His Name is Marduk - SoM 2010

This is my "Summer of Mecha 2010" entry under Theme#2: "The one that shouldn't exist" @

EDIT: Theme#2 First Place!!! Thanks to all who got me there


=FULLVIEW PLZ=


<sub>Note: Marduk's backstory is essentially the backstory of my -yet unreleased- sci-fi story "Anno Peractio", as Marduk and its pilot are the main characters.

EDIT 2013: This story segment is now OBSOLETE. Much of it has changed drastically. But I'll keep it here for those interested.


Long read; get some cookies:</sub>

======


21st Century CE - First Space elevator system completed. Mankind succeeds in colonizing the Moon and Mars.

22nd Century CE - Widespread colonization of the Solar System; The Moon (now 'Luna') and Mars become self-sustaining colonies; Major planets are now designated by number (Sol-I, Sol-II, Sol-III, etc.)

Dec 31st, 2199 CE - Disaster strikes the Sol System as a mysterious Omni-directional shockwave is emitted from the Sun. Many of the smaller, non-planetary colonies were brutally destroyed while those remaining struggled to survive as their ecosystems -natural and artificial- were sent into total chaos. It was not until months later, however, that Mankind realized the catastrophe's most devastating -and puzzling- effect; Human reproduction became impossible. Scientists and medical researchers immediately rushed to study the phenomenon and found that while conception and organogenesis still occur, the resulting fetus shows no signs of life at all, and is ultimately aborted. This unsettling discovery marked the beginning of the Era called "Anno Peractio"; the Years of the End.

0001 AP - Extensive retrospective research into the Solar disaster revealed that a peculiar signal had been emitted from deep under Sol-IV's surface just moments before the destructive shockwave. RUNE, Sol-System's de facto leading force after the catastrophe, spearheaded the efforts to reach the source of the signal which revealed an ancient, alien underground ruin. Immediately after, the mission's operations were handed over to RUNE's military force--much to the dissent of their allies. The reason was in the form of another disturbing surprise of apocalyptic proportions; a fully-functional bio-mechanical dragon-like weapon, which upon discovery relayed an automated visual message identifying itself as "Marduk" and proclaiming the near advent of eleven powerful dragons from beyond time and space, who will -in twenty years- sacrifice all of Mankind to wake "the Primordial Chaos" from its slumber; and the enigmatic Marduk is the key to Man's survival... "should the Scion within wake in time". RUNE's board of directors, who were among the witnesses to the message, ordered for Marduk to be excavated and sent to Sol-III for further research and for the ruins to be sealed-off indefinitely. Later on, construction of several mega-citadels began on Sol-III, the largest being "Weimar" in the West, "Asuka" in the East, and "Babilon", which became the headquarters of RUNE's operations.

0002 AP - While attempts to directly pilot Marduk proved difficult, relentless research enabled RUNE to reverse-engineer many technologies far beyond Mankind's current level, affirming its place above all else as the leading technological and military power. Yet so much remains difficult to grasp; Marduk's apparent capability of altering the very fabric of space-time around it, its ability to perpetually create energy out of nothingness, and -if it was indeed to be blamed for the Sol Disaster- its ability to instantaneously interact with cosmically distant objects. These, and many more, could not be explained by classical physical models, leading scientists to dub Marduk the "Ultimate Quantum Magician". Later that year, a breakthrough discovery was made by the Eckhardt/Sherif research team at RUNE's Geosynchronous Orbital Space Lab, confirming the existence of "the Scion" within a "quantum encalve" inside Marduk's core and in total sync with it, explaining -to an extent- the subtle interruptions preventing effective synchronization. This particular discovery shed some light upon the core technology powering Marduk... at a price: A massive "explosion" completely wiped out the entire western hemisphere, vaporizing those on the western hemisphere instantly, and killing off most of the rest over the matter of days, effectively reducing Sol-III's population from around 50 Billion to only 25 Million. The "official" story held that the near-extinction event was attributed to a high-speed XSO impact. The truth, however, was in fact due to Marduk's core going into an irreversible overdrive upon the extraction of the Scion from the core in an ambitious attempt to fully control Marduk. The disaster was codenamed the "Eckhardt Disaster", after the lead scientist of the project, Professor Adalbert Eckhardt. A number of strange phenomena (most notably, a brief "white hole") were observed in the explosion, which was later dubbed "Eckhardt Event" or "E2". There was a single known survivor from the incident; Prof. Sherif's genius daughter, Sarah (aged 12 at the time). She was found days later by a RUNE rescue team, stranded in the middle of the ocean inside a guided-reentry orbital-escape pod, which was apparently launched into orbit seconds before the E2. She was in terrible condition; both physically and mentally as she was found delirious, hanging on to an air-tight casing. She was taken in by Sin Asarai, the supreme commander of RUNE and an old friend of her father. Marduk was later recovered--surprisingly intact and fully functional. Synchronization problems still existed, however.

