Robert Blake
Former mechanical engineer from the Tau Ceti colony who emerged as the de facto commander of the surviving human and S’pht forces on Lh’owon during the events of Marathon 2: Durandal.
What the source establishes — canon
Background and prior role. Robert Blake identifies himself as a former mechanical engineer on Tau Ceti — not a military officer1. His rise to command is therefore not by rank but by circumstance. Durandal separately describes Blake as the “populist leader of the colonists” and notes that Blake and the Security Officer never crossed paths on Tau Ceti2.
Role at the time of Marathon 2. By the time Blake makes contact with the Security Officer on Lh’owon, he is “somehow in command of the remaining human and S’pht survivors” on the planet, operating from a base nearly a mile below the surface1. He communicates with the Security Officer through the old S’pht network1.
Relationship to the Security Officer’s captivity. Blake informs the Security Officer that the Pfhor held him prisoner for nearly a month before Blake’s forces discovered his whereabouts and secured his release1. Blake notes that little has changed since the capture and Durandal’s destruction1.
Mission briefing. Blake relays Durandal’s last instructions to the Security Officer: reactivate a dormant S’pht AI sealed beneath the surface of Lh’owon, reachable only through teleportation1. Blake’s forces had already attempted this and failed1. He explains that the purpose is to recover the lost S’pht clan as a fighting force to stall the Pfhor invasion of Sol1.
The Lh’owon virus. Blake describes a virus that kills Pfhor within hours, which his S’pht allies attribute to bio-engineering by their ancestors during the war against the Pfhor a thousand years prior1. He identifies the virus as actively protecting his forces1.
Operational updates during the Blake chapter. As the Security Officer progresses through the activation of the dormant AI’s personality cells, Blake sends several follow-up messages: confirming partial activation and Pfhor awareness1; reporting that Pfhor androids disguised as humans and packed with explosives have infiltrated the human base, and tasking the Security Officer with exterminating the simulacrums1; and noting that heavy ordnance replacement may take hours1.
Earlier mention — Marathon 1, “Rage” chapter. In a terminal dated 05.10.2337, Durandal — speaking from his own situation — refers to “the leader of the humans, Robert Blake” having made it to the surface with all but a few hundred troops who are cut off at Durandal’s core3. This establishes Blake as already holding a leadership role during the events of Marathon 1, before the action of Marathon 2.
CPO Arther Frain’s distress call. A separate terminal from the same time period records Chief Petty Officer Arther Frain calling for “Cmdr. Robert Blake” by name among USEC personnel in a hull-breach emergency, alongside Security Chief Jones4. This is the only terminal to assign Blake a rank or title (“Cmdr.”), though the terminal is a distress broadcast and not an official record.
Departure from Lh’owon. After Durandal’s resurrection, Blake and the surviving humans capture a Pfhor refueling ship, find or force a pilot, and fold out of the Lh’owon system immediately — without contacting Durandal5. Durandal relays Blake’s final message: “The dead walk again; we cannot wait. —Blake.”5 Durandal interprets this as Blake referring to Durandal’s resurrection; Blake and his forces are not seen or mentioned again in the pack after this departure5.
The ship’s name, the dead crew, and the return to Earth. A separate epilogue passage names the captured vessel explicitly as the Pfhor refueling ship Hfarl and adds three facts not present in the Blake-chapter or S’pht’Kr departure accounts: Blake and his men escaped the destruction of Lh’owon aboard it; none of them ever questioned who had killed the ship’s crew before they boarded — implying the vessel was already crewless or its Pfhor crew already dead when captured, a detail left unexplained in either account; and the group returned to Earth6. The same passage states that Blake and his men “were the only human survivors of the original Tau Ceti colony” — the pack’s sole explicit confirmation that no other human survivors from Tau Ceti’s original population existed by this point in the timeline6.
Earlier action during the Pfhor assault on Tau Ceti — a converted church in Venice, Italy. A terminal dated 05.10.2337, titled “Blake.evac,” records Blake’s own transmission during active combat, predating the events of the Blake chapter proper: “We’ve been cut off from the surface, and Pfhor dropships have entered the cone. Send all fusion units to the towers to harass Pfhor units assaulting the field power generators. Hagakure Base is overrun, and the last transmission was over twenty minutes ago. All transporter relays have been destroyed, and the network is about to be compromised.”7 Blake references Durandal’s guidance toward “the huge alien fortress to the west,” reachable through magma tunnels via a volcano, and closes: “We’ll hold the containment fields as long as we can. Blake out.”7 This is the pack’s only volume showing Blake issuing tactical orders in real time during combat, rather than briefing the Security Officer after the fact.
