Viktor Marchenko

Viktor Marchenko is a heavily augmented member of the Augmented Rights Coalition, who secretly leads an insurgent splinter faction for the Illuminati. He serves as the main antagonist of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.

Biography
Not much is known about Marchenko's life prior to him joining ARC other than that his parents were illiterate railway workers. Even he himself did not receive a proper education, leaving school after 10 years to become a shift worker on a drilling gang for shale-gas deposits in eastern Ukraine.

Marchenko ran into trouble in 2011 with a group of Pro-Russian separatists and ended up with severe injuries to his body, causing him to be hospitalized. At some point, he also served time at the Ukrainian prison Lukyanivska. Afterwards, Marchenko disappeared from the records for 12 years, until 2023 where he suddenly resurfaced with a wife (Alisa Maratovna - a suspected Russian Intelligence Agent, whom he married in 2021) and a newborn daughter (Raisa Viktorichna) in Belgorod, Russia. By this point in time, he still had not been augmented. He and his family disappeared shortly prior to the Aug Incident.

After 2026, Marchenko entered the Útulek Complex using the name Viktor Melnik. Dr. Auzenne speculates that the name could be a tribute to someone else, possibly Alisa Maratovna whose maiden name was Melnika. His wife and daughter were not with him when he arrived at the complex and, according to the State Police, Melnik was the instigator of a few incidents in which he "stood up" to them while they were performing their duties. It is unclear as to when exactly he started using the name "Marchenko" again.

Adam Jensen first encounters Marchenko during his search for Dr. Talos Rucker in Golem City, where he is witnessed taking down a rampaging police Drone single-handedly. After a brief exchange of wisdom, Marchenko takes off with the drone and his comrades, but not before dissuading Jensen from investigating any further. Jensen then requests a background search on Marchenko, but didn't find any usable information. He is not seen again until after Rucker's assassination (which he had a hand in) while Jensen is extracted from the complex.

It is later revealed that the bombing of Růžička Station was an intentional plot by him to pin the blame on ARC, and carried out through his proxies of Allison Staněk and Ivan Berk.

Upon reaching the G.A.R.M. facility, Jensen is inexplicably ambushed by Shadow Operatives and Marchenko. Marchenko promptly injects Jensen with a sample of the Orchid before leaving for Prague to discuss his deal with the Dvali, unaware of the agent's survival and recovery.

By this point, Marchenko is revealed to be an Illuminati mole. Marchenko was, in fact, part of a group of Illuminati sleeper agents planted within ARC. They were deployed by Bob Page to orchestrate the bombing of Růžička Station so that the incident could be blamed on ARC. When Rucker came close to discovering the true nature of these rogue elements within ARC, Page ordered the sleeper cell to assassinate Rucker using the Orchid. The death of Rucker placed Marchenko in charge of ARC. Nonetheless, Marchenko has little regard for his associates at ARC. He tells the Shadow Operatives that his ARC associates have outlived their usefulness, before instructing the Shadow Operatives to have them killed by the Orchid.

Marchenko's next mission, Operation Stormsurge, is to attack the Apex Centre in London, where his objective is to kill Nathaniel Brown and the UN delegates with the Orchid. The assassination of Brown and the delegates would ensure that Human Restoration Act will pass. Bob Page places Marchenko in charge of the Shadow Operatives deployed for the mission.

When Marchenko realizes that Jensen and Task Force 29 have arrived at the Apex Center, Marchenko hails Jensen over infolink, demanding that the agent confront him personally or watch as he detonates the explosives planted in the nearby towers, which would kill hundreds. One way or another, the two meet in the exhibition hall of the Apex Center, where Jensen emerges victorious.

Depending on how Jensen engages him, Marchenko can be knocked out and incarcerated by the police, taken down lethally, or terminated via his killswitch.

If Jensen has the killswitch and attempts to bargain for Marchenko's surrender, Marchenko will decline, saying that there is no escaping from his masters, the Illuminati, and that he accepts his fate.

