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Tyrus’ original Rifts Earth citadel, New Tokyo, was more than just a city. The New Tokyo citadel was not merely created from the cannibalized remains of his original mothership, but was actually an extension of the original design. We shall now examine the events which led to the founding of New Tokyo, and then how Tyrus brought from its ashes the kingdom of Koorta Marduk. We shall look within the details of the history of the life of Tyrus.
Cloned Corruption
We have already seen how the Clan Sitari was led to the moon of Fantoma, where they would eventually establish the civilization known as the Robotech Masters. With the support of the avatar of a Babylonian god, the Tiresian civilization would have a strong
start. This avatar, named Engus, was unable to survive their final act of foolish experimentation with magic, however and was killed while defending the colony from demonic hordes. His remains were interred within their Great Hall.
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With the advent of Robotechnology roughly 2000 years later, the Tiresians, now calling themselves the Robotech Masters, began to master the use of their cloning technology. This incredible technology had given them an entirely new lifestyle, leading to the rise of the Cult of Three-in-One whose beliefs were centered around the triumvirate of clones that were created of each citizen. These clones would become the new basis for the population of Tirol, with each citizen always having two others they could relate two.
This was the beginning of a long road which would lead to abuses of power throughout their history, with people seen as disposable pawns that could be easily replaced simply by making more clones. Perhaps the most despicable example of this thinking was the use of the giant Zentraedi who formed their military.
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These humanoids were genetically engineered humans who were grown for combat and given memory implants that made them believe the Robotech Masters to be their gods, whom they served, with the ultimate glory to die in their name. They were segregated into all-male and all-female units and were forbidden to interact with each other. All remnants of the Zentraedi’s humanity was expunged by the Masters to give them total control.
A New Beginning
It is little surprise that the Masters would eventually turn their attention to recreating their greatest ally in hopes of creating an ultimate weapon. The remains of Engus were removed from his tomb within the Great Hall by the clone Masters and brought to the clone tanks. Their knowledge of this supernatural being’s DNA was incomplete, but in their arrogance, they believed that they could control the results of this experiment. This arrogance would prove to be their undoing.
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When the clone staggered from the protoculture cloning chambers, he called himself Ingues. He had scattered memories of his ancestors, Marduk and Engus, and his confused, disoriented state was compounded by his powers. An attempt to enlighten the newly created clone was made by the Robotech Masters, through the use of memory implants. These implants were an attempt to bend the will of Ingues to their own ways, an attempt which initially seemed to be successful. Unfortunately for the Masters, their attempts merely made their creation unstable. The combination of great power with incomplete and twisted memories of their use led to an increasingly corrupt personality. He became too much like them for their own good.
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Over a period of 300 years, Ingues was able to gain the suppport of many of the Tiresians, and was an incredible innovator for the ways of the Robotech Masters. With the lack of ambient P.P.E from ley line activity, Ingues’ abilities were less potent than those of Engus, but they were still to be reckoned with. These powers allowed him to reach out to the Flower of Life and find a greater power from it. Ingues had some fleeting memories of the true power of the Flower of Life as a source of mystic energy and used his psionic powers to harness it. Unfortunately for the Masters, this power was never revealed to them. Further deception led the Masters to believe that Ingues was loyal to their cause.
With this new power Ingues gained followers who were against the Cult of the Three-In-One. These followers gave Ingues the support he needed to wage war against the Masters. He created new powerful mecha of his own design, and these mecha were piloted by the powerful Zentraedi and Tiresians he cloned. The war would last for two years.
Eventually, due to sheer numbers the Robotech Masters were able to gain the advantage over Ingues, and forced him to retreat with his forces. Just when the Masters were ready to deliver the killing blow to his forces, Ingues opened a rift to another dimension and led his followers through.
Ingues began to shape a new way of life for his followers in the new dimension. In his delusional state, he saw himself as the true savior of the Megaverse. Gone was the Cult of the Three-In-One and its reliance on the triumvirate. He declared himself to be the ruler of the people of Marduk, saying all of his followers were the children of Marduk. He preached to his followers the way of peace through absolute domination of the Megaverse. Any who disagreed were slaughtered and replaced with fresh clones. The fate of the Zentraedi would be the same in his command as under the Masters, as their memories were wiped clean and replaced with implants that saw him as their one and only god.
Deja Vu
Less than one hundred years later, Ingues would be faced with an insurrection of his own. He had created an apprentice using the genetic engineering techniques of the Masters. This apprentice eventually learned of the Cult of the Three-In-One from records found aboard Ingues’ original mothership. This apprentice was fascinated with the beliefs surroundng it. This apprentice was trusted completely by Ingues. This apprentice was Tyrus.
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Tyrus knew that he would need to gain allies before he could attempt to wrest power away from Ingues. He first gained the support of Science Masters, followed closely by some Clone Masters. With their power behind him, he felt that he could surprise Ingues in a quick and painless coup. Unknown to Tyrus, however, Ingues would be prepared for any treachery.
Ingues had been preparing a new battlefortress to replace his original one, and it was near completion when Tyrus struck at his master. Tyrus’ forces attacked with ruthless efficiency, destroying all in their path as they attempted to get to Ingues. But they would never reach their intended target.
Ingues was able to reach the powerful mothership that he designed and used its weapons and force to fight off Tyrus and his soldiers. Tyrus and his followers were forced to flee in Ingues’ original mothership. The ship took heavy damage as it engaged the fold system, and was flung into another dimension.
A New World
Tyrus found his mothership was badly damaged and unable to leave the ocean of Rifts Earth. The rogue Master set out to create a new nation founded around a new army of clone warriors. At this point, Tyrus started down the road toward the tyranny of his ancestors -- the Robotech Masters.