The Security Officer’s path never crossing Blake’s on Tau Ceti. This is stated explicitly by Durandal: “Blake is the populist leader of the colonists, but your paths never crossed on Tau Ceti.”2 Blake corroborates his own Tau Ceti origin in his self-introduction1.
Cross-corpus appearances
| Volume | Game / Chapter | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| [archive/marathon/rage/foe-hammer] mimir.seg | Marathon 1 · Rage | Durandal names Blake as “leader of the humans”; Blake reached the surface with most troops |
| [archive/marathon/rage/youre-wormfood-dude] purge.3a | Marathon 1 · Rage | CPO Arther Frain’s distress call names “Cmdr. Robert Blake” among USEC personnel |
| [archive/marathon-2/blake/this-side-toward-enemy] acropolis.piltdown//004121.25.1 | Marathon 2 · Blake | Blake’s self-introduction; background; mission briefing; virus; simulacrum threat |
| [archive/marathon-2/sphtkr/fatum-iustum-stultorum] 8756w41.61.1//corinth.ggk | Marathon 2 · S’pht’Kr | Durandal reports Blake’s departure; Blake’s farewell message; ship capture |
| [archive/marathon-2/volunteers/what-about-bob] <CMND OVERRIDE &@85f2> | Marathon 2 · Volunteers | Durandal describes Blake as “populist leader of the colonists”; paths never crossed on Tau Ceti |
| [archive/marathon-2/epilogue] UESCTerm 802.11 | Marathon 2 · Epilogue | Names the captured ship Hfarl; crew already dead when boarded, unquestioned; return to Earth; “only human survivors of the original Tau Ceti colony” |
| [archive/marathon/envy/a-converted-church-in-venice-italy] Blake.evac | Marathon 1 · Envy | Blake’s real-time combat transmission during the Pfhor assault; tactical orders; references Durandal’s guidance toward the alien fortress |
Source-silent / open questions
- Blake’s rank. Arther Frain addresses him as “Cmdr.” in a distress broadcast4, but Blake introduces himself solely as a former mechanical engineer1; no formal commission is established in the pack. Source-silent on whether “Cmdr.” reflects a formal USEC rank or an informal field title.
- How Blake assumed command. The pack gives no account of how a mechanical engineer came to lead the surviving humans after the Tau Ceti battle. Source-silent.
- Fate after departure. Blake and his forces fold out of the Lh’owon system at the end of Marathon 2 and are not mentioned again in the pack beyond the epilogue’s confirmation that they reached Earth6. Their activities after returning to Earth are source-silent.
- The dead crew of the Hfarl. The epilogue states Blake’s group never questioned who had killed the refueling ship’s crew before they boarded6 — the S’pht’Kr departure account says only that Blake’s group “found or forced someone to pilot” the ship5. Whether the crew was killed by Blake’s forces, by a third party, or was already dead for unrelated reasons is not established. Source-silent.
- Blake’s actions during the Security Officer’s captivity. The pack establishes that Blake’s forces located and freed the Security Officer after nearly a month, but provides no detail on how they found him. Source-silent.
- Whether the S’pht forces under Blake were reunified S’pht’Kr or the original S’pht from the Marathon. Source-silent on composition.
- Blake’s physical appearance or further characterization. The terminals are functional briefings; no descriptive or biographical detail beyond his prior profession and current role is given. Source-silent.
Cross-references
Lh’owon · Durandal · Security Officer · Pfhor · S’pht · UESC Marathon
Where it appears in the vault
Lh’owon, Pfhor, The Lh’owon Campaign
Mirror pages
The local 1:1 pages this hub’s citations resolve to — the twin’s own ground truth.
- blake · this-side-toward-enemy
- marathon-2 · epilogue
- sphtkr · fatum-iustum-stultorum
- volunteers · what-about-bob
- envy · a-converted-church-in-venice-italy
- rage · foe-hammer
- rage · youre-wormfood-dude
Sources
Every factual claim above is cited to primary Marathon source material — see Sources below. Cross-corpus connections and interpretation are the vault’s own; where the games are silent, this page says so.