Saturn

Originally **RD217900-6,****Saturn** (サターン **Satān**in japanese) is one of the main antagonists of Mega Man X: Unit 49. An ex-assistant Reploid from RaDoRB, he is apparently the leader of the new Maverick Forces. Born as a simple Reploid assistant from the Research and Development of Reploids Bureau, he went against his fate and became an independent and recognized scientist, until he discovered the obscure truth about his superiors and turned against the established order to seek vengeance and attain his goals. Labelled as a Maverick-at-will, he was hunt down by the 49th Unit of the Maverick Hunters and returned from the depths to lead a conspiracy against Earth's Government.

## **Personality**

### Past life

Saturn was not supposed to have a personality, but a flaw left by his creator, Mr. Banneker, allowed him to progressively develop some behaviors considered undesired by his superiors. Saturn became very curious and wanted to learn things about the nature, history, society and many that were not of his concern, being contestative and annoying with his doubts. Saturn could also be ironic and lie if he realized it was necessary to save his skin. When he became berserk, the idea of becoming powerful took over his mind. Although he recomposed himself later, that obsession persists in his desire of achieving perfection and creating Paragos.

He always treated Dr. Henry Snacman as his best friend, and even when he betrayed the RaDoRB and pledged his hatred towards the human government, he always wanted Henry to work on his side and achieve their goals together. Although Saturn tried to hide his regret, Platina could perceive that he never intended to kill Henry.

### Current days

Saturn does not mind taking several innocent lifes to accomplish his plans, as a result of his extremely cynical personality. It is hard to deal with him if you do not give something interesting in exchange. Saturn still shows signs of mental instability, since he frequently alternates between an angry and intimidating high tone, a serious explanatory mood and an enthusiastic happy note. His satirical note manifests in *every* public act, such as he treating the events of Parade like a theater piece, where the Maverick Hunters are humiliatingly defeated and leave with empty hands and everyone gets desperated before their might. That was only an exaggerated way to show the world that they are able to force the withdraw of several Hunters in a few minutes, and, although causing the loss of nine Mobile Plasma Cannons, that theatricality was effective and brought hundreds of Irregulars to his cause, showing that behind his apparent insanity there is a genius. It seems that by being comical, his enemies will not take him seriously and lower their guard.
Due to his high intelligence, Saturn thinks very well before making any movement and is aware of his own limits, acknowledging he can be easily bested by Maverick Hunters such as Mega Man X and Zero. Because of that, he avoids combat at any cost and instead tries to damage the morale of his enemies and overcome his weaknesses attacking them through other means, allowing him to achieve his goals without having to defeat them in battle.
Saturn puts the freedom of the Reploids above all things, as any form of rule or authority restricts their potential of evolution. He has an aversion for the idea of using a Virus to subvert people into following an ideal, as it restrains their individuallity and freedom. For that reason he considers himself to be the leader of a Second Maverick Wave and named his movement the Neo Maverick Army, a schism with the previous Maverick rebellions that followed Sigma.

## **History**

### **Maverick Spring**

#### **RaDoRB assistant**

Months after the fall of the space colony Eurasia, the Research and Development of Reploids Bureau office in London required more assistant robots to keep their services going on. An inventor from the SSU called Mr. Banneker was the responsible for RaDoRB's assistant models, and so he was employed with the task of creating the new series. He brought a group of six robots with restrained personalities, as required by Inspector Niels. Saturn was activated as the sixth unit of the *Robot Developer 217900-X series* on June 6th of 2179.

**RD217900-6** was designated to be Henry Snacman's assistant and replaced his old assistant from the RD217X-N series, Ardie. RD217900-6 already shown signs of not having his personality restrained and made a joke with Henry's ridiculous surname, although he could not understand what was *having a name*. After hearing that, Henry gave him the nickname "**Six**" and Six, who knew "being a person" was against his principles and potentially prejudicing his performance, liked the idea and accepted it. Henry realized he was defective but innocently thought nothing wrong could happen.

