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Cybertek (Earth-616)

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Cybertek Systems, Inc. or Cybertek Incorporated, based in Paterson, New Jersey, was Roxxon Oil Corporation's applied cybernetics division, after Roxxon was forced closed down its previous subsidiary Brand Corporation for illegal activities approved by Roxxon. Similarly, Roxxon also approved Cybertek developing high-tech weapons and selling them to enemy powers, among other operations that attracted the attention of legal enforcement agency SHIELD. Roxxon had stolen the cyborg body of Deathlok, who came from an alternate future, and delivered it to Brand's Harlan Ryker to reproduce him. Ryker, by then assigned to Cybertek, created a new Deathlok with a voluntary human's brain, but that brain was killed due to a computer glitch. Ryker kidnapped naïve Cybertek programmer Michael Collins and used his body on the Deathlok body, sending him to the country of Estrella to obliterate a native guerrilla that was contrary to Roxxon's interests in Estrella; however, Collins' brain eventually took control over Deathlok's body and opposed Roxxon in Estrella. Ryker tried to coerce Deathlok to work for him by offering his previous human body and a way to go back there using the same Cybertek cybersurgeon team; however, Deathlok was aghast at Ryker's immorality and handed him to SHIELD. This publically exposed Cybertek's activities, and many Cybertek ex-employees went to jail. In an attempt to distance themselves from the scandal, Roxxon closed up the subsidiary division and distributed Cybertek's assets between Roxxon itself and other buyers like AIM and Magnum Munitions. Roxxon also tried to recover lost Cybertek assets using wiles, especially when several ex-Cybertek employees settled in France in an attempt to continue their weapon-mongering activities, but they failed.

History

Origin[]

When Roxxon Oil Corporation closed down its subsidiary Brand Corporation after Brand's multiple illegal and immoral activities were made public,[11] initially Roxxon continued using Brand's assets for their nefarious ends,[12] until Captain America exposed their activities and shut it for good,[13] although not reaching the higher echelons of Roxxon.[14] One of the open projects in Brand at that point had started when Roxxon stole the cyborg Deathlok, who came from an alternate future; Roxxon delivered the cyborg to Brand Corporation's scientist Harlan Ryker for him to disassemble and find a way to replicate it.[15][16][14] While working for Brand, Ryker succeeded in creating a robot duplicate of Deathlok,[15][14] which was destroyed,[17] and repaired and reprogrammed Deathlok as a servant of Roxxon,[15][18] but Deathlok overcame the control and returned to his time[19] in the same event that led to Captain America closing Brand for good.[13]

Roxxon created a new company to cover the shortages that Brand's absence left: Cybertek Systems, Inc. Brand's assets, including equipment, knowledge and some of the staff, were transferred to Cybertek.[14] Like Brand, Cybertek was a company owned by Roxxon[7] operating as Roxxon's division for applied cybernetics.[2] Cybertek's main facility was in Paterson, New Jersey.[2] They also had an open space for tests, Cybertek Weapons Development Testing Facility 4, also in Paterson.[20] Roxxon stored some of Cybertek's products in Roxxon Branch Warehouse #23, Lynchburg, Virginia.[3] Also like Brand, Cybertek was involved in a number of criminal operations in the United States,[21] although many of its employees were unaware of this, believing they were simply involved in immoral activities such as developing state-of-the-art technology for military uses by other countries.[2]

Harlan Ryker was reassigned to Cybertek[14] as the company's division head, in charge of all the other employees.[6] The following people are confirmed Cybertek employees:

  • Michael Collins was the director of the computer programming section,[2] and recognized as an excellent computer scientist,[22] but also a moralist whose principles prevented him from working in military projects; however, Ryker used Collins' designs for that very profitable purpose without telling Collins.[2][22] Ryker also licensed some of Cybertek's patents, including weapon systems that used Michael Collins' work on bionics with the later's knowledge, and sold them to Stane International.[23]
  • Stanley Cross was an expert technician.[3][4]
  • Jim Dworman was a software programmer working in the computer programming section under its director Michael Collins.[2] He was later promoted to department head of the section,[6] and later promoted again to oversee the closure of the company.[3]
  • Ben Jacobs was a weapon designer for Cybertek's weapon department.[2]
  • Dr. William Hansen was a genius scientist, research, and occasional technician.[4]
  • Dr. S. Hu and Dr. Kimble were cybersurgeons.[5]
  • Laurie (surname unrevealed) was Ryker's secretary.[2]
  • John Rozum was an account manager, familiar with what was being done with the money Cybertek had.[3]
  • Ian Wajler, alias Mainframe, was a private contractor, creator of the remote servo technology also called Mainframe to override the remote controls of technology.[6] Wajler was also a superhuman technopath.[24]

Clayton Burr, as Vice President of International Development for Roxxon Oil Corporation, was not an employee of Cybertek, but Burr allocated Roxxon funds for Cybertek projects, and Ryker answered directly to Burr,[6] demanding constant successes of him.[2]

Products[]

Cybertek Worker Ants from Deathlok Vol 1 3 0001

The Worker Ants were one of Cybertek's products.

