ultra-marine-nasca-dg1-faceultra-marine-nasca-dg1-fullULTRA-MARINE

Real Name: Kith Nasca

Identity/Class: Human advanced (possibly future) technology-user

Occupation: Warrior;
    presumptive marine (see comments) major

Group Membership: Dark Guard (Albion/Peter Hunter, Stacy Arnheim, Dark Angel/Shevaun Haldane, Death's Head/Minion, Killpower/Julius Mullarkey, Colonel Tigon Liger, Motormouth/Harley Davis);
    U.S. Army Corp 1768774 (see comments)

Affiliations: Clementine (Liger's sentient weapon), the Egalitern (Governor Trusivor), Superconductor, the Technarchy (Demogog Montano), the Time Guardian;

Enemies: Battletide, Mys-Tech (Collapsar, Permafrost, Sunder, Gudrun Tyburn (Golem duplicate)), Demogog Tansteele
    formerly the Egaliterns and Technarchy

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Major Nasca;
    "sport," "squalling runt" (from Permafrost)

Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
    last seen to based in the Refuge, within No-Space;ultra-marine-nasca-mad

First Appearance: Dark Guard#1 (October, 1993)

Powers/Abilities: Ultra-Marine wears a suit of nitinol (see comments) armor powered by a fusion reactor, and he is connected to it via a spinal interface, which allows him to control it at well. He can remove the armor at will, but he may have some sort of port within his body to facilitate regular re-establishment of the connection.

    Although it only partially covers his body, leaving portions of legs (Some images show full coverage of his left leg, others show the non-boot portion uncovered (perhaps the armor is retractable), arms, chest, abdomen, and face exposed, the suit still granted him solid durability; he was only stunned by high-power assaults, such as punch by the powerful Death's Head. It may or may not generate a force field to protect his otherwise uncovered body parts.

    The suit possesses an environmental rheostat, allowing it to maintain a healthy internal temperature despite external temperature extremes. He can overload the rheostat and draw tremendous heat from the suit's fusion reactor and then radiate it through his nitinol armor, causing its surface to glow.
    Intense cold and large quantities of ice can be used to freeze his armor and flight systems. Apparently unable to physically break free, he can swiftly melt the ice thusly.

    His boots allow him to fly and/or hover. He can reach speeds sufficient to catch up to a surface-to-air missile, which likely traveled at at least 500 mph (800 kph); presumably he can fly at closer to 770 - 1000 mph.

    His plasma weapon systems may utilize future technology. He can project powerful plasma bolts to smash a foe and/or to tunnel through solid rock

    His armor's sensors could detect human heat signatures buried beneath soil and rock as well as locating airborne missiles hundreds of miles away. Its onboard battle computer can calculate the trajectory, rate of descent, speed and telemetry configuration, allowing him to rapidly approach such a missile. His data processors can swiftly learn the missile's language and allow him to broadcast a new command in the form of a tachyon pulse from his nitinol gauntlets, altering the missile's targeting.

    Nasca has military combat, tactical, etc. training, skill, and knowledge sufficient to have earned him the rank of major. However, his expectations that non-military warriors he had just met would follow his orders blindly led to frustration and conflict. Additionally, he sometimes gave orders while not paying attention to direct threats to himself, and he was often eager to turn to conflict rather than pursue diplomatic solutions.

    Kith Nasca works out to maintain his athletic strength and physique, with his strength presumably augmented markedly by his armor to allow him to lift perhaps 10-25 tons (enough to shatter the rocky Sunder when combining his power with Albion's).

    Nasca's greatest fear is failure.

Height: Unrevealed (approximately 6')
Weight: Unrevealed (approximately 220 lbs.)
Eyes: Not clearly seen (presumably brown, possibly blue or green)
Hair: Brown (brownish-red in some images)ultra-marine-nasca-weighttraining

History:
(Dark Guard#1 (fb) - BTS) - Kith Nasca ascended to the rank of major in U.S. Army Corp 1768774 (see comments).

    At some point, he received a suit of armor and the title/codename Ultra-Marine.

(Dark Guard I#1 (fb) - BTS / Dark Guard I#2 (fb) - BTS) - Representing the Techno-Wizards of Earth's Mys-Tech, Gudrun Tyburn used an artificial replicant/golem of herself to establish a presence on the planet Eopia, escalating the war between Egaliterns and Technarchy in effort to cause the planet's destruction via thermo-nuclear war.

(Dark Guard I#1 (fb) - BTS / Dark Guard I#2 (fb) - BTS) - Mys-Tech agent Collapsar was sent to manipulate Tansteele to this end, although Tansteele and the Technarchy were advised that Collapsar had been sent to aid their cause.

    Mys-Tech agents Permafrost and Sunder were sent to similarly manipulate Trusivor and the Egaliterns.

