Author Topic: THE STORY  (Read 5251 times)

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Offline Lucika

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    • Syrk: The Unification Wars
This is what things would have been like :) Thanks for reading!

Under reconstruction

Background story

Humanity only colonized Sol yet and is only able to make intrasystem jumps AND only fighters and bombers can use it. These guys've divided in 4 (you will see this in the first missions campaign briefing), and fighting with each other. In time, they'll colonize Delta Serpentis, and they'll reach a non-canon system called Syrk...
In Syrk they find a Knossos portal and... a lot of Shivans. They almost die there and all evidence of Syrk is dumped - until the second campaign - and in the very end, humanity finally allies under the name of GTA.

Run-through of factions; possible M1 "briefing"
Would you mind a history lesson? Since we began the colonization in space, humanity allied under the name of STA (Solar Terran Alliance). Slowly but surely we colonized the colonizable systems in the Sol system, and our recent discovery of the technology called subspace just speeded up the process and gave us a greater scale of potentials. We are at war. Ah, does this surprise you? I guess the martian colonies aren't informed well at all. Shortly after our colonization of Pluto, some more radical, capitalist people decided to buy the whole Pluto. We declined this, since it would have been a violation of our Mercury Convention. This launched a domino effect and more and more of people declared independence of the STA. The Terran Confederacy (TC) contains those who originally tried to buy Pluto, and those who demanded an even more capitalist system than what ve originally have. They demanded personal fleets and colonizating companies.
The Human Empire (HE) is a group of anarchists, who want to deal with all kind of government and want to separate our space from planet to planet.
The United Solar States (USS) contains mostly of the former opposition of our government and their followers. Their policy is simply no more than to overthrow us and to pour a lot of money into system-to-system jumps. They also have superior tech."

[craft-related notes deleted, it has its own separate topic]

Missions

Act 1
Note: I seldom use the yellow TWEAKS NEEDED sign now, I'm mostly going with RE-FREDDING NEEDED until someone confirms otherwise.

Mission 1 - CURRENT VERSION'S MOSTLY GOOD
A military convoy is sent to Pluto and the player has to protect it from TC fighters until they recharge their jump drives.
The convoy jumps in and goes from point A to B, then departs. 4-7 hostile fighter wings come in to attack it. NOTE: additional dialogue needed depending on the story expansions we decide on.

Mission 2 - RE-FREDDING NEEDED
Mars Installation is under attack by HE forces. The player is sent to relieve the defenders.

Mission 3 - COMPLETE REDO NEEDED
The player's home ship (the currently unused carrier model) is under attack by pirate forces hiding on a nearby civilian outpost. Civilians are taken as hostage, the negotiations go south. "Shoot to kill" ensues.

Mission 4 - RE-FREDDING NEEDED
Basically a combination of the current version of M3 and M4.
The LoneWolf is being escorted to the staging point. It only suffers minimal damage, this part is mostly explanatory dialogue. After an in-mission subspace jumb, the cruiser arrives to the staging point (featuring loads of cruisers). Some HE scavengers (including cruisers as well) show up in a distance and the LoneWolf plus the player moves over to dispatch them.

Mission 5- RE-FREDDING NEEDED
Currently, it's the first part of the series of escort missions to Pluto. One of the cruisers are forced to retreat. At the end, the Lightning joins another group of cruisers, leaving the player to escort the remaining two. Ends on a Red Alert. NOTE: Carriers should be included, even if in mention only.

Mission 6 - RE-FREDDING NEEDED
Currently: The two cruisers are facing heavy resistance. After a long battle, two other STA cruisers jump in to relieve them. NEW: The player is sent to the carrier to rearm.

Mission 7 - RE-FREDDING NEEDED
The player is sent to answer the Lightning's distress signal. After the Rook is saved, the cruisers proceed towards Pluto. The Lightning's commander is too keen to join the action and that has its consequences.

Mission 8 - COMPLETE REDO NEEDED
Currently, the battle above Pluto takes place in the middle of an "orbital city", as the player escorts all the remaining vessels to the enemy control center and breaks down the resistance. NOTE: I was originally planning to include a retired STA officer joining the fight with a stolen Fenris and the civilian installations slowly taking sides as the battle progresses but the latter might be too complicated, especially if we tone the mission down.

