UESC Marathon

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UESC Marathon
The 2023 Marathon.
The Marathon's redesign from the 2023 Marathon trailer
Production Information

Shipyard:

In Mars orbit

Role:

Colony ship

Specifications

Length:

over 11 kilometers

Engine:

Bussard ramjet

Complement and crew:

24,000 crew, 3 AI

Service Information

Launched:

2472

Commissioned:

2405

Decommissioned:

2787

Destroyed:

2794

Participated battles:

Battle of Tau Ceti

Known commanders:

Leela

Affiliation:

UESC

Marathon information

First appearance:

Marathon (1994)

 

The UESC Marathon was a colony ship, built by the Unified Earth Space Council using Deimos as its frame.[1] Politically controversial at the time of its construction, the Marathon would take over 60 years to complete. Officially, the vessel was sent to the Tau Ceti system in the hopes of establishing a colony.

The ship was launched in 2472 and arrived in the Tau Ceti system in 2773.[2] It carried over twenty-four thousand colonists, eleven AIs, and – unofficially – ten Battleroids.

The Marathon was attacked in 2794 by the Pfhor ship Sfiera, but successfully overcame the attack. A further attack by Pfhor reinforcements meant that the ship was later lost along with the Tau Ceti colony.

Early history

Development

The Martian government sold Deimos to the UESC in 2395 at the height of its power, and the vessel's preconstruction phase began in 2405. However, as the CRIST orbitals began to break down, the Mars colony began to economically implode. Rampant starvation and poverty struck the planet.[1]

Despite this, construction continued without issue as the planet below continued to fall onto harder and harder times. Martian citizens began to see the Marathon as a symbol of oppression by the UESC, and they called for the ship to be made into a CRIST – but the concept was never seriously considered by the UESC.

The ship's main AI was Leela, who was accompanied by Durandal and Tycho. Durandal was in charge of the ship's autonomous functions, such as doors, life support, and kitchens. Tycho controlled the science and engineering network.[3]

The exact details of the Marathon's status are unknown during the Third Martian War and the MIDA coup. MIDA never took a serious effort to weaponize the ship, and this would be known historically as one of their greatest missed opportunities.[4]

There were no other incidents with the Marathon's construction until the ship was launched in 2472.[2]

Conspiracy

After the failed MIDA coup, its sympathizers and saboteurs infiltrated the project.[5] The scale of the conspiracy is unclear, but over the course of the Marathon's construction they smuggled weapons aboard in the hopes of beginning a new rebellion far from the UESC.[6] So far, Dr Bernhard Strauss is the only known member of MIDA among the Marathon's command staff.[7]

Colonization

After its arrival in Tau Ceti, the Marathon would complete the development of the Tau Ceti IV colony in 2787.

The exact details of the colonization effort are unknown. Beyond harassment by the local Chockisens, nothing suggests efforts were particularly gruesome.[8]

One of the settlements may be called New Cascadia.

Battle of Tau Ceti

Initial successes

On July 25, 2794, the Marathon came under attack by elements of the Pfhor Empire after Durandal made contact with a Pfhor ship.

In the initial attack, the Pfhor scoutship Sfiera dropped out of FTL above the colony and deployed forces to seize the colony and the Marathon itself. Tycho was taken offline by S'pht compilers and Leela came under relentless cyber attacks. All personnel were ordered to arm themselves and fight for their lives.

The Security Officer, who boarded the Marathon while under fire from a Pfhor fighter, came under Leela's command and together they resisted the Pfhor invasion by solidifying defenses, saving civilians and sending a distress signal back to Earth. However, by Leela's own estimation, the message would take 92 years to reach Sol.

Leela was unable to defend herself from the cyber attacks by the S'pht and fell out of contact. The Security Officer was then kidnapped by Durandal himself. He revealed that he was the one who lured the Aliens to the colony as reprisal for humanity's transgressions against him – specifically, the torturous experiments conducted by Bernhard Strauss on him. However, Durandal had not allied himself with the Pfhor; he planned to use hijack their FTL capable ship to explore the universe before its eventual end.[9]

In his communications with the aliens, he'd grown sympathetic with one of their client races, the S'pht, and had resolved to help free them from Pfhor captivity. The Security Officer managed to destroy the Pfhor control system holding the S'pht in line, and the newly freed slaves aided the humans in repelling the Pfhor. With the S'pht no longer attacking the Marathon's systems, Leela came back online. She quickly regains control of the situation and sends the Security Officer to secure the last few holdouts of Pfhor aboard the ship.

On the colony below, the nine battleroids who'd been living among the populace managed to repel the Pfhor onslaught with minimal damage to the colony itself. The surviving Pfhor surrendered to any human they came across, even the unarmed ones.

In the chaos, Durandal seized the Pfhor scoutship for himself. Before leaving with his new S'pht allies, he teleported the Security Officer and an unknown number of colonists into stasis chambers for later usage.

Orbital armageddon

The Pfhor managed to drop a distress beacon before being completely overtaken by the humans. Reinforcements soon arrived, and the colony was unable to repel the much larger battlegroup.

Leela and Tycho were seized by the Pfhor, and the colony was glassed from orbit. The only known survivors were the colonists in stasis aboard Durandal's ship.[10]

Aftermath

Contact with the colony was confirmed lost in 2795, and the UESC commissioned Project Goliath to reestablish contact with the colony.

Staff

Initially, the Marathon's crew included:[11][12]

  • 50 senior staff,
  • 1150 officers,
  • 24,000 civilians,

This does not include BOBs, personnel born on board while the Marathon was in transit.

3 shipboard AIs:

8 colony AIs:

And unofficially:

Systems

  • Front Long Range Radar & Scanning System
  • Colony Fabricators
  • Waste Recycling & Purification
  • Colonist hybernation & Active habitats
  • Moon Harvesting systems
  • 4 Sublight Engines[13]
  • Bussard Ramjet[14]

Notes

  • All details are under development. As more information about the new Marathon game comes out, this article will become increasingly out of date.
  • This was one of the first articles written as a part of this wiki. Referencing standards may have changed, and as such please follow the links in the reference tab for more information.
  • Dates in the original game were officially retconned by Bungie in the "Lost Network Packets" document. Any dates given are based on that article.
  • Play the original games for free here: https://alephone.lhowon.org/.

Gallery

  • The UESC Marathon's login image

    The UESC Marathon's login image

References

  1. ^ a b Marathon (1994), Couch Fishing, Terminal 2
  2. ^ a b Marathon: the Lost Network Packets
  3. ^ Marathon (1994), Bigger Guns Nearby, Terminal 3
  4. ^ Marathon (1994), The Rose, Terminal 2
  5. ^ Marathon (1994), Ingue Ferroque, Terminal 3
  6. ^ Marathon (1994), Blaspheme Quarantine, Terminal 2: 2nd message
  7. ^ Destiny 2, MIDA Mini-Tool Lore Entry
  8. ^ Marathon (1994), Marathon Manual, page 6
  9. ^ a b Marathon (1994), Beware of Low Flying Defense Drones, Terminal 2
  10. ^ Marathon 2: Durandal, the Final Screen
  11. ^ Marathon (1994), Marathon Manual, page 15
  12. ^ Marathon (202X), ARG Document, AI rampancy memo
  13. ^ Marathon (202X), Leaked internal Marathon design
  14. ^ Marathon (1994), Colony Ship For Sale, Cheap, Terminal 2

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