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| - Captain Matthew Marcus was captain of the Resolute during the first years of the Second Neosapien War. As the conflict had been preceded by an unprecedented fifty-year peace that put the necessity of the ExoFleet itself in dispute, he most likely gained his rank due to lack of competition during peace time. As one might expect, once the war began he quickly became infamous for his lack of strategic skills, his sheer arrogance and his hair-trigger temper. On multiple occasions, while in the heat of battle, he froze, even being heard by his subordinates that he didn't know what to do.
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| abstract
| - Captain Matthew Marcus was captain of the Resolute during the first years of the Second Neosapien War. As the conflict had been preceded by an unprecedented fifty-year peace that put the necessity of the ExoFleet itself in dispute, he most likely gained his rank due to lack of competition during peace time. As one might expect, once the war began he quickly became infamous for his lack of strategic skills, his sheer arrogance and his hair-trigger temper. On multiple occasions, while in the heat of battle, he froze, even being heard by his subordinates that he didn't know what to do. Disaster resulted almost immediately as he refused to wait for the ExoFleet's slower support vessels, instead leading a charge of six ExoCarriers on the Neosapien-held Earth. When J.T. Marsh challenged this tactically unsound decision, Marcus had him charged with mutiny. Only heroic action on Marsh's and Able Squad's part prevented the war from being lost almost before it began. As the war continued, his command was fraught with equally impressive failures of judgment. He eventually lost his life following a mutiny against Admiral Winfield, destroying the Resolute and crippling the fleet in the process – a wasteful end to an equally wasteful career (although he did manage to destroy a few Neosapien ships with the shockwave that resulted from the Resolute's destruction), and ironic considering one of his first acts of the war was to charge a subordinate with mutiny. He was considered by many to be one of the most negative figures of the war, and certainly the most negative member of the ExoFleet. Yet despite his obvious flaws, most of the Exofleet crew still followed his commands and even agreed with him, as many were tired of the conflict and eager to end it. Despite his feelings about Winfield's actions, Marcus defended his character to Captain Furlong. Furlong had stated that Marcus had to be aware that Admiral Winfield had lost the nerve for a fight, to which Marcus replied with "No Captain, I am aware that the admiral is spending more time refitting the fleet than I feel is absolutely necessary. You can get away with questioning a superior's decisions, but never his courage." Regardless of his past failures, Admiral Winfield still felt sorrow for Marcus's senseless death and even went so far as to send Kaz Takagi to rescue him. In the end, Marcus was determined to do some measure of good; he refused Takagi rescue attempt, and even threatened him with gunfire to leave. Marcus sacrificed himself in a suicidal charge into the Neosapien fleet as a final attempt at success and redemption. Just before his final charge, he did request that Takagi relay a message to Admiral winfield: "Tell him that Matthew Marcus knew how to die!" It could be argued that Marcus' final act of sacrifice allowed the remaining survivors of the Exofleet to escape.
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