Martic Dane

Ensign Martic Dane was a RMF Ensign assigned to the Reticulum Merchant Ship *Stolanoi Agrippus*.

## Last voyage

Returning from this voyage in three months he was to be married to his fiancee, Launa.

When the ship jumped to an unknown portion of space and boarded by Mondites, and after the killings of Captain Lison Rymerac and First Officer Findley Smiles Dane was left in command of the survivors. He surrendered to their attackers and alongside Cargo Handling Specialist Klima and Systems Maintenance Tech Parks they were taken to Daedalus.

## Capture

The three met the leader of the Daedalus Base, Amet Mastaba, who Dane guessed was a surgeon and looked unconcerned with them. Dane was puzzled as to why they kept them alive, as the Reticulum did not respond to taking hostages. Soon he realised their use would be as test experiment subjects.

They were sleeping in the Cellblock in irregular intervals and variable duration which left them totally disoriented.

After some days the three were escorted under armed guard and taken to some sort of medical center and physically examined. Once all were pronounced "suitable" there were injected with some sort of chemical compound. In Klima it caused a devastating pain which left him writhing on the floor. He just lay there and could not get up, paralyzed with agony. In Parks it caused horrifying hallucinations. A strange calm just came over Dane as he watched the other two go through their internal tortures. After several hours they brought them to back to their cells.

The tests continued as the other results were inconclusive. Parks begged them not to inject him again. Dane wanted to help him fight them but by then his injection had kicked in and all he could do was sit there passively as they forcibly injected him with the chemicals. This round of hallucinations were evidently more terrifying than the first. Klima had long since passed out from the pain, so Dane was the only one in the room to watch what happened next. Dane tried speaking to Parks several times but he just rolled around and around on the floor clawing out his eyes. Dane did not see him again.

He knew Amet Mastaba better, and demanding to know about Parks, Mastaba replied that he was "in the lake". Dane accused him for having destroyed a ship of the RMF and interfered with the Circuit Reticulum. Mastaba was indifferent, and claimed that they were now his property.

The medical tests became increasingly torturous. Dane was sedated and taken to the Medical Room with some kind of robot and then dreamt about Launa. His insides felt like crushed and saw a series of scars across his midsection. Klima did not respond from his cell. Dane started to suspect that they are undergoing exploratory surgery although they've never asked them any question.

One day Dane was strapped on to the operating table and injected with something that made him increasingly lightheaded. This time Mastaba said that this was the last preliminary examination and then Dane would be ready. He insisted to learn about Klima, and was told that he died onthat table, and thrown into the lake like Parks. The robot's arm came over and burned an incision into his stomach. He felt completely detached and unable to move. Mastaba reached inside and offered to sedate Dane, unless he wanted to see more. Dane chose to be sedated, then awoke back in his cell alone.

He noticed a new prisoner in the cell across, lying unconscious in his bunk and initially wondered if it was one of his crewmen. And something very large being moved into the cell next to him by a big number of people and equipment, supervised by Eden Escher and ordered by K.C. Caynan the head guard.

Eventually Dane started to get his strength back from Mastaba's examinations. Curious, he asked Caynan about what was in the next cell, and he replied that it was something that probably will kill them all. The following days the man in Cell Three still did not respond to him, and he noticed Caynan was walking around the cellblock increasingly nervous, different and intensely in thought.

## Escape attempt

One day when the camera went off, Caynan approached him and offered him to escape. A dropship was out on the platform brought in on autopilot for maintenance as the crew and marines on board were in cold storage.

They would need the new neighbour who was the chosen one for the experiment. He gave Dane his personal access code to get out of a bad spot. As a thanks, he gave Caynan the picture of Launa. He reached in between the bars of the cell and put a blaster in his hand when the doors to the cellblock opened and 3 more guards came in and opened the door to Cell Three. The man inside walked out with guns pointed at him.

## Recapture

The escape attempt failed. Both Dane and Caynan were captured as they tried to hijack it. For some period of time they have simply been beating him into unconsciousness whenever he showed signs of awakening. On d1892 the Mondite Guards beat him so hard that they called down from Control Room and ordered them to stop. He noticed that the man from Cell Three has been the subject of a monstrous experiment. He is no longer human.

Eventually he noticed the guards taking Caynan. He fought as best he could but in the end they took him away. Ever since they brought him back he has been jabbering like a lunatic, screaming some conversation with his mother that must be going on inside his head.

One day he was awakened by the sound of an explosion in the Cellblock. 2 guards went to look in on Caynan who must have mauled one of them really bad. Caynan continued to get worse. All he does is growl and howl like an animal.

## Treatment

* Feed with formula 4-A three times daily
* Subject to undergo final transformation
* New instruction to be posted after surgery is completed.

## AP-128

Finally, the guards told him that now it was his turn to be taken back to the Operation Room. When the base was being evacuated, Mastaba preferred to stay behind to go on with the operation, with some guards.

He underwent AFA cybernetics, Stage One and Two. During the operation his memory was wiped and both his arms were replaced with robotic ones.

During the operation AP-127 entered the room, only to be disabled by Mastaba's controller. In his speech, Mastaba introduced him to Dane, saying that he will be the second like him and join him. With that, Dane's robotic arm grabbed Mastaba's controlled and crushed it shouting "Never!"; however this shocked AP-127 who fell unconscious. Knowing that he wouldn't be able to control him, Mastaba left them and ran away.

When AP-127 wakes up, Dane begs to be killed as there is nothing left for him. He showed Dane Launa's photo but Dane did not recognise her. AP-127 can obey him and kill him either with some combat movement, hitting his head, and/or removing the battery from the operation table (which will kill Dane instantly).

## Trivia

Dane (and Mastaba) is voiced by voice actor Steve Sanders. He is also credited with roles in other video games.

The model of the portrait is Jack Herman, Script writer for *BioForge*. He is also credited with story and documentation writing and voice directing for other Origin Systems games.