   In the following days, Six's strange behavior started being noticed by his colleagues, and he even showed signs of being mad at the Inspector. The Inspector rebuked him furiously and accused him of being defective. For Six's luck, one of the Doctors of the sector saved him by saying Six was only worried about the Inspector. Thanks to that, people started to think Six had an accentuated will to learn and help, and dubbed him "*The Doubter*". Henry found that frequent questioning dangerous to Six and gave him dozens of books from an old library for him to read. Six read history books, novels, dictionaries and even ancient religious books. It was on that day that Six choose his own name, making a succession of symbolisms that he kept for himself. When Niels discovered about that, he scold Henry even more infuriated because the books were very old and could corrupt Six's data bank. In the middle of the discussion, Dr. Seigen, Director of the RaDoRB, came in and said he was interested in Six's quirky persona and dared to go against the "cautions and limits" fervorously preached by himself to turn him into an independent researcher.
#### **RaDoRB researcher**

Seigen took Six to extensive cognitive exams and found that, in fact, Six had tiny flaws on Banneker's personality restraint apparatus, although there was no risk of him becoming a *Maverick by defect*. Somehow, in only six months, Seigen teached Six, now claiming to be **Saturn**, a vast knowledge about robot architecture and granted him a researcher title.

Albeit that, Saturn's first project was a complete failure. He admired Zero and dreamed to build a Reploid as powerful as him, but his blueprints had flaws and appointed that he required an impossible amount of energy to keep that running. The "guinea pig" was going to be endlessly upgraded, always aiming perfection, in a way that he could be an example to all Reploids. Such being would be called Saturn War Machine Paragos 0, although he could never proceed with his construction effectively and Paragos became an unfinished and defective robot.

At some point in 2182, Saturn found Henry's laboratory open and found the blueprints of SN-09 Nio and a gem fragment of a meteorite Henry found in 2177. Henry's project was to make a Reploid that could work with a reactor made with the phosphorescent rocks, which could store an unbelievable amount of energy. Nio's version apparently had a capacity of nearly **700.000.000.000 joules**, although the reactor became unstable after a tiny percentage of that maximum. Saturn was amazed after seing that data and had a mental breakdown, almost going insane. He realized it was a "foolish, painful glimpse of hope", to fulfill his frustrated desire of creating Paragos, that had been repressed for so long. Saturn became uncertain whether he could keep his mental stability.

Since that day, Saturn got visibly discomforted whenever Henry talked about his project, and started to avoid talking to him for weeks, warning Henry it was for his own good. Saturn continued to accumulate his frustration and focused on developing combat gadgets for Paragos.

#### **Berserk**

Later in 2182, Earth's surface was starting to be recovered and part of London was already being inhabited again. The officials from RaDoRB decided it was time to move things back to the surface office and reinforced the external security, while they lowered the internal security. They could not expect that a member from their own organization would sneak into one of the main computers and access confidential information - that member was Saturn. Saturn always suspected that there was something wrong behind Seigen's "cautions and limits" and copied his access key years before when he was his apprentice, and saved it for such opportunity. Saturn discovered that a few researchers, humans and Reploids, had been banned or killed in the past years for breaking RaDoRB's limiting guidelines.
Fearing the potential of Gate's creations, who would later become the Nightmare Investigators, Dr. Seigen, also fearing how Earth's Government would judge them and what consequences that would bring to RaDoRB, used the envy from Gate's colleagues to issue official orders to sabotage and destroy his Reploids. Some of them were labelled as Mavericks and stained Gate's image, giving Seigen a reason to revoke Gate's title and ban him.

Saturn also found files about Seigen's past in the Trailblazer and took all the data for him, including the construction plan of the RaDoRB, and fled before anyone could notice the leaking.

On August 23rd, Mr. Feyn detected the breach and notified Niels, who immediately appointed Saturn as the responsible and called Seigen and the rest of the senior officers to an emergency reunion, while refusing to call the Maverick Hunters. Two days after, a desperate employee ignored that order and called the Maverick Hunters anyway, and X, who was out of the frontlines, tried to contact Saturn many times, without success.

