Half the Fun

Perhaps it was humanity's very advancement that attracted the Enemy's attention. At the beginning of the twenty sixth century humanity had spread to the stars, great STL arcs bringing seed colonies to the nearest stars. We had discovered new energies and new physics, and entered what is now called an unpresidented age of peace, but was in fact an age of cold war, military buildup and paranoia. Perhaps it is only that that has allowed us to last this long.

We first detected what we now know to be the enemy in 2371, when telescopes in Sol detected a large energy flare from deep space. Radio telescopic analysis showed a number of objects in deep space. They appeared to be in battle with one another.

It was not for another century that the enemy's war began to spread to human colonies. In 2468, first reports were recieved from the outer colonies. By 2499, Sol itself was under attack.

The date now is 2527. The outer colonies are lost or besieged. Sol is almost overrun by the enemy, its great megastructures ruined or consumed. The Bone Cathedral itself floats in orbit around Juipter. All hope of defensive is lost. Now we can only seek to escape our doom.

The Enemy: The Cathedral and the Spear

Two enemy factions beset us. We understand neither of them. One has communicated to us. It calls itself the Bone Cathedral. It calls on us to convert. We have seen its creatures and we understand that to convert is a fate worse than death. The Cathedral seems to be able to change space as it wishes, using it as as a tunnel or a blade. It currently orbits Jupiter. Its hymns fill all bands except 431 and 438. Possession of unsanctioned radio equipment or listening to the Cathedral's hymns are class one offenses punishable by summary termination. If you see anyone with unsanctioned radio equipment or tuned to a non-cleared band report them immediately.

The second enemy is called "The Spear" in Bone Cathedral transmissions. They do not employ metric alteration technology to the extent the Cathedral does, but seem masters of using it to move. Spear units also have immense regenerative capacities. They are extremely hard to kill. Captives of the spear are subject to some form of forceable uplift procedure which turns them into another spear entity. They appear in the proccess of xenoforming mars and other planets for their own use, and attack both us and the Cathedral on sight.

Both enemy forces use a pawns and queens strategy, in which there are large numbers of throw away units supporting a much lesser number of super powerful elites.

All attempts to negotiate with our enemies have been futile, and the war is being lost. The only viable strategy now is evacuation.

The Converts and the warmachines

Warning: Several human factions have been subverted by the Bone Cathedral. Be vigilant for enemy infiltrators.

Warning: Much of the remains of Sol is patrolled by human designed thinker weapons. These devices were part of the pre-invasion deterrent forces, often hastily reprogrammed for use against alien targets. You are weapons free against any thinker weapon without an active IFF network chit in the parameter.

The Phoenix-Ark Project

We have one hope. While the Artemis grid and thinker weapons systems remain in control of Earth orbit, we have secretly been converting several colonies into long range space vehicles. These ships will carry away as many remaining refugees and earth life forms as possible in large scale nano-stasis systems. They are equipped with an experimental drive system which we believe neither enemy force can track. Once they have escaped Sol they will journey beyond the reach of the enemy and reestablish humanity on a distant habitable world or around a distant star.

The Knights of Humanity

You have been selected to pilot one of the New Type all environment weapons known as Armatures. Created with technology developed since the start of the war, a team of Armatures is capable of taking down both pawn and queen class enemies in all practical numbers. An average armature is a humanoid or centroid weapon standing up to six meters tall. Despite being smaller than a the armours used by prewar and conventional forces, it is even more well armoured and powerful. Armatures represent the best of human military technology. You are humanity's knights and responsible for her defense.

All armatures come equipped with numerous recon and combat drones, and are teleoperationally controlled by an operator in a protected high speed command vehicle (PHSCV) near the line.

A team of Armatures consists of four pilots and an operator.

Operator

Controller of drones, communications and electronic warfare. Commands the team.

Lead Attacker

Close Combat Specialist. Uses swords, lances and grenades Equivalent to the grenadier in a 20th century fire team.

Heavy Weapons Specialist

Uses a large weapon capable of suppressing enemy troops. Equivalent to the machine gunner in a 20th century fire team

Anti-armour specialist

Deploys rockets, missiles and hex beams against heavily armoured targets. Equivalent to the anti-tank specialist in a 20th century fire team.

All Range Attacker

A generalist whose suit is capable of absorbing large numbers of enemy attacks. Equivalent to the rifleman in a 20th century fire team.

For safety reasons, pilots should not attempt to open their Armatures sealed modules. In the case that battle damage opens one of these modules do not approach, but call a cleared recovery team as soon as practical.

Now

You are assigned to defend Sumatra Island and the orbital elevator there. We are now in the final stages of loading resources and personnel onto the arcs. The main exodus of refugees has began. It is projected to take no more than

We will not leave without you. You are valuable to humanity and you will not be abandoned.

ALERT ALERT: PARAMETER BREACH. DEFENSIVE AI FAILURE! ALL DEFENSIVE TEAMS, RESPOND AS PLANNED. SAY AGAIN, ALL DEFENSIVE TEAMS

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