Suggested Listening: Taishi - Reverie for Another Sphere
It is the year AD 2880.
Over three hundred years have passed since mankind left the ravaged Earth, leaving behind those that could not bear to be parted from it in shelters of steel, under the cold, watchful eyes of machine centurions known as Controllers.
The invasion of the alien Zentraedi, and the subsequent bombardment of the planet’s surface caused a cataclysmic eruption at Yellowstone, and was the final straw that reduced it to a barren wasteland, unable to sustain life. Those who could fled to the stars in a great Exodus for the new frontier: Mars, the Red Planet.
Yet there were those unfit to join them who were cast out, those who shouldered the blame for the ruin of humanity’s home - or sometimes, accused out of nothing more than opportunistic spite. These abandoned souls trekked further, towards the moons of Jupiter, to serve out their bitter exile, until they were forgotten.
On Mars, humanity found a new home. Aided by artificial intelligence, a new age of prosperity and hope began. Macross-class ships were constructed to scour the stars for new life, science and technology advanced by leaps and bounds, and it was not long before the Earth became a distant, unpleasant memory. Even the once warlike Zentraedi were swayed by the power of song, and lived in peace alongside their former enemies.
All of that changed in AD 2830.
The arrival of the BETA, an invasive lifeform intrinsically hostile to all living things, set in motion the levers of unstoppable, ultimate catastrophe. Unable to stem the seemingly endless horde of ravenous abominations, the Martian colonists turned to increasingly desperate measures to halt them in their tracks.
Kojima Particles. Getter Rays. Metatron. These incredibly lethal, potent new technologies were deployed all at once in humanity’s grand counterattack, which came to be known as “Alternative V” in 2848.
By AD 2850, the surface of Mars was unrecognizable. The BETA, for the most part, had been vanquished - but not before a final seed had been launched towards Earth, the Getter Team falling short at the last moment in the central Hive.
To make matters worse, the spacefaring colonists were besieged by problems of their own. The horrific Invaders, attracted by the use of Getter Rays, and the insectoid swarms of the Vajra both descended on the comparatively defenseless Mars Colonies, claiming lives in the hundreds of thousands before they were repelled.
Faced with no other option, the Corporations that governed the Martian Colony set aside their differences, forming an amalgamation known as The League. Their preliminary scouts indicated that the Earth had, miraculously, returned to livable status far ahead of their expectations. Rayleonard, pioneers of Kojima Technology, were saddled with the blame for the catastrophic result of Alternative V, and left on the surface of Mars as the survivors made their way back towards home.
After a grueling trip dogged by not only Invaders and Vajra, but the newly formed separatist movement BAHRAM, the League found, much to its chagrin, that it was not as welcome on Earth as it had been expecting.
In fact, the planet was under new management.
A separate world, a plane of existence made of the stuff of legends, sealed away by the Protoculture long ago, had broken its over two millennia of silence to return to the planet in its most dire hour of need. With powers unimaginable, indescribable to science, that could only be described as magic, they had healed humanity’s cradle, restoring it to the zenith of its former glory, lush and abundant with life once more.
All that remained of those who had left were the Towers - looming, ominous structures that were both armory and prison for that which had been too dangerous to take, yet too arduous - or perhaps intelligent - to destroy. Few were brave enough to venture into these, and fewer still returned - but those that did came bearing chilling tales of leering mechanical eyes that bobbed and watched at all times, slithering tentacles of steel, and weapons far and beyond anything they had encountered across the boundary.
Many of those who had once no choice but to wait in underground cities under the eyes of the Controllers had since emerged, having either overthrown their AI overseers or been forced by necessity and system failure to venture into an outside world. A curious dialogue and (often weary) friendship had emerged between the two groups, centered around the curious “Gates” that led from one world to the other, hybrid settlements springing up where the fantastic commingled with the mundane.
Here too, the Beta had taken root, and the current residents were none too pleased to learn of the fate of Mars. As the Seed had fallen from the stars, it had collided with, and seemingly influenced the fall of a vast alien vessel known as Orphan, which plunged into the pacific ocean to rest at the bottom of the sea.
Vowing not to allow the planet to be sacrificed once more, alliances were struck up between once warring parties, led by the Holy Empire of Britannia, to defeat the BETA once and for all. This, however, left the fate of those still lingering above the planet, forced to make do with repairing and refurbishing outdated space colonies, at the mercy of their enemies as negotiations ground on without any end in sight.
In December of AD 2880, sinister plans born of vengeance long ago have now been set in motion, as the fate of all humanity rests in the balance…
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