Mission Appearances

 * M7: The Rucker Extraction
 * M13: G.A.R.M.
 * M14: Hunting Down the Final Clues (only if Radich is alive and Otar is dead)
 * M16: Stopping Marchenko

Personality and traits
Compared to other ARC members, Marchenko is outspoken and has radical views regarding how to resist the oppression of transhumans. He is suspected of being responsible for multiple terrorist attacks, carried out in an attempt to further ARC's cause. This is in spite of the fact that Talos Rucker, the leader of ARC, is opposed to violence.

Marchenko is both charismatic and intelligent. He is also well versed in the history of past revolutionaries.

Augmentations
Both of Marchenko's arms as well as his right eye have been replaced with mechanical augmentations. His right arm conceals a Mark 1 Prototype Hyperion plasma cannon.

Marchenko carries experimental augmentations developed by Vadim Orlov, including the Titan Shield and Icarus Dash.

Damocles' Sword
As an agent of the Illuminati, Marchenko has a bomb implanted inside his body that can be activated with a killswitch, known as Damocles' Sword, in case he ever stepped out of line or is compromised while on mission. The killswitch was planted at Marchenko's own insistence.

Unlike other killswitches used in the series, which are spoken phrases, Damocles' Sword is a single physical object almost identical to a Multi-Tool, except white and has a skull icon in place of the progress meter. Booby traps are put in place so that killing him with this device will cause his body to explode, potentially maiming or killing his opponent should they try to recover his remains.

Notes & Trivia

 * Marchenko was apparently supposed to be a leader or high-ranking member of sorts within the ARC chain of command as depicted in the trailer. In the final build he seems to be a recent insertion into ARC by the Illuminati as lampshaded by another member during a news interview.
 * Through the assassination of Talos Rucker it would be safe to assume that he would rise to such a position as the story progresses.
 * Marchenko was initially intended to be a henchman for Hiroshi Saito, who would have been a major antagonist to Talos Rucker had he been implemented in the game.
 * Amongst the developers, Marchenko was known as "Eyepatch" for a while.
 * Marchenko maintains two e-mail addresses, one in his name which he uses to address most members of ARC, and another named Oldblueeye which he uses to communicate secretly with other members of the Illuminati. For whatever reason, Marchenko contacts Tibor Sokol under the second alias.
 * Marchenko is the final "boss" of the game, and can be either killed or taken down non-lethally. A killswitch can be used to instantly wipe him out without a fight that grants the achievement Laputan Machine, but will void Pacifist.
 * If Jensen uses the killswitch on Marchenko, he first offers to give him the device on the condition that the latter will surrender to the authorities. Marchenko refuses, because the Illuminati will just find another way to kill him.
 * During his boss fight Marchenko resembles Barrett from the previous game.
 * As he is heavily augmented like the Tyrants of the previous game, Marchenko is capable of resisting and countering Jensen's takedown attempts if they were to fight head on. EMP damage or an electric shock can temporarily leave him vulnerable, however, and taking him down will net a unique XP bonus and a Praxis Kit can be looted from his body.
 * He has a fondness for tranquilizer rifles and stun guns, suggesting he's not quite as brutish as one might think. Non-lethal players would do well to loot his ARC HQ weapon lockers, cases, and G.A.R.M. office.
 * Marchenko is seen wielding a Linebacker G-87 MSGL against Adam Jensen in the reveal trailer, though he does not make use of it when fought in the game proper, opting to go with Hyperion, the laser cannon implanted in his right arm instead.
 * A usable unit of the launcher can be found in a weapon locker inside his office at G.A.R.M. station however, as a probable nod to this.
 * Marchenko's first name on the TF29 information board is misspelled as Victor instead of Viktor, this could be because his first name was suppose to be Victor but they changed the C to a K later on.
 * The final battle with Marchenko was to have taken place during a return trip to Golem City. For that battle a hideout/workshop was designed inside a massive pillar comprising many layers of catwalks to highlight the extreme verticality of the environment.
 * While Marchenko is canonically 7'1", he is described as 8' tall in The Art of Deus Ex Universe.