, giving his allies a chance to escape.[1]

Hallucination[]

"We were dead from the start."
—The voice of Hammond to Isaac during one of his hallucinations.

While making his way to the hangar bay to load Marker 3A onto the Executive Shuttle, Isaac was locked in the flight lounge where the Kellion crew was first attacked and Chen was killed. As he was forced to fight off several Necromorphs to lift the room's quarantine lockdown, Isaac began to hear Hammond's voice as an auditory hallucination resulting from his Marker-induced dementia. Hammond's voice mentioned how he had lost both Chen and Johnston, before declaring that they were all "dead from the start".[1]

Personality[]

"No one trained you to carve up monsters with a Plasma Cutter either. You haven't let us down yet."
—Hammond encourages Isaac.
DSR Hammond Close-up

Close-up of Hammond on the Kellion.

Hammond was a dedicated security officer and was shown to be very professional and by-the-book. While dismissed by Kendra Daniels as a company man and a stickler for protocol, Hammond prioritized the lives of the people under his command and was deeply affected by the deaths of Chen and Johnston.[2]

Though Kendra consistently tried to make Hammond out as a man not to be trusted, Hammond's actions were of the contrary as he worked with Isaac to try and escape from the Ishimura and always showed concern for those under his command above all else. Compared to his original game counterpart, the remake Hammond was notably calmer and more reassuring to Isaac and Kendra during the Necromorph infestation. Like his original counterpart, he was adaptive at surviving against the Necromorphs and demonstrated exceptional bravery during the infestation. However, he was easily disturbed by the events on the Ishimura, such as witnessing fanatic Unitologists ritualistically kill each other.

DSR Hammond Escape Pod Eject

Hammond ejects the escape pod containing the reanimated Chen.

In the remake, Hammond was shown to have a close friendship with Chen and Johnston as he had worked with them for several years. Their deaths deeply affected him, so much so that he wanted to complete the repair mission to not let their deaths be in vain. Likewise, he snapped at Kendra when she insinuated that Hammond's mission was in reality to retrieve the Marker for the CEC, feeling insulted that she would also imply Chen and Johnston were part of this conspiracy. Hammond's struggle with losing his team, combined with his shock of seeing the reanimated form of Chen, ultimately made him vulnerable to the Marker's influence.

While on the USM Valor, Hammond became increasingly delusional under the Marker's influence, reaching its apex when he hallucinated the Necromorph Chen as being his friend alive but injured from the Slasher that attacked him, prompting him to call Isaac to evacuate "Chen" to the USG Kellion, despite Isaac warning Hammond to shoot the Necromorph. It was only after being fatally wounded by his undead friend that Hammond regained his senses and declared that the creature was not Chen, sacrificing both of them to allow Isaac to retrieve the Singularity Core.

Trivia[]

  • Anthony Alabi provides the voice and likeness of Hammond in the 2023 remake.[3] In the original game, Hammond was portrayed by Peter Mensah.
    • When asked about Hammond's attachment to Chen, Anthony Alabi stated that, while working on the character, he envisioned that Chen had pulled Hammond out of a dangerous situation and saved his life two missions prior to the Ishimura assignment.[4]
  • There is a weapon component in Dead Space 3 called Hammond's Heavy Frame, likely as a nod to the character.

Gallery[]

Sources[]

"Your lack of confidence in me is duly noted, Ms. Daniels, but I have a mission to complete and that's exactly what I intend to do. With or without you. Do we understand each other?"
—Hammond[1]

Zach Hammond was the Chief Security Officer of the USG Kellion. Hammond was one of the three survivors aboard the Kellion that made it past the Flight Deck on the USG Ishimura along with Isaac Clarke and Kendra Daniels.

Biography[]

During the CEC mission to the stricken USG Ishimura, Zach Hammond was in charge of the operation. In an initial Necromorph attack, Hammond tried to adhere to the original objectives, despite the increasingly disturbing events which began to unfold following the deaths of his subordinates, Johnston and Chen. Taking skillful command, Hammond made his way to the ship's Bridge and assisted Isaac Clarke in restoring the Ishimura's systems and the ADS. During this time, Hammond came into contact with several Necromorphs. One of these was secured by him in an escape pod and promptly jettisoned.

Following a mission to purify the Hydroponics Deck's air supply in which Hammond was incapacitated, Clarke lost contact with him for a protracted period of time. During this time, Hammond moved himself to cleaner air and healed himself with medical supplies he found. He later attempted to contact Isaac multiple times but discovered that someone had been remotely blocking his Rig signal. He was eventually able to re-establish contact after the USM Valor crashed into the Ishimura.

