Two-Year Study of Marauders Ongoing - Part 1: Study Overview

By TalkFast

A summary of the data so far has been made available to the Fringe Newsfeed

Data Collected on Marauders 159-161

This document includes a Study Overview and an example autopsy report.
The names of some witnesses and researchers have been redacted or replaced with pseudonyms for their safety.

It is my understanding that “Dr Silicon” has a report on the scan of a living Marauder brain pattern, which I would like to add to this report if possible.

1. Study Overview

Data included in this section hundreds of medical scans collected by myself or volunteers over the last two years, mostly on Eclipse, but other locations as well, also logistical information about behavior, attacks and movements. Witness interviews, and data from examining the bodies and possessions of slain attackers.

** Note - this project is ongoing!
UPDATE 10/161: Cross reference of bar codes and specific impants/surgeries on a number of individuals confirm that those marauders were Imperials who were sentenced to the prison planet of Absalom. The examples I can cite date their sentences to Absalom beginning between 3 and 12 years ago.

General Information

- All known Marauders are human

- Minor mutations are found in the rare individual. My data set did not contain any major mutations.

- Marauders attack without regard to their own personal pain or safety, and usually without tactics other than speed and intimidation. They lack fear, and charge into death trying only to take as many people down with them as they can.

- If not stopped Marauders will often eat the bodies of their victims. It’s unclear whether this is mere animal hunger, or if it has some ritualistic significance to them.

- No Marauder has ever been known to give any useful information, under any amount of force, drugs, or psychological conditioning.

- In addition to battle injuries, Marauders cover themselves with self-inflicted scars. Each has at least one scar in the shape of the spiral of Niddrig. A great deal of evidence points to their actions as religious frenzy.

- There are rare cases of Marauders leaving someone alive (reason is unknown) and less-rare cases of them carrying people off, presumably to be eaten later or turned into a Marauder.

- I have two specific eyewitness accounts of an abducted person returning as a Marauder, and of torture and (self) mutilation being part of the process.

Movements

- Though they seem to show little tactical coordination as individuals in small groups, there have been patterns of attack on a larger scale, such as the summer of 2010 when the capitals of most Fringe worlds (and perhaps Tribe worlds at the same time) were attacked in what seemed to be a coordinated manner, with 2-5 attacks over the course of several days.
This suggests some more intelligent person or persons directing their movements, but does not explain the motives behind the pattern.

- Station City on Eclipse, suffered particularly strong Marauder attacks. (75% of attacks reported on the planet were at Station City)

- Marauders tend to travel in groups of 5-10 (occasionally more) and attack together as a screaming mob. There have been no indications that any among such a group is a leader, but they also have not been seen to attack each other. Clearly they can tell one of their own from a normal person.

- Marauders have been known to come out of gates that were not aligned. On Eclipse they frequently appear in areas with no gate nearby. Many have argued that they can simply “rip holes” and create temporary gates at will, but I favor the theory that they are staging somewhere on Eclipse. Attempts to hire a tracker to follow their back-trail have failed (no one seems willing to take the job and I don't’ blame them!)

- More recently, a group on Eclipse stumbled across a large group of Marauders on an island. Whether this supports the “basecamp” theory or not is undetermined.

Identification

- Most Marauders examined were unidentifiable, in part because they covered themselves in scars and (it appears) actively cut away any tattoos or identifying marks.

- On comparison of dental, fingerprint, and DNA data, less than 10% were identifiable. Almost all of those were from Imperial planets, but I am unable to get any detailed information on their backgrounds because of my lack of access to Imperial records.

- Imperial sources tend to become fearful or angry when questioned on the question of identifying Marauder corpses, or comparing records of missing persons. It is clear that they have been told (or inferred) that this is a forbidden topic. Why the coverup?

- A Strong theory is that Marauders are being recruited from the Imperial prison, Absalom, but it is unproven as yet.
UPDATE 10/161: Cross reference of bar codes and specific impants/surgeries on a number of individuals confirm that those marauders were Imperials who were sentenced to the prison planet of Absalom. The examples I can cite date their sentences to Absalom beginning between 3 and 12 years ago.

Physical Condition

- Most wear a patchwork of armor (actual armor, likely stolen and found objects), much of it is surgically implanted into their flesh. The implantation was apparently done without any concern for pain, and in a normal person this state would be incapacitating, too painful to be functional, and likely cause death soon after by shock or infection.

- Marauder corpses do not contain any drugs. (scratch one early theory!)

- No disease we can currently detect, but had high levels of adrenalin and abnormal brain chemistry.

- Marauders are not, (as I would have assumed), on the verge of dying from infection or starvation. They are remarkably tough.

- They are resistant to pain, poison and disease, and seem to heal quickly
Equipment & Non-Medical Physical Evidence

- Most weapons carried by Marauders appear to be stolen, and often in poor repair.

- Equipment is often “decorated” with crude markings that mirror the scarification. Sometimes seemingly random objects are attached to armor. Sometimes blood is used to paint things.

- Marauders have been found with Cyber implants (I assume remnants of their human lives) but these appear to be mostly non-functioning. Attempts to track back specific serial numbers

- Soil Samples from Marauder boots and shoes on Eclipse mostly contained local substances, but some samples (from the “fresher” Marauders) contained soils whose chemistry did not match a known planet.

- Similarly, pollens (taken from hair, clothes, and the sinus cavity) included species that were unfamiliar.