0003 AP - Following the Eckhardt Disaster, RUNE's enemies on Sol-IV wasted no time in seizing Sol-IV and launching an all-out offensive against Sol-III, hoping to salvage whatever they could of RUNE's newfound technologies. RUNE, despite having lost most of its military force, was far from powerless; they had succeeded in creating the very first, Marduk-based SUPERFRAME: SF-Gilgamesh. While Gilgamesh was not as technologically spectacular as Marduk, it was still far superior to the regular, nuclear-powered frames used by the opposing force, made even more so by the aptly-named GESTALT-System; another Marduk-derived technology which combines the pilot's mind with the SuperFrame's body. This ensured RUNE's superiority on Sol-III, but the Martian offensive did not cease; not until RUNE managed months later to reach a working state with the heavily-damaged SSS-Archevogel and fit it with the terrible "RagnaGun", which scarred the face of Sol-IV forever and ended the war on RUNE's terms.

0010 AP - Dr. Sarah officially becomes the head of the Research and Development department at RUNE-HQ and takes over her father's research, becoming THE authority on what is now popularly known as "CRUX Technology". She oversees the development of several SuperFrames over the course of the following years, in hopes of creating a near-perfect, controllable Marduk-clone before the deadline set by Marduk's proclamation arrives. At the same time, Sin sets forth the SuperSoldier program which goal is to create enhanced soldiers imbued with Core-energy, enabling them to sync with Marduk at much higher rates than regular soldiers. Both plans yield satisfactory results, until...

0015 AP - The first of the proclaimed Dragons is detected at the distance of roughly 50,000 AU.

0020 AP - The first Dragon arrives on Sol-III. Bel Asarai, the epitome of the SuperSoldier program, pilots Marduk and confronts the Dragon alongside Alexander Siegfried, the designated pilot of the enhanced SF-Gilgamesh, and Malak, the designated pilot of SF-Esthar. The three are gradually pushed back by the Dragon's immense powers, but are ultimately victorious when Marduk -in the most crucial moment- demonstrated for the first time its fearsome "Quantum Magic", annihilating the Dragon with ease but causing much indiscriminate destruction in the process. Bel claimed no recollection of Marduk's incredible feats in the brief moment of "awakening", and it now became apparent that Marduk indeed has a mind of its own. Whether it becomes the savior of Mankind is a matter of uncertainty.

======


So in the end, Marduk "shouldn't exist" because it's a semi-sentient arcane weapon with abilities that literally defy the very fundamentals of the Universe. Not only that, but Mankind takes an impossibly huge leap in technological level by studying it and even manage to create weapons nearly as powerful to smite friend and foe alike.


<sub>Note: I have deliberately omitted quite a number of details from the final backstory so as to not spoil "Anno Peractio's" grand plot. Also, [link] and [link] provide a small part of the omitted backstory, for those interested.

On a side note, I had originally intended to have this in a fully rendered environment, but time restrictions IRL combined with the rapidly approaching deadline had me go for just Marduk's model in a grandiose pose... :\

Modeled in ZBrush and Modo 401
Rendered in Modo 401
Post in CS4</sub>


"Anno Peractio", "Project Babilon", "SF-Marduk" and all related material are © mus0u