Some of Cybertek's products include:

  • Cybertank, alias All Terrain Attack Vehicle (ATAV), weapon designer Ben Jacobs' favored design with more firepower than almost any other Cybertek product.[2]
  • Cybertek Transmitter, allowing an operator to control several other Cybertek products, like the Dragonflies, the Terminal Armors[6] or the Worker Ants from a nearby protected area.[7]
  • Dragonflies, manned low-attitude, long-ranged supersonic vehicles that could be used as ballistic projectiles.[6]
  • Hunter Drones, small disc-shaped flying items armed with lasers and with quickly-modified flight paths to avoid being targeted.[7]
  • Remote Nuclear Missile Launcher, allowing to send off a powerful intercontinental projectile.[10]
  • SQ1 Deep Sea Attack Craft, an unmanned, remote-controlled, squid-shaped submarine vehicle with combat capacities.[6]
  • Stasis Fluid, a formula that kept a captured cyborg under control as a prisoner, but at the same time allows for the cyborg's organic components to be restored.[25]
  • Terminal Armor, battlesuits slightly bigger than an adult human, with different weapons and potential remote control.[6]
  • Warhead-bearing missiles.[7]
  • Warwolf, a hunter-seeker assassination cyborg that used organic components from a wolf. Scientist William Hansen contributed to the design, and both him and programmer Jim Dworman knew of Warwolf's capabilities. It remained at a prototype stage, stored in Roxxon Branch Warehouse #23, Lynchburg.[6]
  • Worker Ants, designed by Harlan Ryker's team, 38-foot-long drones that could be used in construction purposes, and also had military-grade weaponry.[7]
  • The Siege cyborg is confirmed to be also designed by Harlan Ryker,[8] and Siege is a Cyberwarrior with John Kelly's mind.[26] Roxxon claimed that the Cyberwarriors used Cybertek's technology that belonged to Roxxon; however, the Cyberwarriors as such did not exist when Cybertek was active. It is unconfirmed whether Ryker did that design while working for Cybertek or at other moment.

The Estrella operation and the Deathlok project[]

Working for Cybertek, Ryker designed a new version of Deathlok, initially intended to be used by the United States Military,[8] and adding technology from Timely Industries (which was secretly very advanced technology from the future provided by Nathaniel Richards for his own ends).[27] along with other technically advanced data incorporated by Roxxon in the Phase 3 of the[14] "Cybertek military cyborg designate: Deathlok" project.[28] Innuendos about Ryker's Deathlok project reached fellow industrialist entrepreneur Anthony Stark; Stark knew quite some details about Deathlok (being able to recognize the final design at sight), but Stark did not know how much had Cybertek progressed.[23]

At that point, Roxxon and Cybertek were involved in a number of international activities,[10] the most urgent of which was in the South American country Estrella. Supported by the Estrellan government (which was illegally in Roxxon's payroll),[7] Roxxon intended to build a dam to obtain building terrain,[29][2] but in the process they would destroy several villages, and the locals organized a resistance movement that opposed the operation. More successful than they thought, the guerrilla were shooting up Roxxon's expenses.[29][7] The "Estrella national dam project" was protected by a 600-man military force, and included thirty-two Cybertek Worker Ants as construction devices, controlled from a Cybertek command center in the area, but still the guerrillas had to be dealt with.[7] To that end, Estrella intended to lease some Cybertek autonomous weapon that would take care of the guerrilla with extreme prejudice,[29][7] Several other investors also leased Cybertek weapons and unifnished products[14] all over the world for several years, which attracted the attention of international law enforcement agency SHIELD,[7] an attention that Burr knew of and wanted to minimize.[6] SHIELD however lacked evidence to go directly against Cybertek or Roxxon.[7]