Mission 9 - ??? INFO NEEDED
Scramble! The USS found our top secret science base in the asteroid belt!
We must protect the 3-4 science cruisers from capture, and after that, destruction. The vessels contain data about the presently top-secret experiments about the system-to-system jumps. The player succeeds but the danger is way too great and Command keeps the forces in the area.

Mission 10 - ??? INFO NEEDED
The USS launches another attack on the science base.
This time their forces are too much to contain so the data is evacuated (not the personnel, no escape pods yet) and the vessels self-destruct. Well, they're only supposed to: one of them fails to trigger the self-destruction so the player needs to pick it apart. All the 'data pods' need to be protected.

Mission 11 - TWEAKS NEEDED
The player protects the escape pods. NOTE: more details needed. Personally, I think the current setup should work.

Mission 12 - ??? INFO NEEDED
The HE attacks Pluto. With skybox if possible.
The usual stuff. Kamikaze attacks and whatnot. The HE has surprisingly great knowledge about the area - first sign that they are connected to TC.

Mission 13 - ??? INFO NEEDED
(loop1-1)
The player escorts an STA cruiser, trying to find some undercover TC agents. Turns out they aren't in the escort but onboard and they successfully steal the Fenris. The player and the STI squad follows them. NOTE: CHANGED HE to TC.

Mission 14 - TWEAKS NEEDED
(loop 1-2)
The stolen vessels are too far away to reach at this point. To make it all the merrier, some civilian vessels ask for help because pirates (HE) are attacking them. A Rook arrives to assist.

Mission 15 - ??? INFO NEEDED
(loop1-3)
We find out that the HE is willing to pay for the cruiser and the hostages and thus they meet near Neptune. The player learns about the TC-HE connection and blasts the party to shreds.

Mission 16 - ??? INFO NEEDED
The loop is over and the player has to escort the hostages that were rescued earlier (even if he didn't pick the loop).
Escort the 17% hull cruiser to the Neptune Installation with the TC attacking with bombers.

Mission 17 - ??? INFO NEEDED
Based on the hostages' reports, recon locates the HE's local base of operations.
The first bombing mission with purposefully inadequate fighter cover. When the assault starts to crumble, Command throws in 4 cruisers to save the day.

Mission 18 - TWEAKS NEEDED
The USS attacks Mars Installation.
They succeed. The Mars Installation gets destroyed after 6-7 minutes of heroic fighting. Now it's personal.

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Act 2

Mission 19
The STA tries to get a foothold above Mercury in a series of missions.
First a small STA fleet comes but suddenly an overwhelming amount of hostiles come and after a short while they're forced to retreat.

Mission 20
It is established that there is a spy among STA and Command utilizes it.
The fleet jumps in 20000m away from something important. The defending ships at the important stuff suddenly jump out and jump to our location and starts to kick our ass. While we're trying to get away, Command utilizes the diversion and captures the important stuff.

Mission 21
The spy is identified and hunted down.

Mission 22
The USS, currently holding Saturn and Jupiter, launch an attack in the asteroid belt. There is no installation for us, only a staging point.

Mission 23
The system-to-system drives are ready and Command chooses us to test it. "We tried to go to Alpha Centauri first but somehow we weren't able to."
There is a whole fleet set up near the node. A cruiser jumps through and after they confirm the success, the fighters depart to their respective ships. The ship carrying the player is ordered to jump through.

Mission 24
The ship carrying the Locomotive makes the jump.
No visible threats so the whole fleet is called over. We establish a small base, cheer and then depart.

Mission 25
Scramble! The USS has already colonized the system! We're ambushed!
The USS was here all along and now they're here to kill us. Most of the ships are already damaged and disabled, everything is blowing up. The still intact ships start to run to the node, the rest gets annihilated.

Mission 26
We learn that the USS lost vital ground to the TC. Because of that, the STA's cause seems to be falling. Command plans a decisive counterattack, making a run on Saturn. They're only partially succesful.

Mission 27
We officially learn that the HE and TC are in an alliance.
We're attacking a TC cargo depot but the HE turns up and tries to defend it.

Mission 28
The hostiles recapture the area we've had above Saturn.

Mision 29
The TC-HE attack Pluto. The USS offers a peace treaty (command briefing), no response yet.
Skybox again. We can't drive the enemy off, but they can't get deeper into our lines.