On August 25th, Saturn equipped the combat gadgets from Paragos and somehow passed through the external security unnoticed, engaging combat with the internal security minutes after. Saturn was searching for Henry, and attacked anyone who refused to tell where he was. He got severely damaged by the security bots, but managed to mislead them. For Niels' misfortune, Saturn found him alone in a corridor and soon noticed that Niels also knew the truth. To make him feel how it was being disposed, Saturn attacked Niels with his axe, although he missed his vital organs. Before he could kill Niels, Seigen appeared, expressing his disappointment on seeing "his child" turning its back against him.

[...]I know what comes after! All of them were to become like you one day, so I had to dispose them! Your Paragos' own impossiblity of existing would keep driving you to an endless cycle of failure, and even if you succeeded... you would  be eliminated!

Saturn accused Seigen of condemning others to failure because he could not prevent his own in the past and made justice with his own hands, finishing his master with a deadly headshot. Before Niels could escape, Saturn brutally murdered him and escaped from Dr. Rubix imprisoning cube, at the cost of losing Paragos 0's thrusters.

    Even severely damaged, Saturn went after Henry and the two met in a desert alley. Saturn exposed all the truth to his friend and appointed his hypocrisy for defying Seigen's limitations in secret. Saturn believed that all those who were disposed by Seigen were induced to become "Irregulars" and just wanted to protect the world. To show the world the true potential of Henry's project and also of Paragos 0, Saturn wanted Henry to lend him his reactor. This way the molecular scientists could synthesize the gemstones and enhance all Reploids, so the world could meet true evolution, as he dreamed. Henry did not want to cooperate with something founded on bloodbath, and Saturn found no choice other than fighting him.
While they clashed their blades, Saturn showed his contempt for mankind's fragility and sensitiveness, while Reploids could become eternal. He offered Henry one last chance to become the *founding stone of a new era*, but his proposal was refused once again. He pledged to find another route to perfection, even if that demanded more blood to be spilled. Saturn apparently was planning to leave Henry alive, but he tried to shoot Saturn even defeated. Angry, Saturn prepared to kill him, but was stopped by Ardie, who self-destructed to protect his master. Somehow, Saturn managed to crawl out of the place nearly dead and vanished from London. In the following months, he leaked the proofs about the crimes commited by Seigen and the RaDoRB.

### **In-between**

Several months later, he created two new War Machines: **SWM 01 Knight 1** and SWM 01 Suction 1 and performed "public tests" attacking government buildings of the Republic of the North America. Seeing that Saturn was a real threat, Signas appointed four high-skilled policial Reploids and a Navigator speciallized in tracking to form the 49th Special Pursuit Squad 8. Captain Elika, Rubre, Liutenant Frosch and Rott, with the help of Nora, intercepted Saturn's attacks several times, although they could never finish him.

On November 24th of 2186, Nora managed to find Saturn's hideout: the ruins of a city in the Nevada Region, built around a giant and deep ravine. The 49th Unit managed to get Saturn alone and killed him instead of taking him arrested, since they judged him uncapable of achieving redemption. Saturn fell "dead" in the abyss below, and the Maverick Hunters retreated without making sure the job was finished.

*After an undetermined time, a strange entity appeared before Saturn.*

#### **Ascension**

Saturn suddenly reappeared, with a new body and green crystals attached to his arms, hiding a mysterious power.  He started to use his experience to sell Reploid technology and weapons to the black market, yielding large amounts of money and becoming notorious in the obscure part of the society.

#### **Vengeance**

On April 1st of 2188, Saturn ambushed U49 with his War Machines, except for Knight, which disappeared, and managed to kill Rott and Frosch. He mocked Captain Elika for leaving the job unfinished and said that mistake would bring the end of the world as he knew.

*Recommended reading: Ineluctable Demise*

On August 25th of 2188, Saturn used Suction to make a distraction while he was doing his business on the other side of the Atlantic. In fact, he was going after Henry, exactly six years after their last encounter. Saturn wanted the Encorium to complete Paragos and fought Henry and his wife. After being defeated by Platina, Saturn agonized as a strange thing was being released from his inner side - the green crystals on his arms were only ends of a large crystal structure that could mold itself without Saturn's consent. Saturn used the crystal blade to defeat Platina, and almost killed her - if it wasn't by Henry taking the hit instead. Henry lied to Saturn about destroying his own research just to prevent him from stealing the blueprints and creating the perfect Paragos. This way, his plan would be delayed and someone would be able to stop him in time. Frustrated for killing his old friend and failing, Saturn rushed to get the Encorium ore.