(Dark Guard#1 (fb) - The Time Guardian began to foresee that Mys-Tech posed a considerable threat to the future of space-time and decided to gather a team to oppose them.

(Dark Guard#3 (fb) - BTS) - The Time Guardian witnessed how Albion, Dark Angel, Death's Head (Minion), Killpower ,and Motormouth managed to thwart Mys-Tech's schemes with the UnEarth, and he decided to recruit them for his purposes.

(Dark Guard#3 (fb) - BTS) - An unspecified failure by Ultra-Marine led to failure becoming his greatest fear.

    However, that same failure apparently led to the Time Guardian recruiting Nasca for his team. 

(Dark Guard#1 (fb) - BTS) - Killpower, Motormouth, and Ultra Marine were the first of the Time Guardian's recruits to arrive at the Refuge.

(Dark Guard#1) - As Kith worked out on some high-tech exercise machine, the Time Guardian or his agent, Superconductor, notified Major Nasca that the others were beginning to arrive. Nascar replied in the affirmative and noted that he would be there directly as soon as he suited up. Superconductor (presumably) noted that this was wise, as past history had shown that their guests were nothing if not temperamental.

(Dark Guard#1 - BTS) - Stacy Arnheim, Death's Head, and Tigon Liger materialized within the Refuge's Arrival Suite, followed by Albion and then Dark Angel. They collectively suspected Mys-Tech to have transported them there.

(Dark Guard#1) - Flanked by Motormouth and Killpower, Ultra-Marine confronted the new arrivals, introducing himself and advising them that Mys-Tech was reason that they were there, although Mys-Tech had not brought them there directly. He further informed them that they were in the Refuge within the No-Space void.

    The frustrated Liger confronted Ultra-Marine, shoving his intelligent weapon, Clementine, in his face and demanded answers. Having lifted himself perhaps a foot off the ground via his boot-jets, Ultra-Marine ordered Liger to get his weapon out of his face, reminding him that he had already learned that his weapon would not fire within the Refuge. Undeterred, Liger smashed Ultra-Marine in the face with Clementine, and while the annoyed Ultra-Marine called Liger an undisciplined moron, Death's Head and Stacy Arnheim rushed to join the assault, ignoring Albion and Dark Angel's arguments to the contrary. ultra-marine-nasca-dg2-blasting

    Punching Liger back, Ultra-Marine advised him that if he was going to serve in this unit, he was going to learn the chain of command. As Death's Head approached and threatened him, Ultra-Marine asked if there was no end to their insubordination, and Death's Head told him "Take a wild guess," as he punched him back. Drawing his blade, Liger prepared to rejoin the fight against Ultra-Marine, but he was instead smashed to the ground by Killpower.

    As Ultra-Marine was restrained in a Full Nelson by Death's Head, the Time Guardian appeared and broke up the fight. After noting Mys-Tech's threat to their whole universe, he dubbed the team the Dark Guard.

    However, Stacy rebelled against being abducted to this place and serving under his command, and she instead fled. Despite Ultra-Marine's orders to the contrary, Stacy tore open a shutter door and was pulled out into No-Space where she was seemingly destroyed. Nasca verbally instructed Refuge control to seal shutter ninety and explained to the enraged Liger that entering No-Space was like plunging into anti-matter.

    The team members were understandably distraught, particularly Liger, but the Time Guardian advised they turn their anger against Mys-Tech. After he instructed them to follow him, their efforts led them to the surface of Eopia, where they were attacked by the massive Technarchy army. As most of the team dove into the fight, Ultra-Marine urged them to work together tactically as a team, but when he was blasted out of the sky, he joined the unorganized fighting. Soon after, reinforcements showed up for the Technarchy.

(Dark Guard#2) - Ultra-Marine ordered the Dark Guard to close up formation before they were picked off, but Dark Angel grabbed him and carried him out of the way of high-yield laser fire from a walking cannon. As Albion took out the cannon, Dark Angel helped Nasca up to his feet, telling him that his suit was tough but that it probably would not have stopped those lasers; she further advised him to spend less time giving orders and more time paying attention. He quickly told her not to lecture him, but then noted that there was not time for that but thanked her for her help as he jumped back into the fight.
    Albion commented that Nasca's pride was stronger than his armor, and Dark Angel considered that next time she would let him fry.

