Marty's a badass, and also one of my first colonists. His beatings reflect my initial lack of skill.
It was maybe A15/A16. Sad story, he was a Vat-grown Soldier and later a Human Computer. Somewhere along the lines, he had a son, somewhere out in the universe. He crashlanded with Skye (an Engineer) and, well shoot, I can't remember the counselor's name. Some woman with a K in her name.
Marty was our main soldier, loved animals, and did most of the research. This, of course, meant he was the #1 hunter, tamer - and since he was also a Jogger - he was the one I sent to annoy stuff, thinking he could outrun it. Unfortunately, he couldn't outrun everything. He lost an arm to an infestation (small hills, feels good man), a leg to a wolf that later taught me to wall-in my colonies, his nose came off during a cave-in, eyes were lost to fire and squirrels, etc, etc. I've learned better for now, though he paid the price. Thankfully, I hoarded plenty of silver off for his prosthetic-loving self.
However, one day came when he fought his last fight. Mechanoids were attacking, crippling colonists left and right. Marty was sent to hold them off long enough for non-warriors to retrieve the wounded before it was too late. It was one man, his bionics, and his rifle against three Scythers and a Centipede, and he fought well. One Scyther down, another close to it, and a centipede filled with a couple dozen more holes than when it showed up. Then, an inferno cannon round hit its mark. He ran out of his cover coated in fire, into the open. Left hand, right ear and foot, and a bionic eye lost, bleeding heavily. They moved on to K, a pacifist, trying to drag her husband back to the hospital. She was guaranteed not to make it, slowed down and defenseless as she was.
Then, Marty got up. He's bleeding bad, he's been shot so many times he's probably more air than meat at this point, but he stands up! BANG! BANG BANG! How could a Scyther kill K if it just had it's charge lance blown off! I send in two good melee warriors to finish it off, while the last Scyther aims for Marty. . . and fires, shattering his spinal cord, dropping him on the spot.
Not enough.
After my best builder made a turret for covering fire, I sent my fastest runner off to pick him up in the minutes he had left. Healing him was literally a matter of patching him up faster than he could bleed out, and we just barely did. Everybody made a full recovery, except for Marty. He couldn't move anymore, no matter what I did. I looked through the menus, the research projects, called traders, everything. There was nothing I could do to get him back on his legs again. I did everything I could to make his permanent stay in the hospital nice, though.
Got him a flower pot, our first medical bed, even splurged for a Megascreen TV.
He wasn't happy. He was cooped up, not fighting, and a drain of resources, but I just didn't have the heart to kill one of my now-sizeable colony's founders. For three years, he laid in that bed. Enough time for K and Skye to break-up, despite the fact that the landed as lovers, married in our second summer, and were married for three years before Marty was injured. Long enough to see Dwight, one of Marty's friends and fellow soldiers, die protecting the colony. Long enough for his Labrador who he cared for as a puppy have to be butchered when a heatwave slowed our crop's growth and thawed our food stores after a solar flare took-out the cooler, and leave just in time for our harshest winter.
His final act was that of sacrifice. Raiders drop-podded in and caused chaos the moment they landed. Every capable colonist was fighting to keep the place from burning and keep the weak from being slaughtered. One of the toughest SOBs there was taking cover from our soldiers in the hospital when he took a shot too many to justify returning fire. Instead, he turned around to see Marty, sitting immobile in his bed. The Raider walked across the room and lit his T.V. on fire. He burned the statue showing the death of his friend, and finally, lit the bed Marty was in on fire. He burned there, unable to do anything. Fortunately, this was enough time to let Skye run in, and bash out the Raider's brains over the floor. Unfortunately, he was not fast enough to save Marty from the many infections he sustained. After three days of trying to beat them, Marty was placed in a Plasteel Sarcophagus (for his love of technology), next to Skye's granite tomb (he was a tough bastard) and K's wooden Sarcophagus (green thumb, loved nature) in the middle of town.
I've since brought those three back, thanks to the power of Prepare Carefully. I like to think that some mad scientist or psychic power saw them fit as the subjects of the alpha test for Resurrection Serum. Marty has his share of burn scars, but thanks to some extra mods, he's got a bionic spine now, and he's daring anyone to try and break that one. He still fights for his friend, and his family, as he looks for his son. His latest bionic, a nice shiny new leg, was the result of a fight with a Thrumbo, his most recent injury.
All he had was a steel knife.
He won.