Mission 30
The attack continues. Our carrier ship (like the Galatea/Bastion/Aquitane, I mean not a destroyer here but merely the ship the player is stationed on) gets under fire, but we manage to protect it.

Mission 31
The attackers are driven off.

Mission 32
(loop2-1)
STA Command is unsure about the USS's real intents so you go undercover to acquire proof about the validity of the peace treaty. The first mission is a quiet patrol mission around an installation with a few opposing HE fighter wings.

Mission 33
(loop2-2)
The installation gets under attack by a serious HE force.

Mission 34
(loop2-3)
The player escorts a transport with highly classified data (the Orion/?/'s schematics) from the installation to point B with small TC resistance.

Mission 35
(loop2-4)
The transport gets attacked by the rogue members of the escort who don't want to sign a peace treaty with the STA. Since they openly announce this, Command considers this a proof and extracts you from the area.

Mission 36
The treaty is signed and the first joint operation begins: the rogue USS members are blockading the Delta Serpentis node where the main USS fleet is. We're ordered to dispatch them.

Mission 37
The under-construction Venus Installation gets attacked by the HE.

Mission 38
The STA sends a small fleet to the newly-discovered system: Syrk. The staging point is attacked by TC forces and we have to defend it. After the enemy is dealt with, a cruiser jumps through and after its 'all clear'-response the scout unit (just like at Delta Serpentis, it includes the player) proceeds.

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Mission 39 (by Lucika)
The fleet arrives, they spot a Knossos (they just came through it) and a Ravana. The Ravana departs immediately at mission start but we get a glimpse of it. Alpha 2 spots a play-dead Shivan fighter and fires on it. The shields are noted, the fighter departs. Later the theory will be that the Shivans, in fact, aren't xenocidal but they consider themselves attacked by that action and they don't forget about it. The fleet arrives and the player is ordered to jump out to a given location with a few other ships and scout the area.
NOTE: The Syrk missions feature undamageable Shivans, and such, they're heavily scripted and feature only a small amount of actual dogfighting.

Mission 40 (by Lucika)
Red Alert mission. On arrival we see two Saths colliding while departing. They both explode and a WTF-dialogue is given. 3-4 wings of invincible Basilisk arrive and attack us. The cruiser is destroyed by a suddenly arriving Moloch. The player has to evade fire for 1-2 minutes or so while trying to protect the science vessel, then depart to another location.

Mission 41 (by Lucika)
Another Red Alert. The lava planet is seen afar with a protected Shivan depot nearby. Command orders Alpha 2 to destroy a cargo but he refuses, so the player has to go. The emitting shockwave destroys the other cargo units which emit even more shockwaves. After this Ka-Boom feast, Command orders us to jump nearer to the planet.

Mission 42 (by Lucika)
We stumble into a major Shivan staging point, the science cruiser gets destroyed and the player is dogfighting for his life until his jump drives recharge.

Mission 43 (by Lucika)
We get back to the fleet just in time to see its demise. A huge Shivan force is beaming it to shreds. The player needs to navigate through the crapfest and try to save the ships going towards the Knossos but the plan changes when Syrk goes supernova and we're ordered to 'run for our lives'.

Mission 44 (by Lucika)
The ?mystery mission?. The subspace node is collapsing, this is indicated with nebula and asteroids. We?re proceeding to Sol and run into a Sathanas in subspace.

Mission 45
Instead of cheer we're greeted with TC forces. The relief comes by the USS?s assisting battlegroup that easily picks everything apart. In the debriefing it is established that all info is buried about Syrk - no need to destroy our moral.

Mission 46
The USS's supreme ship, the USS Orion (or whatnot if it contradicts canon, I?ll be referring to it as Orion now) is ready for use but it's currently stuck in Delta Serpentis because the TC has blockaded the node. It's up to the player to dispatch them.

Mission 47
The TC-HE gets driven off from Mercury and, as such, they're pushed back to the outer rim.

Mission 48
Space battle above Jupiter. The Orion easily picks off the enemy but gets disabled in the process.

Mission 49
We?re patrolling around the Orion under repairs. The TC tries to bomb it down.

Mission 50
Space battle above Saturn. The Orion swackles through everything in no time. The HE launches kamikaze fighters on the Orion while the TC provides the more 'conventional' fighting.

Mission 51
Skybox battle above Saturn. No Orion because it can?t enter the atmosphere.