    After Death's Head and Liger took out their opponents heavy tanks, Ultra-Marine told the others that that was the first piece of tactical deployment anyone had managed that day. Dark Angel subsequently advised a tactical withdrawal given the 3000 troops they faced, and Albion seconded that notion. When Dark Angel asked the others to find the gateway they came through, Nasca was surprised that the others followed her instructions, but Motormouth located the gateway with her hyper-vision. As they made their way toward the gate, Ultra-Marine noted that things did not feel right; he and the others made it through the gateway back to the Time Guardian's base, but Collapsar captured Killpower and Liger.ultra-marine-nasca-dg3-flight

    Time Guardian's agent Superconductor met with the rest of the Dark Guard and discussed the war between the Technarchy and Egaliterns and revealed that Collapsar was a Mys-Tech agent. When the Superconductor noted that they were supposed to kill Collapsar, Ultra-Marine was enraged at the idea and argued that they had not been told that they would have to kill (see comments).

    Despite Ultra-Marine's argument that they were breaking up the team, Death's Head and Motormouth departed to rescue their captured teammates, while Ultra-Marine, Dark Angel, and Albion were sent into Egalitern territory in hopes of getting their leader, Trusivor, to listen to reason. However, Trusivor was startled by their presence, and his defenders Permafrost and Sunder -- who, unknown to Trusivor, were Mys-Tech agents/smart weapons -- transformed to confront the terrestrial heroes. ultra-marine-nasca-dg3-punch

(Dark Guard#3) - While Albion tried to reason with Trusivor, Ultra-Marine mocking called him "Winston Churchill" and told him to prepare for a fight. Although Albion insisted that that was what they were there to avoid, Ultra-Marine rushed forward, only to have his armor and flight systems frozen in the grip of Permafrost, who mockingly noted, "way out of your league, I'd say, Sport!" Permafrost then cast Ultra-Marine to the ground and asked Sunder to smash the "squalling runt" and help with the others. Before Sunder could do so, however, Albion blasted Sunder to the ground, and Dark Angel engaged Permafrost.

    As both Albion and Dark Angel initially seemed to be overwhelmed, the fear of failure caused Ultra-Marine to become overwhelmed with helpless fury, and his mind stabbed out through the spinal interface that linked him to his body-suit, deliberately overloading his armor's environmental rheostat. He drew scorching energies from his suit's fusion reactor and radiated it through his nitinol armor, which glowed as he melted the ice, after which he unleashed the full power of his plasma weapons system against Permafrost, knocking him back into a building, which then collapsed atop the Mys-Tech warrior.

    As Sunder smashed Albion below the ground, Ultra-Marine left Dark Angel to deal with Permafrost so he could dig Albion out before he might suffocate. Engaging his targeting systems to track Albion's body head, Nasca began blasting through the ground. As Sunder prepared to smash Albion in a subterranean tunnel, Albion distracted him by warning him of an approaching train, which was instead Ultra-Marine, who smashed Sunder from behind. The two heroes then struck the dazed Mys-Tech creation at the same time, shattering it. Noting that Sunder had no body heat, Ultra-Marine assured Albion that it was just a Mys-Tech smart-weapon construct rather than a living being.

    When Albion thanked him for saving his life, and Ultra-Marine shook his hand, noting, "No problem. What are friends for?" -- although he became annoyed when Albion teased him about not having time for the rest of Dark Guard, telling him not to push it. As they blasted their way back to the rock, Ultra-Marine explained that he resented Dark Angel's leadership role and respect from the others. Regardless, by the time they reached the surface, Dark Angel had already destroyed Permafrost, and she then told Trusivor that they would now have a talk.
    Nasca laughed when Albion commented that he was beginning to see what he meant about her taking charge.

 (Dark Guard I#3 (fb)) - Three hours later, Trusivor's staff showed Ultra-Marine some of the defense initiatives, at which point he found evidence of the 300 Mys-Tech weapons buried deep in the continental crust.

(Dark Guard I#3) - In Trusivor's office, Dark Angel and Albion were in the process of convincing him that the Egaliterns and Technarchy must reconcile when Ultra-Marine interrupted, summoning them down to the war-rooms in the bunker below the mansion.

    In the bunkers, Ultra-Marine revealed the Mys-Tech weapons, at which point the Gudrun Tyburn golem (although not known to not be the real thing at that time) appeared and revealed the weapons' true purpose. Ultra-Marine and the others looked on in shock as "Tyburn" revealed the Technarchy -- in response to the other half of the Dark Guard's assault on the Technarchy's Helios Plateau encampment -- had declared war on the Egaliterns, blaming them for the assault. As the Technarchy were launching their first strike and the Egalitern retaliation would be automatic, the Tyburn golem noted that Eopia was finished. ultra-marine-nasca-dg4-facemask-detail

(Dark Guard I#4) - After Death's Head, Liger, and Motormouth explosively destroyed Collapsar (seemingly slaying the war-mongering Technarchy commander Tansteele), the Tyburn golem mocked that the Dark Guard was accelerating the war. Enraged, Ultra-Marine charged her, but Albion held him back, as slaying one of the Mys-Tech Techno-Wizards would allegedly threaten the fabric of reality. However, Dark Angel correctly reasoned that the real Tyburn would not have risked coming to Eopia in person (...why not?), prompting the Tyburn golem to reveal her true nature, transform into an insectoid smart weapon and attack.