Ryker disregarded weapon designer Ben Jacobs' Cybertank[2] and instead focused on Deathlok for the Estrella operation,[2] using the investors' funds along with Roxxon's to improve the cyborg's offensive and defensive capacities and endurance.[14] Ryker recruited American military veteran Colonel John Kelly[8][9] for a "Cyborg Super-Soldier Program", so as to transplant Kelly's brain into a military cyborg body, explaining it was not a reversible process - but Kelly was unhappy with his life and agreed.[9] Cybertek made a test run in the Testing Facility #4, witnessed by Burr[20] and other parties interested in the lease,[9] during which Kelly argued the orders and in response the cyborg's onboard computer electrocuted Kelly's brain, killing him.[9][8] Ryker insisted on ending the test, which was considered a success[20] - but Cybertek needed both a new brain donor[20][2] and to correct the error so that the computer would not fry the following brain.[2] The new brain, however, was to be lobotomized[30] and used only for storage purposes.[2]

Cybertek (Earth-616), Jim Dworman (Earth-616), Ben Jacobs (Earth-616), John Kelly (Earth-616), William Hansen (Earth-616), Harlan Ryker (Earth-616), S. Hu (Earth-616) from Deathlok Vol 2 14 0001

Several Cybertek employees working in the Deathlok project

Harassed by Burr to reach the deadlines in the Deathlok project, Ryker's team corrected the software problem, discarded Kelly's brain and found another donor, Cybertek's director of computer programming section Michael Collins, who was threatening to expose Cybertek's secret projects which he had discovered by hacking the company's system, but instead was knocked down by Ryker.[2] Pretending that Collins had suffered an accident, Ryker spoke with Collins' wife[6] and promoted Collins' subordinate Jim Dworman to Collins' former position.[6] Deathlok's cybersurgeon[5] Dr. S. Hu, worried about organ rejection, insisted to keep Collins' body as a potential organ bank.[10]

Collins' brain was inserted in Deathlok without his authorization,[2] but Cybertek failed to lobotomize him properly.[30] Deathlok and the project's team were sent to Estrella, where Deathlok massacred a resistance encampment,[2] but Collins had been a pacifist[8] and his brain gained control over the cyborg before he could kill young girl Emilia Verdugo. Collins obtained full control over the cyborg body[2][29] once he and the Cybertek staffers were back in Paterson; even though Cybertek tried to stop him, Deathlok escaped, destroying the Cybertank in the process - but, unwilling to return to his family home in Paterson in his new state,[2] Deathlok became a superpowered vigilante active in Coney Island while also trying to find more information, and hopefully a cure, for his situation. Deathlok used the phone to hack information on Cybertek, finding a mention to "Project: Estrella", then contacted his friend Dworman for help, hoping Dworman could obtain that file. However, Ryker had foreseen this, and had Dworman bugged and followed. Once Ryker discovered that Deathlok was hiding near Coney Island Amusement Park, he sent Cybertek private contractor Ian Wajler, alias Mainframe,[6] also a superhuman technopath,[24] to lead an attack using Cybertek weaponry (Dragonflies, Terminal Armors, and the SQ1 Deep Sea Attack Craft) to apprehend Deathlok. Mainframe not only failed, but he also wrecked the park in daylight, attracting attention, and being arrested himself - however, Cybertek's contacts ensured that SHIELD would not be in charge of the investigation.[6] Still, Ryker was unaware that SHIELD had been tailing him for some time, in an attempt to link him with illegal weapon sales in Estrella, but they could not prove the crime.[7] SHIELD also failed to link Ryker with his other criminal activities, negotiating to sell a shipment of Cybertek weapons to Japanese entrepreneur Shiro Yoshida[7] for three billion dollars, transferred to a Swiss bank.[10] However, SHIELD agent N'Gami did steal from Cybertek a tape with the Deathlok test run.[7]

Discovering about Roxxon's illegal activities in Estrella in the file, and understanding that he had been used to murder the guerrillas there, Deathlok used a refitted Dragonfly[7] to fly to Estrella and join resistance forces led by local Joseph Verdugo against Roxxon and the Estrellan Armed Forces.[29][7] Ryker placed Jacobs in charge of the defense of the dam, insisting that the dam's protection was his first concern; but Jacobs instead prioritized several attempts to kill Deathlok, as Jacobs was angry that Deathlok had defeated his Cybertank and humiliated him. Jacobs' behavior contributed to[7] the victory of Deathlok and the guerrillas, defeating the soldiers, deactivating the Worker Ants[29][7] and destroying the dam (with Roxxon's explosives), which caused such expenses that Roxxon had to abandon the project[7] in shame[29] while the Estrellan government collapsed.[29][7] Enraged, Burr wanted Ryker's head on a plate.[7]

