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"As veterans often did, Marius Blackwood eventually realized that his true enemy was not the one he'd been facing on the battlefield over the long years. The real enemy was time. Time had taken his friends. It had erased them, eradicated them from the hearts and minds of all who would ever remember them. Of the five of them, Marius was the last. And when he was gone? It would be as if they had never existed at all."

- Marius Blackwood(src)

Captain Marius Blackwood was an officer and siege tank operator of Arclite 2717. He was the last survivor of his squad over the course of the Great War and Second Great War, and had a failistic outlook on life. His only solace was etching the kills of his enemies on the side of his Arclite Siege Tank.

Biography[]

The Platoon[]

Marius Blackwood started as a fresh-faced recruit out of the academy. In his time there, he became close to the four men in his platoon: Cione, Stoltzfus, Billy Tallman, Marciniak. They were close friends, and fought alongside one another through thick and thin. After their platoon broke up, they still met together every year in a small dive bar named the Shed on Shiloh. Early in his career he flipped his siege tank, and while it was a simple fix at the time, the next day he purchased a C-7 pistol for if he was ever caught in that situation on the battlefield.

However, over the years one by one the former platoon members began to die off. Eventually, it was just Blackwood and Cione, who drank to the memory of their fallen comrades. However, Cione was killed in a friendly fire accident involving a crucio siege tank. As such, Blackwood swore he'd never change from his arclite siege tank, even when court marshal was threatened.

The Grizzled Veteran[]

Blackwood served in over nine campaigns. During his station on Shiloh, he met a girl named Hannah who he fell in love with. The two went boating, but soon after he was shipped out for another world. He still kept a picture of her in his siege tank.

Over time, Blackwood would be assigned to different squads, but he was either avoided or seen as the grizzled old veteran. He grew to hate or distance himself from any new squadmembers, still holding on to the old platoon he had slowly lost. He considered himself the last memory of that platoon, and once he died he knew they would be forgotten. He marked the kills he would make on the side of his siege tank, which was the one thing that brought him joy.

Blackwood would become a master of his siege tank, and knew that he could get away with most anything with only light punishments. He cut a hole in his viewport to help his aim and removed the tank's air conditioning unit, which he was reprimanded by command for, but they ultimately did nothing.

Momentum[]

Blackwood would later be assigned to Moria at the Kel-Morian Combine Remote Mining Station Four during a protoss attack. The attack was repelled, but Blackwood spotted a damaged colossus on the horizon. He moved ahead of the line in spite of the orders of his commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Gwen Maxwell, and chased down the walker. A stalker attempted to impede him, but he destroyed it. All the way, he reflected on his life and the death of his squad.

Upon getting in range, Blackwood set up his tank in siege mode. He fired two shots, downing the walker. However, he saw under it there was a massive force of stalkers and immortals gaining on him. He retreated, and Lieutenant Colonel Maxwell sent a dropship to pick him up. He made it on just in time. Blackwood marked the kill on the side of his tank, but the dropship was shot down on a phoenix. Blackwood died in the crash.

The pilot of the phoenix would land and take a look at the wreckage of Blackwood's tank, seeing the marks on the side of the sign of a fellow warrior. He saluted his fallen brother, and marked the side of his phoenix to celebrate another kill.

Notes[]

The affiliation of Blackwood is never confirmed in the short story. While his service leads him to be stationed at Terran Dominion worlds such as Shiloh, the short story has him defending a Kel-Morian Combine base on the planet Moria. The concept art for the story shows a red tank, which is usually the color scheme of the Terran Dominion, but the logo on the tank is not that of the Terran Dominion.

References[]

McAleese, Danny. "Momentum." (May 22, 2013). Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft Lore: Momentum Accessed 2013-05-22

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