Mission 52
The pushback continues, the STA ambushes a convoy that is trying to escape from Saturn This turns out to be a decoy when a relatively great TC force shows up. The Orion isn?t present on this mission.

Mission 53
While the fleet is entering the space above Uranus and attack the installation, the player is accompanying the Orion on a top-secret mission: recon has found the HE's main base and while the main fleets are converging above Uranus the Orion will deal with this threat once and for all. The HE is officially disbanded after our victory and their remains become part of the TC.

Mission 54
The attack above Uranus didn?t go as planned and the player's intervention becomes necessary. The station is destroyed and the planetary invasion begins. No 'skybox battle' in the next mission.

Mission 55
The attack on Neptune is supposed to be THE battle, THE last fight, since this place is known as the TC's ultrastronghold. It turns out to be surprisingly undefended. Everyone is sure that something is wrong. When the weak, relatively undefended installation is destroyed, Command is notified that the TC sallied forth and (re-)captured Pluto.

Mission 56
Pluto is more fortified than ever before. The preliminary assault that has been mentioned in the command briefing turned out to be a total failure. Because of that, the player is sat into a captured TC fighter in a mission that resembles FS1's Playing Judas (for you, dragonsniper, here is the footage: http://www.viddler.com/explore/Goldom/videos/74/ ): if the player scans a ship he'll hear a partial message part of the TC chatter (like ??and the TCC Blabla will be at the station??). When the player scanned every ship Command will know where to strike.

Mission 57
A small strike force manages to sneak in at a weak point. The player has to attack the local cruiser and pick off its comm subsystem to allow the fleet to get there undetected.

Mission 58
With the trick being succesful the fleet is ready to attack the final installation. The battle is huge. When the installation's hull drops under 15% percent all the TC ships depart to an unknown location and the installation self-destructs. Command celebrates the major victory.

Mission 59
The ?celebration convoy?is interrupted by TC forces.

Mission 60
Surprise! Scramble! The TC's surviving forces are launching a desperate attack on Earth. The command briefing mentions a rumour about another sentient species - rumours, nothing more (Vasudans).
Our installation has to be protected (STI White House). The enemy is strong but far from successful. When their ships start to die, the TC seeks to capture the Orion-class destroyer. They succeed but then we?re able to recapture it. Unfortunately, the TC destroys it in a kamikaze attack after that when they?re on the verge of destruction.
In the end we see as the remainders of the enemy (a Fenris and a few fighters) say "Farewell'" to us and jump away. A1 asks the obvious question: "where did they go?" A2 answers: "Who cares? The war is over".

And thus the campaign ends.

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Wingname conventions
STA - Greek alphabet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_alphabet

USS - Zodiac
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zodiac#The_twelve_signs

HE - Sleek animals
Cobra, Viper, Hornet, Anaconda, Cheetah, Leopard, Shark, Piranha, Fox, Falcon, Jaguar (my edit as the originally specified Jackal is a ship name as well - L.), Greyhound

TC - Building materials/metals (adding metals to the mix makes things much easier :P )
Steel, Brass, Iron, Copper, Nickel, Platinum, Chrome, Gold, Silver, Bronze, Titanium, Cobalt

Tech data

STA

With the increasing importance of space travel and the common goals by the Earth's alliances, the dawn of colonization saw the human unification (that seems to be short-lived by the present developments). With the United States, the European Union and the Eurasian Dynasty effectively covering the whole planet in the past 80 years (especially after the UN's dissolution in 2218), the narrowly avoided wars and forced cooperations led the three factions to closer relations in the past years. With the realization that space colonization might lead to a pointlessly destructive war, the EU proposed the idea a new governing system that would dissolve the earlier distribution of power, leading to a centralized world-wide leadership that would incorporate equal amount of politicians from all the three factions.

The plan was mostly ignored after its initial proposal in 2254 but when a joint US-EU task force was able to create a self-supporting colony on Moon in 2277, the sudden shift of political power forced the three factions to reconsider it. Considering that all unbiased calculations led to the conclusion that the nuclear war would surely lead to an apocalypse with a Pyrrhic victory to say the least, the US, the EU and the ED had to start negotiations about the new system.

After two politically tense years, the new governing system has finally been outlined. It effectively started to work from the beginning of 2280. The official declaration of the Solar Terran Alliance happened years later, in 2288 with the signing of the Mercury Convention on the "apropo" of the formation of the first Mercurian colony.


Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Sol system. It is also the largest, most massive, and densest of Sol's four terrestrial planets. It is sometimes referred to as the Blue Planet or Terra.

Home to millions of species, including humans, Earth is the only place in the presently known and explored space where life exists without any artificial or mechanic assistances (via colonization).

Earth is still the most important planet of Sol. With all the newfound natural riches and economic growth, the planet is in a greater state of prosperity than ever before. The head of the government is stationed here - technically, above the planet: the STI White House is set in orbit above Earth.


Terrans

Terrans originated on the third planet in the Sol system, known alternately as Terra or Earth. Terrans are relatively physically weak, but are highly intelligent and versatile. This combination of intelligence and versatility have allowed Terrans to evolve from tribal, nomadic primates (not entirely unlike their progenitors) to a spacefaring race.

Terran civilization developed to the point of relatively stable nation-states. With space travel, the nation-state evolved into the global-state and the Terran species furthered its growth, both in material ways and in immaterial, philosophical ways. With the colonization of the Sol system, the human unification reached its climax with the Solar Terran Alliance (STA), the symbol of common Terran goals.

With the recent outbreak of the Solar Civil War (also known as the Unification Wars), the fate of the human unity is ambiguous to say the least. Depending on the victor, humanity may fall back to its former divided system or might even become a dictatorship.


The Unification Wars (this will be picked apart to these entries: The civil war, TC, USS, HE - but FYI I've posted it like this)

Even though everyone hoped that the formation of the STA would effectively unite humanity, this was way too much to ask. The political differences dissolved as it was intended but financial and ideological differences came to its place.

There were two groups in the STA's leadership that differed from the Alliance's basic alignment: the first of them were rich enterpreneurs who wished the end of the intense secularization that was the cornerstone of the new system. Their proposals ranged from lesser taxation of the richest people to selling one of the planets to them. In a world where no personal space stations were allowed at all (except the cities in orbit above the planets), this proposal could not get through at all. This group of people were ruthless and would have used any opportunity to get what they want.

The other group mostly consisted of adventurous scientists and their maecenases who wanted to experiment with the subspace technology. Instead of building on the present possibilities, they wanted to put incredible amounts of money into new, untested ideas and technological wannabe-miracles. They had the tendency to undisclose their findings, which strained their relations with the main STA leadership even more.

In 2319, the STA's lead has been questioned multiple times. A dwindling economy and unpopular ideas essentially led to the point of no return: the rich enterpreneurs secretly annexed Pluto for themselves with a secretly built army, declaring their independence as the Terran Confederacy (TC). Later, they went on invading Neptune.

The TC's success ignited the rest of the differing people to take an agressive step: the scientific group declared their independence a few days after the Terran Confederacy did under the name United Solar States (not to confuse with the former United States). The USS immediately invaded Uranus.

The remainders of the STA immediately mobilized its forces and went against the rebels. This move allowed the strengthening of the pirates in the homelands. This escalated in the declaration of an anarchist movement called the Human Empire. The HE hasn't captured any planets yet, they seem to have a smallamount of force everywhere. Their tactics mainly consist of kamikaze attacks and attempts to steal cruisers from their enemies.

These four factions are fighting for the control of humanity in what we call the Unification War.

Some of you already know this. I forgot to carry this over from GW. The story of Syrk won't be fully told with this campaign only.

I originally planned the story of Syrk to be a trilogy. I've laid down the basics of the storyline, but nothing more. Since we're starting to work now, I guess it's time to at least share my ideas with you, just in case if you'd like to continue to work with me. I certainly would like to keep you here.