#### **Meeting his assistants**

At some point, Saturn travelled to the old underground cities and discovered where The Engineers were living and "tamed" them to work for him.

### **After the Jakob's Incident**

#### **Operation Doomsday**

    Saturn appears in Prologue: Doomsday awakening the Reploid colossus Gigantex with the help of Shad (Suction) in order to begin the Operation Doomsday. He warps them to the 17th Unit Base, and puts Gigantex in a berserk state, who begins destroying everything around relentlessly. He invades the commander's room and talks with Signas. In the middle of their conversation, Signas records Saturn's real name, and Saturn records that most of the Special Pursuit Squad members Signas designed to hunt him are already dead. Aiming his hand to the Commander's head, he says that will borrow *something that delights him*. When X and Zero arrive at the surroundings of the base and see the headquarters in ruins, Saturn warps in front of them along with Shad, who captured with Axl, and a Hangerter that holds *something*.
Saturn seems to have further plans with the huge Reploid, preferring to retreat with him instead of fighting the Maverick Hunters, which would result in a lack of energy to warp them back. With this, the Hunters noticed that Saturn's powers are limited, since he wasted half of his Green Energy to bring his allies there, and the rest to teleport them back.

The **source** of that power is unknown, however.

### **The Great Neo Maverick War**

#### **Parade**

In Parade, Saturn claims to be the leader of a vindictive movement called Neo Maverick Army, which welcomes any Reploid that has been "undeservedly" labelled as Maverick, explicitly announcing his goal is to obliterate the humans and their dictatorship, and after this every "Irregular" will become "Regular". He challenges the Earth's Government and the Maverick Hunters to a game (battle) in which he's the king, and the game will be over only when someone manages to checkmate him. The Hunters are quickly sent to get him, but it was a bait. He escapes along with Baronel with a portal, leaving the generals Kran and Kerbekeros to lead the Parade.

Thereafter, he is seen in his laboratories lively watching the repercussion of the battle and his announcement, accompanied of a Mysterious Man. The man questions Saturn about the reason of all that theatricality, knowing one of his generals was possibly tracked and they lost nine of their best weapons. Saturn says that it was all planned: In a blink of an eye, the news of the Maverick Hunters being defeated by the Neo Maverick Army twice in a week would spread through all the world, and sooner or later it would reach the obscure part of the society. Considering he was well known by them, it was just a matter of time until they started joining forces with him. After this, the engineer Herbie says that the shard in Axl's crystal is slowly corrupting and changing his DNA, and Saturn orders him to "feed" the shard just to see what happens.

#### **The Doppelganger**

Using the blueprints of the early Soulstream Exchanger, Saturn creates a similar device to be used in his newest creation, the *Saturn War Machine Number 02 D1 Doppelganger*, which will be the most precise copycat Reploid in existence. He plans to infiltrate D1 in the Government to get confidential informations.

#### **The First Neo Maverick Conference**

The Neo Maverick installments were centered in the Arashiha Citadel, a fortress managed by Kerbekeros. Due to their previous agreements, Kerbekeros would become extremely influent in the Neo Maverick Army, and the Mysterious Man became concerned that Keros' treacherous personality would soon make him attempt to take over the Army. However, Saturn is confident that Keros can not hold all those criminals together and for that he needs Saturn's rhetorical abilities.

#### **Fanfare Operations**

During the Fanfare Operations, Saturn and the Mysterious Man kept observing how Keros would use the information given by the Doppelganger to the first Neo Maverick operations as a large organization. Although the two could cause much destruction together, they decided to stay away from the frontlines to avoid the risk of dying and letting the army in the hands of those who would stray from their ideals.

## Abilities

Saturn's new body works with a strange technology based on the green crystals. The strange power can be referred as Green Energy, even though that's not a very precise term. The green crystals are actually a condensate of millions of particles that can obey to specific hand signals given by Saturn, although they can also be molded **without his consent**. By arranging and igniting the crystal particles, Saturn has a fuel for his attacks.