Slowly Tyrus would come to learn more and more about the world around him. He sent secret patrols of micronized Zentraedi into Japan, Southeast Asia, South America, and Africa to find more information about Rifts Earth. They eventually found a way to
monitor some satellites orbiting the planet, gaining more knowledge and information. These satellites allowed them to eventually access some information databases from across the globe, which gave them even greater knowledge of their surroundings.
Once they saw the Flower of Life spreading across the globe, the Marduk knew their course of action was determined. Immediately Tyrus dispatched a contingent of Science Masters to recover half of the flowers on an uninhabited island in the south Pacific. Leaving half would allow the island to be used as an isolated plantation of sorts. The Flower of Life did not require constant attention to maintain, so the Marduk left it there to continue growing on the island.
Meanwhile Tyrus would begin new experiments into the Flower of Life, culminating in the use of an artificial zero-gravity chamber to grow a Millennium Tree-sized plant. This would prove to be an incredible feat of protoculture engineering and would eventually become the focal point to the entire citadel.
Tyrus spent the next sixty years working to learn the secrets of Rifts Earth, including bionics and cybernetics, Juicer and M.O.M. augmentation, Techno-Wizardry, and more. He continued to conduct genetic experiments, studying different human mutations,
D-Bee DNA, mutant animals, and more. These would allow Tyrus to create more powerful warriors for his armies.
Fall of the Citadel
During a covert expedition into Japan, Colonel Khrystle was captured by micronized Zentraedi Juicers and taken to New Tokyo. There Tyrus attempted to reawaken her Zentraedi neural programming. He wanted her at his side as a warrior and advisor. But more than that, he lusted after her beauty and passion. He felt he had to have her as his lover as well.
The Road Warriors were able to track Khrystle to the undersea citadel of New Tokyo however, and ordered a strike in an effort to rescue her. Hawk, Animal, Erin Tarn II, and Magna made their way into the citadel and retrieved Khrystle from the clutches of the rogue Robotech Master. New Tokyo was left in ruins, and the REF appeared to defeat Tyrus and his followers.
The New Tokyo citadel was damaged, but not nearly so badly as the REF would believe. Holographic projectors were used to lend credence to the belief that the REF was successful in their destruction of New Tokyo. Tyrus and his forces would maintain a low profile for some time afterward, until he was able to restore their secrecy and provide a new secured base for the operations.
Following the discovery of the New Tokyo citadel, Tyrus found problems inherent in the location he had chosen years before. Japanese settlements had begun to grow in the area and had nearly stumbled across the location of the undersea colony on several occasions. It was necessary to move the New Tokyo citadel to a new location.
Rebirth of a Nation
He instinctively was drawn to a location near the base of the undersea structure. Donning a suit of body armor, Tyrus left the comforts of his mothership to examine more closely. Oddly enough, he found that he could instinctively read some of the various markings on the stones, and soon he was able to open a portal to the inside. Once inside, he found things to be much different.
The temple was structurally sound and completely dry on the inside. The water appeared to be held out by some kind of transparent membrane that he could pass through without disturbing it. After passing through, he felt as though he was home. He somehow felt like he knew what the purpose of everything there was. It all just felt natural to him.
Slowly he walked across the stone floor and reached out to the wall. His fingers brushed the symbol of an open box, and he was engulfed in a blinding flash of light. Suddenly his mind was overcome with images of mass destruction. Overwhelming visions of rifts, pyramids, robed men covered in tattoos, serpent-like dragons, and other supernatural creatures flooded his mind.
What was he seeing? What manner of sorcery was this?
Suddenly the visions stopped and he knew that this was his destiny. This temple was built by his ancestors.
It was built by the Clan Sitari of Atlantis.
Tyrus’ Atlantean heritage was awakened within him fully for the first time. He had experienced strange sensations of familiarity since his arrival on Rifts Earth, but now he could understand it all. The temple had given him memories of the Atlantean super-rift which caused the mythical continent to disappear originally. He saw his ancestors leave through a rift with Engus. It all seemed to come together in his mind.
Tyrus came to a realization. He was a descendant of the Atlanteans. As an Atlantean, he had access to power that few others could ever dream of. And that power could be added to his already considerable technological might.
Just as Ingues before him was driven mad by incomplete memories and vast power, Tyrus would now fall prey to greater corruption. He saw himself not as a man, but almost as a god. With the powers of his Atlantean heritage added to the powers of Robotechnology, Tyrus saw nothing but dreams of conquest.
And so the citadel came to rest near Yonaguni. Here he established the new nation of Koorta Marduk. We shall soon see the terrors he has to command.
Upon his arrival on Rifts Earth, his mothership came to rest off the coast of Japan near the submerged ruins of Tokyo. Immediately after their appearance, a tendril of the Lord
of the Deep lashed out at them. The undersea battle raged for hours, causing people on the nearby Japanese coastline to believe that another cataclysm was at hand. In the end, the Lord of the Deep retreated but not before crippling the Marduk mothership.
Once the REF arrived on Rifts Earth, Tyrus’ spies in North America told them of a micronized Meltran who was an ace pilot for the micronian forces. This Meltran was believed by his advisors to be the greatest female warrior the clone chambers had ever produced. Tyrus knew he must have her to command his forces in the field.
Tyrus searched the surrounding area for a suitable location for his mothership and discovered something unusual about himself. He had always felt a strange sensation on Rifts Earth, but was unaware of the reasons for it. As he brought his citadel closer to the underwater temple ruins off the Japanese island of Yonaguni, he felt these sensations grow stronger. He couldn’t figure out why though.