Syrk: The Era of Separation (AKA Syrk 2)
This campaign will begin just after the destruction of the Lucifer. The player is a seasoned veteran who was there destroying the Lucy (but not Alpha 1). For the story's sake the GTA members find and expose the GTI's local stuff (as part of the coordinated rebellion later) and gets hold of some of the Hades's blueprints. With this they'll become able to reproduce the dreaded Flux Cannon used by the Lucifer and they swiftly equip it on mostly every capship available.
The first few missions, of course, feature battling against a rebellion and/or pirates. Later, the Syrk node reopens and a Shivan fleet emerges, consisting only FS1 ships (contrast that with Syrk: TUW, where we only encounter FS2 craft). The FS1 canon Alpha 1 can't bear the fact that the Shivans are back and he commits suicide by crashing into a Demon. The player who was Alpha 2 is going to be Alpha 1 from now on. We quickly dispatch the Shivan fleet thanks to all those Flux Cannons and GTA Command decides to launch an immediate counterattack.
Syrk turned into a nebula after the supernova in the earlier campaign. There is a Shivan Knossos (Derelict model) that keeps the jump node to Sol open. We find almost no hostile craft there so the GTA quickly starts to mine all those resources that they can find there. While this is going on and we're patrolling the area someone starts to systematically murder the Vasudans who were with us after the FS1 ending. Yes, they're still in active duty on our side. A few missions later it turns out that the murderer was Alpha 4, a well-develpoed character and another seasoned veteran from the Lucy assault (Alpha 3 will be Lt. Harbison). He's dealt with (IDK if in-mission or via court martial) and GTA launches an assault in the system beyond Syrk discovered not long ago. We're crushing the resistance there but it is much tougher since there is FS2 Shivan craft (everything except the Sathanas and the Lucy). Yet still, we annihilate the local fleet. This system has three jump nodes but we don't proceed because Command isn't stupid. They suspect that extensive Shivan reinforcements exist.
They're right: three Sathanas-class juggernauts appear and start to rape our forces. In a series of long battles while the GTA gets pushed back more and more, the last Sathanas is destroyed as it just arrives in Sol (we're pushed back that much). Everyone is ultrahappy and we return to Syrk and clean out the rest of the Shivans there (minor force). But surprise! The weakened GTA forces are assaulted by another three Saths - obviously this is way too much to handle. Command orders a total retreat and in the end, the Knossos gets destroyed and the Shivans are cut off again.
For now.

Syrk: Resurrection (AKA Syrk 3)