Trying to escape, Ryker sold Yoshida his weapons,[10] unaware that Yoshida was being manipulated by fellow Japanese nationalist Yoritomo, who intended to exploit Yoshida's naïve honor to illegally rearm Japan and start an attack. Before Ryker could leave Paterson for Japan, both Deathlok and SHIELD, the later using a Stane Industries Mark XIV Land Attack Vehicle, surrounded Cybertek's facilities. SHIELD director Nick Fury, correctly assuming that Ryker would be protected by high-tech weapons, allowed Deathlok to raid the facility first; indeed, Ryker used Hunter Drones and a warhead-bearing missile against Deathlok, but then convinced Deathlok to join him by offering a return to Collins' original body.[7] Ryker and Deathlok stealthily left for Kobe, slipping past SHIELD, although Deathlok contacted SHIELD from there. During the day of the negotiation, Yoritomo betrayed both Ryker and Yoshida, pretending that either of those two was trying to murder the other; but SHIELD joined the fray and Deathlok convinced Yoshida that he had been tricked. SHIELD seized Cybertek's assets and arrested both Yoritomo and Ryker. Ryker asked Deathlok to vouch for him in exchange for being returned to Collins' body but, as Ryker intended to continue his illegal arm trafficking deals, Deathlok instead gave Fury data he could use against Ryker in a criminal process.[10]

Cybertek closure and further activities[]

With Cybertek's crimes made public,[21] Roxxon attempted to steer clear from them[3] and dissolved Cybertek, disposing of its assets (including equipment, technology and contracts) by selling those to several corporations, including Magnum Munitions.[31] However, more than half of Cybertek's research ended up in the hands of criminal organization AIM[22] and Roxxon still claimed ownership over several specific technologies, including Deathlok's.[9] Roxxon promoted programmer Jim Dworman so that he'd oversee the closure of the facilities, ensuring that all the employees were given notice and that the resources were disposed.[3] At that point, Deathlok was skimming every possible information source in search of his body and of Dr. Hu, the Cybertek cybersurgeon who performed the procedure and who could, theoretically, reverse it,[10] and Dworman allowed Deathlok to access Cybertek's records, unauthorized, during this time.[3]

Several Cybertek ex-employees and associates were sent to jail, some like Mainframe imprisoned in Ryker's Island (not related to Harlan Ryker),[22] and others imprisoned in Danbury Maximum Security Federal Penitentiary, a number of them agreeing to testify against Ryker. The NSA, in charge of the investigation, had already copied some evidences from Cybertek's computer. Ryker, from jail, managed to activate Cybertek's hunter-seeker assassin Warwolf so that it'd track and kill the witnesses, and destroy the evidences. Warwolf succeeded in killing former Cybertek employee William Hansen, also a former friend of Ryker who had managed to be released on bail; and then Warwolf destroyed both the records and the copies; then going after former Cybertek accountant John Rozum, imprisoned in Danbury. Deathlok however found of Ryker's plan and stopped Warwolf; Warwolf's backup memory, accessed by Dworman, provided additional proofs against Ryker.[3]

Deathlok kept an eye on any Cybertek file related to him so that, should anyone open it, he would be notified via the cyberspace. Such happened when Stark Prosthetics R&D director Curtis Carr stole a file from Magnum Munitions, alerting both Deathlok and Magnum. Deathlok tracked Carr to Denver and confronted him; having only partial information, Carr believed that Deathlok was John Kelly, sent to kill Carr, and that Cybertek was still active in secret. This also led to a confrontation with Magnum Munitions' forces, that demanded the return of any Cybertek asset.[31]

Ben Jacobs (Earth-616) Cyberwarriors (Earth-616), Harlan Ryker (Earth-616), Stanley Cross (Earth-616) from Deathlok Vol 2 18 001

The Cyberwarrior, surrounded by several ex-Cybertek employees (Left to right: Ben Jacobs, Stanley Cross, and Harlan Ryker)

