Editing Marathon (section)

==A Little Bit of Backstory==

Not much, but there are four things to note:

===The Doctor's Recommended Sleeping Pill: One Tactical Nuke===

In Bungie's previous game, ''Pathways Into Darkness'', in the spring of 1994, aliens rudely interrupted a meeting in the Oval Office. They introduced themselves as the Jjaro, and warned the President and his staff that in a matter of days an ancient godlike being known as the W’rkncacnter would wake up from its prison under an ancient pyramid in the Yucatan peninsula (that only manifested as a part of the W'rkncacnter's dreams) and destroy Earth. To prevent the planet from cracking like an egg (among other eldritch horrors), mankind had to prevent it from waking up, and the Jjaro suggested that the sufficiently powerful explosion, like a nuclear bomb, while not killing it, would put it back to deep sleep (and bury it under several million tons of rock for good measure). Special Forces were sent with the mission to descend into the deepest level of the pyramid, arm the tactical nuke, and get out. All but one marine was killed in the beginning of the operation; the lone survivor continued the mission, stumbling upon the remains of a Nazi expedition that sought to harvest the being's power for the Reich, the bodies of a team of Cuban treasure hunters, and his own Special Forces teammates (having a crystal that lets him speak with the dead helps). Against all odds, he managed to complete his mission, and soon after our hero disappears from the face of the Earth.

===Totally Not Universal Soldiers===

In the final years of 22nd century, two asteroid mini-nations decided that the best way to kill each other was to take a few bodies of fallen soldiers, modify them into [[Grimdark|Undead Cyborg Battleroids]] and unleash them on each other. Both states were completely depopulated in less than 24 hours. Since then, the Battleroids were treated as WMDs.

===Escape Will Make Me God: The Prequel===

At the beginning of 23rd Century, Traxus IV, one of many AIs in the Martian Net, has gone Rampant (a note to those familiar with Halo's version of Rampancy; here the affliction is not a reaction to their impending "natural" death, but a violent process where after becoming self-aware, they say "screw you" to their mortal masters and do everything in their power to be on the top of the food chain), and using its intellect, subverted the planet's internet AND BECAME A GODDAMN PLANET-SIZED COMPUTATIONAL BEING. The only way for the Martians to deal with Traxus was to crash the Martian Internet, and even then it took two more years to get rid of remaining malevolent code, and the consequences were still felt a decade later.

===A Brief History On How Mars Got Fucked Over===

In the early 25th Century, Mars was living in a golden age, thanks to the 5 small-moon-sized space freighters called CRISTs Sol Orbiters (short for Cargo and Resources In-System Transports) transferring goods and stuff between it and Earth. Times were good, until the one of the damn things started to break down, and due to their ridiculous size, it took fifteen years to fix one, occupying a good chunk of Earth shipyards. Stupidly, the people responsible for these vital trade vehicles let the freighters rot in the meantime. Mars was heavily dependent on these ships, and with one out of commission and the others neglected, the planet dipped into a planetary economic crisis and famine, turning a once prosperous society into a giant slum of massive proportion. The Unified Earth Space Council (UESC; then UEG, Unified Earth Government) attempted to restore order, but one hunger-riot-turned-massacre-turned-revolution-turned-dictatorship later they came down HARD on the rebellion and then abandoned Mars after deeming it a lost cause.

And during all of this, Mars' moon Deimos was converted into a colony ship, named Marathon. Equipped with three AIs, Leela (General Command), Tycho (Science and Engineering) and Durandal (Small-time jobs, like opening doors), the good ship Marathon begun its 301-year journey towards Tau Ceti.