We're just over Capella. Earth is still separated from the GTVA but hey! They posess the Knossos technology too and with peace and economy thriving since the events of S:TEoS, they've decided to build their own portal. The Earth-humans pose incredibly strong orange beams (based upon Shivan technology) but a bit more fragile craft than the normal GTVA FS2 ones. The building of the Knossos (of course, different name) is still ongoing as we begin the campaign.
The first mission already picks up the Shivan action: the Syrk node is reopened and guess what we find: the 80 Saths, of course! Isn't this nice from the Shivans to use their green ubersubspace thingy to jump right to our home as the portal reopens by another Shivan Knossos?
For a few missions, we'll be trying to stop the flow of this overkill fleet and we take down a few Saths. Mercury and Venus falls, but then the extraordinary happens.
Despite the fact that this is an overkill army even against our ultrastrong cannons, the bringer of the miracle is a Dragon. Guess who sits in the Dragon?
Admiral Aken Bosch. With a working ETAK device.
And he's definitely not pleased with the Shivans and their doings. Even though he had high plans, he's commenting now:
Command: How can you use an unmodified Shivan craft?
Bosch: The Destroyers tried to destroy me. But not as a whole - only as a human. They've replaced most of my internal organs with machinery like they have. I don't even have a heart anymore. I am heartless. Such as these xenocidal butchers.
So Bosch rejoins the humans - of course, the locals know nothing at all about the fact that he was the leader of the NTF Rebellion and Bosch isn't stupid to illuminate them. He gives in all the data he acquired - and we learn why does the Shivans try to get to Earth that much.
They know that Earth is the Terran homeworld. They're usually try to identify and sterilize the homeworlds with the Lucy as it usually delivers the crippling - or killing - blow. But the Vasudans survived and allied with the Terrans - so they theoritize that they have to count the two species as one from now on and they have to destroy Earth in order to finish them off. Bosch told them that Earth is isolated - thus the Shivan fleet had no interest at all in the other GTVA systems anymore - they made an internode jump (I have no better word) the two systems are very far and have no subspace connection) to Syrk, getting ready to deal with us once and for all.
With all the data granted by Bosch, we're able to push the Shivans back. Not by destroying all the Saths - more like always giving false alarms and fake fleet movements indicating greater fleets that they actually are.
And so the Shivans fall back to Syrk and soon enough the Knossos gets finished.
Even though the STA fears that the Shivans eradicated humanity, they send through a small fleet to Delta Serpentis. The cutscene depicts the events from the GTVA's side, imagine the surprises. With the reunion being done peacefully, the following command chain comes to life: the Earth-based fleets and units and politics remain under the control of the Earth-based government and they're named, guess what: Solar Terran Alliance. They're an equal 1/3 of the GTVA from now on as the Vasudans and the other Terrans. And the STA has the kickass ships with much stronger (Shivan-based but orange) beam cannons than the others. The STA's beam technology is quickly implemented all over the GTVA. Some of the missions would feature both Solar Command (CM-1.ani) and Terran Command (CM-2.ani) giving orders in greater missions.
This is mostly text and speech of course.
Bosch is sentenced for a court martial but since he is like a saint and Santa Claus combined in Sol, he is temporarily released. He makes no attempts to contact the Shivans or to overthrow the GTVA anymore.
The appearance of Bosch cranks up some HoL hives who still believe in the arrival of the Great Destroyers. In a surprising twist, now they consider Bosch to be the Great Destroyer who just forgot what his fate and ultimate goal, thus they rebel against the GTVA, mostly using guerilla tactics. They're dispatched in a few missions.
However, all is not well as the Shivans attack again, this time on multiple fronts: both from Syrk and Capella. Yes, they reopen the node.
Most of the Saths are only mentioned in the briefings and they wreck havoc quite effectively, but the expanded GTVA ships, despite the tremendous losses, manage to take down a lot of them.
The Capella events are only mentioned in briefings (or so I think now) and the player keeps fighting at the Sol-Syrk border. The Shivan losses get so big that they start to fall back on both fronts and the GTVA counterattacks everywhere, trying to capitalize their advantage, despite the fact that their fleet has suffered incredible losses.
It turns out that the triple node we encountered in S:TUW led to 1) the nebula system, 2) the binary system, 3) the system beyond the binary system. The Shivans, surprisingly enough, keep withdrawing. The GTVA and STA fleets unite at the binary system, with the now-promoted Colonel Snipes remembering Alpha 1 who sacrificed himself at the end of the FS2 campaign. Ironically, and sadly, Snipes dies here, in the binary system: an Shivan vessel of unknown configuration jumps in and destroys the capital ship Snipes is on in one shot.
The model will resemble the Lucifer, but it'll be much huger and stronger. It's the Lucifer Mk. II, an invulnerable Shivan vessel. Yup, you are unable to damage it with beams, either. And the remaining Saths come, too. And they keep guarding the vessel in subspace. Bosch gets killed by the Shivans and he reveals the existence of a node destabilizing device (an Anti-Knossos, so to speak). But it's not that easy to get, the player will need to go through a 'rush-to-Altair-and-back-in-FS1'-like mission chain with lots of Red Alert-missions to find it deep inside Shivan space. Guess what: it's from Ancient origins.
With the stuff acquired, the race is on: the task force has to get back to Sol before the Lucifer Mk. II would, and it has a huge lead, even though the GTVA and STA fleets tries to slow down its advance, but it's to no avail, only its supporting fleet weakens a bit, but with tremendous costs.
There will be a dream mission where the player is way too far to assist Sol and he only hears the desperate screaming of the wingmen and the death cries from Command, as if Earth has been destroyed.
But no, it's only a dream. The race goes on. And in the end the player must break through a huge Shivan blockade AND get to the node before the Lucy II. We succeed, but the Lucy II and its fighter complement follows us into subspace. The player has to guard the device and has a destroyer on its side to assist. The rest of them has been destroyed. The Lucy II keeps getting closer and closer to our convoy as we keep fighting off the fighters and bombers. Command mentions that if the device gets home safe, it'll be implemented on every borderline system for the time being. As the convoy gets really near to the end of the subspace jump, the Lucy Mk. II gets into firing range and it destroys the destroyer. It causes to node to collapse, even though the Shivan Knossos will be capable to restabilize it if nothing changes, it WILL collapse for now, burying both the Lucy II and the device. The effect is done with a supernova inside subspace. As the nova is coming to hit the player, the cargo carrying the device is getting near to the end of the jump and the carrier's pilot is counting back it's time until jump just as the nova does, in the end the player and the Lucy II gets fried and we won't know if the device made it out, leaving the end, and humanity's fate, ambiguous.



So, this is the story I'd like to tell. Please tell me if you would be interested in assisting me with these further installments as well. :)
« Last Edit: December 05, 2012, 06:54:15 am by Lucika »
HLP member 2008-2012 and Syrk:TUW project leader ~2010-2012