**Gate: Warp Vortex** - Saturn's most common technique. The particles wrap the surroundings and perform a spiral sequence, opening a kind of wormhole and swallowing the desired objects. The wormhole hypothesis could explain why Nora is unable to track Saturn, since that's a much different "teleportation" method and does not involves reassembling parts nor the energy beams used by Reploids. Therefore, it is impossible to pinpoint the destination of the teleport.

**Gate, Hold: Rift Gate** - A much stronger version of the Warp Vortex that pulls anything around the center. Apparently, Saturn cannot use that technique in normal circumstances.

**Hold: Fly -**The particles surround Saturn and somehow lift and help him to float. Saturn is unable to travel at high speeds with such technique.

**Exhale: Flamethrower**- Saturn uses the fuel stored in his body and the green particles to charge a massive fire blast from the cannon attached in his face.

**Activate: Fire Ring -**The particles surrounding Saturn are set on fire and can be used as a defense technique to dispel enemies or offensively, by using the *Expansion*commands. However, as the particles move away from Saturn, the fire starts to dissipate.

**Activate: Gehenna -**Requires *Dominium* to have any effect. Saturn ignites a vast mist of particles at the same time, creating a fire wave that becomes a "lake of flames". It can also be considered a Fire Ring but in a larger scale.

**Expand: Dominium -**The particles that form the dense crystals start to scatter in the air, forming a green mist. Saturn used that command, combined with *Engulf*, to prepare a trap to Platina and Henry in Ineluctable Demise. Since beam sabers are the most effective weapons against his armor, Saturn tried to force them to enter "his domain" so he could surprise them with *Gehenna*.

**Hinder: Engulf -**Requires *Dominium*to be effective. Saturn orders the particles to concentrate in a specific point, intercepting projectiles and forcing them to explode with the pressure. Saturn can make several pressure points as long as he points with his hand. However, it is not known how the particles can detect the moving projectiles.

## Revival Mystery

Saturn's revival after the original 49th Unit killed him in 2186 remains a mystery. The green crystals and his new powers are certainly related to that. While revering the potential of the particles, Saturn makes some odd statements about his relation with them, as if he was being forced to be bound to them or if they were some kind of "chains" that prevented him from doing something:

When asked why he did not use such technology to create Paragos 0, he answers with: "*The one who trails the path must not be held by reins.*"

Saturn also hints that he is not the original owner of the particles and that there is something beyond his control that rules over the particles' behavior. The fact that Saturn must make specific signals to move the particles instead of controlling them with his mind also must be considered.

Ineluctable Demise, after having his arm destroyed: "*Is that **your** way of helping me?*" "*Burn my last reserve of **thy** power and pierce across the dimensions!*"

Saturn also hints that the source of the green matter is the Mysterious Man in the following quote about the Soulstream Exchanger: "*It's not so **magical as your green thing,** but it's still complex as hell.*"

## Trivia

* There are several symbolisms related to Saturn and the number 6: RD217900-**6** was activated in **6/6**/2179 and became a scientist in **six** months. The name *Saturn*(pronounced as *Satān* in japanese) has a double meaning: it refers to the **6th**main planet of the Solar System, at the same time it is a kind of euphemism to the name *Satan* (referred as the *Unholy Doubter* by him, as he felt identified with the title because of his contestative behavior), which is related to the number **666** in popular culture. Saturn becomes a Maverick in the **6th** chapter of Season 2 and makes his first murder in the **6th** page. Saturn fought Henry for the second time exactly **6** years after the first battle. Saturn has a total of **6** crystals on his arms.
* In December 7th of 2017, the author revealed what should be Saturn's real design. It would be inviable to change all the pages in which he appeared to update his style and he also preffered to not make such abrupt style change in the comics, so these changes have been saved to be incorporated if Saturn needed a new "shell" (body) in the future.
* When combining RD217900-6's two names using their symbols 6 and ♄ (Six and Saturn), the '6♄' looks like a flipped '49', the number of the Maverick Hunter Unit designed to hunt him. That was revealed by the author to be a complete coincidental symbolism.