    Dark Angel told Ultra-Marine and Albion that she would consider it a personal favor if they allowed her to deal with this; after they both agreed, she swiftly destroyed the Tyburn golem, earning an impressed "Holy Cow" from Nasca.
    Albion teased Nasca to be careful what he called Dark Angel.

    At Dark Angel's prompting, Trusivor initiated a peace initiative, to which the Technarchy proved cooperative.

(Dark Guard I#4 - BTS) - However, the surviving Tansteele commandeered the command gunship, from which he launched a pair of cruise missile targeting the Egalitern capital city.

(Dark Guard I#4 - BTS) - Liger's weapon/partner Clementine dropped Tansteele's ship, and Killpower punched down and captured Tansteele. However, Liger notified Death's Head that he would not be able to crack the abort systems in time. 

(Dark Guard I#4 - BTS) - Ultra-Marine's armor's scanners located the missiles, and he led Albion to them. Ultra-Marine's onboard battle computer calculated the trajectory, rate of descent, speed and telemetry configuration. His data processors swiftly learned the missile's language and broadcast a new command in the form of a tachyon pulse from his nitinol gauntlets, causing the missile to bank away toward the space.

    Albion similarly redirected the other missile via changing the missiles flight surface, for which Ultra-Marine complimented him.

(Dark Guard I#4 (fb) - BTS) - Tansteele was presumably imprisoned, while Demogog Montano became the new Technarchy leader.

(Dark Guard I#4) - Dark Angel introduced Trusivor to Montano, and they optimistically prepared to negotiate peace on Eopia, both men considering this to be a historic moment they savored..

    Dark Angel advised them to get their world in order, or the Dark Guard would be back to show them what they were good at.

(Dark Guard I#4 - BTS) - Dark Guard departed, returning to the Time Guardian's base in No Space. There, Ultra-Marine's sensors detected another heat-trace, and they were surprised to encounter the armorless Stacy Arnheim who did not remember them at all.

Comments: Created by Dan Abnett, Carlos Pacheco, and Oscar Jimenez under the Marvel UK imprint.

    If he was part of the US Army, I'm not sure why he would be Ultra-Marine rather than Ultra-Soldier, as soldiers serve in the US Army, and marines serve in the US Marines.
    Perhaps Kith Nasca is from some alternate future where the two branches of the military were joined.

    What was the failure that left the great fear of failure on Nasca? Was this the same failure that led to the Time Guardian recruiting him, and if so, why/how?

    It strikes me as a bit off for a career soldier to be some outraged by the idea of having to kill an enemy/warrior to achieve a goal. Perhaps after he left the military, he made some sort of vow/goal of not killing anymore.

    Nitinol is an acronym for a NIckel-TItanium alloy developed by the Naval Ordinal Laboratory. The tracheal and urethral stents I use in veterinary medicine are made of Nitinol.

    His plasma weapon systems were described as 21st century state of the art, which was the future when the story was published in 1993. I think it was likely intended for the technology to have been from the future...perhaps some connection to the Mars colony of 2026 A.D. of Reality-49327 (which was 33 years in the future when the story was written), which also has an Ultra-Marine and duplicates called golems.

    There's some extra info on what was planned for the Dark Guard here.

Battletide III art    Battletide III was underway when in 1993 when the bubble burst for Marvel UK, and had been at least partially written, pencilled and inked, though not it seems colored yet. Per the credits page, it was written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, pencilled by Geoff Senior, inked by John Stokes, lettered by Alan O'Keefe, and was intended to be colored by Louise Cassell, and from the art page available, the Dark Guard were going to fight the Battletide.
--Loki
I believe that's Ultra-Marine in a kind of bent-over backward posture, with his feet by his hands, towards the bottom right of the image.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Ultra-Marine should be distinguished from:


images: (without ads)
Dark Guard#1, pg. 1, panel 4 (weight-training);
          panel 5 (face);
       pg. 8 (full);
    #2, pg. 5, panel 1 (firing energy blasts)
    #3, pg. 5, panel 5 (melting out of ice);
       pg. 8, panel 5 (flying through tunnel);
       pg. 9, panel 3 (with Albion, shattering Sunder);
       pg. (armored face)

Appearances:
Dark Guard#1-4 (October - 1993 - January - 1994) - Dan Abnett (writer) - Carlos Pacheco (pencils) - Oscar Jimenez (inks) - Stuart Bartlett (editor)

First posted: 08/13/2023
Last updated: 08/13/2023

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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