Martini

Martini
Title	Admiral
Hometown	Unknown (presumably Edelstein)
Current Residence	Edelstein
Gender	Male
Race	Human
Affiliations	Black Wings (formerly) Gelimer (formerly) Irvin (formerly)
Enemies	Resistance Maple Alliance
Status	Deceased

Martini is an admiral of the Black Wings, as well as a former officer of the Edelstein navy.

Story

Edelstein Navy

Fifty years before the battle of Black Heaven, Martini was a charismatic officer in the Edelstein navy, working closely with a talented scientist named Gelimer, as well as an ace pilot in the Edelstein air force named Irvin. Soon after, however, Irvin learned that the armed forces had sanctioned unethical experiments on living test subjects.

When Irvin confronted his friends, however, Martini claimed that he supported Edelstein's decision, believing that the experiments were necessary to protect their people. Gelimer agreed with Martini, explaining that it was all in the name of progress. Though Irvin resigned in disgust, Martini and Gelimer stayed behind, with Gelimer continuing his research in order to satisfy his curiosity, at the expense of his conscience.

Joining the Black Wings

Over time, Gelimer slowly began losing his compassion as a result of his desire to progress and evolve humanity, for which he began conducting inhumane experiments in order to create the ultimate android, believing that emotions were a weakness in humans that needed to be eliminated.

After Orchid recruited him to revive Lotus from his coma, Gelimer became the chief scientist for the Black Wings and secretly planned to turn Lotus into an android that would control humanity in an enormous hive mind, thereby perfecting humans by removing their feelings. For this reason, he planned to create an enormous airship called Black Heaven, from which he would bomb Maple World with Retoxin gas that would turn living beings into mindless puppets.

As he began constructing Black Heaven in secret, Gelimer soon realized that he needed more coolant for the airship. Knowing that Martini had an incurable illness, Gelimer reached out to his old comrade and capitalized on Martini's fear of death by promising to lead humanity on the path to immortality. Upon hearing Gelimer's assurance, Martini readily joined the Black Wings as an admiral and obediently carried out Gelimer's instructions.

Hallucinogen Experiments

Soon after joining the Black Wings, Martini began preparing for an attack on Ereve, which had recently formed the Cygnus Knights. He ordered the Black Wings to obtain hallucinogen and test it on monsters around Maple World. The Black Wings began using the hallucinogen on the Golems of Henesys, as well as the Drakes in Sleepywood, which caused them to start behaving aggressively and erratically. In response to this strange behavior, Empress Cygnus dispatched five of her rising Knights - Mihile, Oz, Irena, Eckhart, and Hawkeye - in order to investigate and stop the monsters.

Soon after the Knights finished resolving the situation in Sleepywood, Harry Lion and a Black Wings henchman reported to Admiral Martini in the Verne Mine and confirmed that they had completed their tests on Henesys' Golems and Sleepywood's Drakes. Based on their tests, they reported that their hallucinogen worked on both marine and terrestrial life. Martini expressed his relief and noted that it had been difficult to obtain the hallucinogen back in the military, adding that he never would have thought that he would need so much of it. He then ordered the henchmen to proceed as planned, as the Black Wings needed to take care of their enemies swiftly before they became a threat.

Martini then ordered the Black Wings to use the hallucinogen on members of the Cygnus Knights, which caused them to hallucinate and attack their allies in Ereve. Though Martini was nearly successful in eliminating Cygnus, the timely intervention of Mihile and his fellow Knights saved Cygnus' life and returned the ensorcelled Knights back to their senses. Following the incident, Mihile and his comrades were promoted to Chief Knights.

Riena Strait

In order to obtain more coolant for Gelimer, Martini led his forces to Rien and docked their ship in Riena Strait, where they began harvesting ice. As a result of their operations heating the glaciers in the region, the water levels began rapidly rising, causing many ancient creatures that had once been frozen to thaw out and attack the natives of Rien. Furthermore, Martini began overseeing the construction of an enormous turbine for Black Heaven.

In response to the rising sea levels, which threatened to submerge Rien underwater, Lilin reached out to a traveler and asked them to work with the natives of Rien in order to determine the cause. Their investigation soon led them to the Black Wings base in Riena Strait. As they began approaching the area, a Black Wings henchman reported to Martini that enemies were incoming.

In response, Martini addressed his men and asked whether they had ever glimpsed the beautiful gasp of their last breaths. He explained that he had glimpsed the cold, steely claws of death many times, noting how every creature faced death the same way - by screaming and squabbling and scratching at the earth, trying to cling to life as it fled before their eyes, until the cold hand of death would come and steal their very will to be alive. He added that it was almost beautiful, silent and black as the pit of his soul.

Declaring that they would rob their enemies of that beautiful moment, he ordered their forces to destroy all evidence of their activities and evacuate in ten minutes. As the Black Wings scrambled to carry out his orders, Martini laughed and called his enemies fools, claiming that death awaited them all.

Black Heaven

After Black Heaven launched and met the Alliance in air combat, Gelimer decided to eliminate Martini after he had no further use of his old friend. In his laboratory, he poisoned Martini with Retoxin, which was fatal in large quantities. After Martini was left for dead, the Alliance soon discovered him after infiltrating Black Heaven. Athena Pierce immediately gave him a gas mask to wear, but Martini replied that it wouldn't matter, as he was suffering from an incurable illness that would kill him regardless, and so he would embrace oblivion with open arms.

Neinheart asked him whether Gelimer had done it to him, to which Martini replied that Gelimer was mad, and that he needed to be stopped. He added that even if Gelimer had once been his comrade, his side had never been the right one to be on. He explained that he hadn't been able to accept his mortality, and that he had believed Gelimer when he had claimed to have an answer. He regrettably noted that Irvin had been right all those years ago, as eternity was not the domain of the living.

When Neinheart asked him what Gelimer was planning, Martini replied that he wouldn't expect a child like him to understand the existential pain of his elders, even though it still cut at his cold, dead heart. Lamenting at what a sad life he had led, Martini closed his eyes before succumbing to the poison.

Gallery

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  NPC Portrait of a young Martini (Black Heaven storyline)