The novel concludes with Altman being unwillingly used to found Unitology, a religion that worships the Marker.

Looking at the events prior to the original Dead Space game, Dead Space: Martyr (written by Brian Evenson) is a game-based tie-in Prequel novel giving readers a unique insight into the events leading up to the first game and answering a few questions along the way. Due to the nature of the series and several pre-established elements, Evenson had to work within some constraints despite being given freedom by Visceral and Electronic Arts to portray Altman as a complex figure and question the Unitologist narrative surrounding him. Once there, he walks in and notices blood all over the walls with strange symbols, and finds her dead on her bed with a slit throat that was apparently self-inflicted. His grandmother's apparition commands him to get into the "dead space" surrounding the Marker to prevent the " Convergence" going further and spelling doom for mankind. When he begins getting strange readings and radio signals coming from somewhere within a massive crater - a crater the locals claim holds the "Tail of the Devil" - and starts digging into it, conspiracies begin flying, bodies start appearing and Altman ends up kidnapped by shadowy government operatives who force him to work on their new pet project - digging up whatever's producing those signals and seeing what profit or tech they can scavenge from it.Altman lies to Harmon telling him that the Marker told him that it needed to rest and be left alone at the bottom of the ocean. Brian does do a great job of sneaking subtle hints and implications into his dialogue that tie into and flesh out what we already know about the Dead Space universe.

After Altman leaves, Hammond suffers auditory hallucinations and is approached by a seemingly hostile group, committing suicide in his growing delusional state.Whatever happened in these respects, it is clear that Harman then assaulted Altman with their boat's anchor and rendered him unconscious. Furthermore, the concept of the Marker deliberately stopping its signal broadcast altogether - as the Black Marker does several times in Martyr - is not featured in any other piece of lore, which instead deal with the signal varying in its intensity or frequency, rather than its presence or outright absence (the latter only appearing to be the case when a Marker is severely damaged/destroyed, as was the case with Marker 3A). Honestly, with all the issues I have with this book, I was tempted to rate it even lower; what stopped me is a little story I made up in my own head. The Marker soon triggers an outbreak of Necromorphs, which begin slaughtering the surviving staff and military personnel. Hennessy realizes too late that the Marker was controlling his actions all the time and dies of oxygen starvation.