It was at this time that Hammond finally snapped under the pressure and called an abort on the mission. He re-established contact with Clarke and Daniels and planned to help everyone escape from the Ishimura via an Executive Shuttle that he came across on the Crew Deck. Isaac was led to believe that Hammond was withholding information regarding the mission by Kendra to illustrate him as untrustworthy.[2]

Hammond made his way onto the Valor and upon discovering the ship's deck logs discovered that the ship's presence was no coincidence as it was fully prepared for war. He eventually managed to meet up with Isaac near the ship's engine room. Unfortunately for Hammond, the officer was trapped by an Enhanced Brute. Hammond attempted vainly to defend himself, but was assaulted and killed by the beast. His corpse was used as a hammer by the Brute which attempted fruitlessly to kill Clarke. Hammond's body was left on the Valor as the vessel was rocked by internal overload.

Personality[]

Hammond was a dedicated, if stubborn, security officer and believed that the mission always came first and was determined to complete their mission despite the Necromorph infestation. This put him at odds with Kendra, who was more concerned about their survival while being trapped on the Ishimura. His near death experience in Hydroponics, however, changed this view, causing him to instead focus more on keeping himself and the team alive.

Hammond showed pride in working for the CEC, correcting Kendra by calling the Ishimura the USG Ishimura. He displayed a rather irritable attitude to those who questioned his decisions or authority. This led to him frequently fight with Kendra, especially since the latter was consistently trying to make Hammond out as a man not to be trusted. Despite his flaws, Hammond’s actions were of the contrary as he worked with Isaac to try and escape from the Ishimura, going so far as to forsake the chain of command and abandon their mission. He also demonstrated exceptional bravery as he went out of his way to go to Hydroponics to stop the source of the poisonous air (Wheezers), but was ultimately incapacitated. In his final moment when cornered by an Enhanced Brute, he urged Isaac to run with the Singularity Core and not wait for him and, although one-sided, was killed fighting against the Brute.

Hammond was also adaptive at surviving against the Necromorph infestation. He quickly figured out that body shots were useless against the Necromorphs and informed Isaac that dismembering was a better option. Likewise, he physically trapped a Slasher into Escape Pod #47 when it ambushed him near the Captain's Nest, was able to identify weak spots on the Brute, via cameras, and informed Isaac of it, survived and recovered after a prolonged period of time after his near death experience in Hydroponics without contacting Kendra and Isaac, and was implied to have killed a Twitcher as he was able to investigate what made it move so fast. However, Hammond lacked the armored RIG, stasis, kinesis module, and variety of weapons that Isaac possessed, which gave the latter an edge in surviving and completing tasks where Hammond couldn't.

Trivia[]

  • In the original Dead Space, Hammond was voiced by Peter Mensah who also provided his likeness to the character. Interestingly, Mensah previously appeared in a horror film that was also set in space like the Dead Space games, entitled Jason X, an installment in the well-known Friday the 13th film franchise. Like his character Hammond, Mensah's character in the film, Sgt. Brodski, was also an elite security officer who sacrificed himself to allow the main protagonists to survive.
  • During the level where Isaac must re-route the power to the ADS cannons, if the player chose to activate the panel on the third floor first, Isaac receives a message from Hammond stating that he has started seeing things and his head is pounding, indicating the dementia effects that Marker 3A is having on him.
  • In a log after clearing the game, it was revealed that he requested background information on both Isaac and Kendra, though the reason for this inquiry was not revealed.
Dead hammond3

Hammond "dead" in the Captain's Nest (dismembered by using Force Bombs).

  • If Isaac failed to kill the Brute that killed Hammond, the game would resume at the point of Hammond's death. However, Hammond's body did not appear.
  • It was possible to dismember Hammond in Chapter 4 in the Captain's Nest by throwing objects at him or by launching Bombs from the Force-Gun, although it took a large amount of them to do so. A similar glitch could be exploited on the patient laying on the operating table at the beginning of Dead Space 2, where you acquired the Plasma Cutter. Both games used similar code and physics which was the reason the glitch could be reproduced.
  • After his death, Hammond's Pulse Rifle could be picked up by the player via Kinesis, but it could not be used as a weapon.
  • There is a weapon component in Dead Space 3 called Hammond's Heavy Frame, likely as a nod to the character.

Gallery[]

Sources[]

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