Introduction
A Human Interface
There will be those who call it a curse, but they were not chosen to be the human interface. And who among them could handle the unimaginable power of becoming one with the Host Station? After the upload surgery you will be completely wired into the free worldÆs network of computers, able to synthesize intelligent tanks and aircraft with the click of a button.
After The Big Mistake, the deteriorating atmosphere forced humans to live in domed cities connected by beam gates. These domed cities and beam gates require vast amounts of energy. Unfortunately, those energy sources and your people of The Resistance are coming under massive attack.
Your enemies list reads like a parade of nightmares: the Ghorkovs, the Taerkastens, the Mykonians, the Sulgogars.
The fate of The Resistance—and perhaps even the fate of the entire planet—depends on how well you can master your Host Station resources and wage battle against those who are trying to destroy you and your world.
Your Host Station is the command center from which you control all the free worldÆs intelligent computers networked together into a single war machine. With the click of a button you order construction of new robotic tanks and other vehicles and, with another click, send them into battle.
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It all started so silently nobody really noticed. Ozone depletion allowed unfiltered solar radiation to "sunburn the ocean," killing the phytoplankton that lives within the top few meters of its surface. It was a classic collapse of a food chain. The little fish that ate plankton died, and then the bigger fish that ate the little fish died, and a horrified world watched as the oceans died. And then the atmosphere began to collapse and, as the planet erupted into wars over the remaining resources, the environmental disaster we had brought upon ourselves came to be known as The Big Mistake. Even our own technological prowess became a handicap. Our scientists had unlocked the secret to plasma formation—the ability to materialize solid constructions out of thin air. Constructed over plasma-rich geopockets all over the globe, advanced technology research centers were used to develop military technology of all sorts (ground tanks, air fighters, buildings, to name a few) that could instantly appear at a commander's whim. But this magic had a high price. Everyone wanted this technology, and soon the fragile political alliances and systems that had so narrowly averted global war for three centuries came to a crumbling end. The technology was dispersed into enemy hands, and the world became a multipolar warring hotbed once again. And as if we werenÆt doing enough to ruin Earth, the Mykonians launched their energy-sucking Parasite Machine to give us a helping hand.
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The Resistance—your people—represents the last trace of freedom and democracy to survive the environmental, financial, and political collapses that followed The Big Mistake. The Resistance was just months away from certain destruction by its approaching enemies when a band of hackers and engineers wired together all of the free worldÆs computers to create seven Host Stations as the ultimate Resistance force. Seven human synaptic donor units, or SDUs, were chosen based on their nervous systems' response times and neuroconfiguration to pilot these Host Stations. Because the surgical upload of an SDU to a Host Station is irreversible, these champions came to be heralded as heroes who sacrificed their own humanity for the continual humanity of others. You are the last of these SDU champions to be deployed into battle. Learn from the mistakes of your predecessors. The survival of The Resistance and all of its ideals rests with you.
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The Ghorkovs
This totalitarian and militaristic faction that emerged from Eurasia after The Big Mistake has weapons technology at least equal to our own. Diplomacy has failed. The Ghorkovs resent our earlier betrayal of them to the off-world Mykonians.
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This dangerous retrocult disdains electronic and related technology yet has advanced weapons development. They wish to exterminate us—and all other forces—from the planet. Diplomacy has failed. The Taerkastens blame us and all other industrial societies for killing the oceans and destroying the atmosphere.
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An off-world species, the Mykonians are tapping into the very core of our planet with their devastating Parasite Machine, extracting energy to power their attacks. Their weapons technology is more advanced than ours. Diplomacy has failed. They want our planet's energy and its real estate for colonization.
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An organic, plantlike off-world species, the Sulgogars hope to claim Earth as a spawning ground. They do not utilize material-centric technology like we do—Their methods of vehicle and weapons spawning are based on genetic self-manipulation of their own biostructures. Their command and social hierarchy is completely unknown to us. Diplomacy has failed. They view humans as fertilizer.
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