Several ex-Cybertek employees, including Mainframe[22] and Ryker, managed to escape from jail; others like Stanley Cross, Ben Jacobs, Dr. Hu and Dr. Kimble may have never be apprehended. These six in particular associated with other cybernetic specialists in Paris, France, to build cyborg super-soldiers called Cyberwarriors, that were to be sold internationally,[9][32] including to Iraq so that they could attack Kuwait.[33][5] The ex-Cybertek employees were wanted people in the U.S. and would be sent to jail if they returned, but most of them had no reason to go back; Cross claimed that the government had closed Cybertek because the later "wouldn't play ball", and that they were entitled to profit overseas. Roxxon's Clayton Burr, by then promoted to President of International Development,[9] was secretly associated with Ryker to get a part of the profits,[26] but betrayed Ryker by sending after him both Deathlok and another cyborg assassin, Coldblood-7,[9] saying to the later that both Deathlok and Ryker were criminals,[26] and to the former, that he'd be returned to his human body but Roxxon would keep the cyborg one "for research purposes". Simultaneously, SHIELD moved to stop the Cyberwarrior operation, claiming that Roxxon was trying to recover Cybertek's assets for illegal ends and through illegal means.[9] While Collins' body was lost, SHIELD, Deathlok and their other allies stopped the former Cybertek employees, and both Ryker and Burr were arrested.[34]

With Cybertek totally closed, Deathlok still kept an eye on any rumor related to Cybertek or his human identity, eventually hearing that Stark Enterprises owned Cybertek weapons partially designed by Collins - which was true, as Stark had absorbed Stane International, which had made deals with Ryker, but Stark was unaware of this. Deathlok infiltrated Stark's mainframe, confirmed that there were 37 results when looking for Cybertek and Collins, then had to enter physically Stark's facilities to delete those. Deathlok was confronted by Iron Man (secretly Anthony Stark himself), who at first thought Deathlok was Harlan Ryker's industrial spy, while Deathlok believed that Stark Enterprises was openly corrupt. Once they settled their differences, Iron Man allowed Deathlok to delete any Cybertek weaponizable product from Stark Enterprises' files.[23]

Years after the closure of Cybertek, Cybertek's Stasis Fluid was still available for sale. The Lawton, Oklahoma-based company Omnitek built an amount of fluid, before being sued by Roxxon for patent infringement; still, they failed to dispose of their knockoff product and instead sold it[25] to Weapon X.[35]

Notes

  • Cybertek has been alternatively referred to as a division of Roxxon[6] (specifically the applied cybernetics division of Roxxon Oil)[2] and as a Roxxon company.[7]
  • Marvel Atlas #2, in its entry about Iraq, mentions that "Cybertek attempted to sell their Cyberwarriors to the Iraqi military." However, at that point (the Cyberwar story arc, starting in Deathlok (Vol. 2) #17), Cybertek had ceased existing as such. The people involved in the criminal attempted sale were some of the former Cybertek employees, but they never referred to themselves as "Cybertek" at that point.

See Also

Links and References

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Deathlok (Vol. 2)
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 2.21 2.22 2.23 2.24 2.25 2.26 2.27 2.28 Deathlok #1
  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #1
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #13
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #20
  6. ↑ 6.00 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 6.10 6.11 6.12 6.13 6.14 6.15 Deathlok #2
  7. ↑ 7.00 7.01 7.02 7.03 7.04 7.05 7.06 7.07 7.08 7.09 7.10 7.11 7.12 7.13 7.14 7.15 7.16 7.17 7.18 7.19 7.20 7.21 7.22 7.23 7.24 7.25 7.26 7.27 Deathlok #3
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes 2005 #1 ; Deathlok (Luther Manning from Earth-7484)'s profile
  9. ↑ 9.00 9.01 9.02 9.03 9.04 9.05 9.06 9.07 9.08 9.09 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #17
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 10.7 10.8 Deathlok #4
  11. ↑ Amazing Spider-Man #236
  12. ↑ Captain America #286
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Captain America #289
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 14.5 14.6 14.7 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #32
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 2) #3 ; Deathlok's profile
  16. ↑ Deathlok (Vol. 2) #31
  17. ↑ Marvel Two-In-One #54
  18. ↑ Captain America #287
  19. ↑ Captain America #288
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 Marvel Comics Presents #62 ; "Test Run"
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Marvel Atlas #2 ; United States of America's profile
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 22.3 22.4 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #8
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 Iron Man #301
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Dark Reign Files #1
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Weapons of Mutant Destruction: Alpha #1
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 26.2 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #19
  27. ↑ Avengers Annual #21 , "the Puzzle"
  28. ↑ Deathlok (Vol. 2) #9
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 29.2 29.3 29.4 29.5 29.6 29.7 Marvel Atlas #2 ; Estrella's profile
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #18
  31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #11
  32. ↑ Marvel Atlas #1 ; France's profile
  33. ↑ Marvel Atlas #2 ; Iraq's profile
  34. ↑ Deathlok (Vol. 2) #21
  35. ↑ Weapon X (Vol. 3) #5
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