Storyline Idea: Perfidious

[AHadley]

Right, here's my storyline. Bit of background first, I think.

- I started writing this storyline about a year and a half ago, but only started doing anything recently.
- It takes place directly after FE, which whilst I say directly I mean about three months.
- One of its biggest selling points is that some of the old characters some back (Thanatos, Hardin, Wyndt-Essex, Corbin). I have asked the actors for the first three and received a surprisingly enthusiastic yes, though getting hold of Corbin cold prove rather difficult.
-There is very little story to catch up with before you are thrown into the game.



Three months after the Cerberi Incursion of 2009, the people who spearheaded Project Guard Dog have received their promotions. Miles Hardin has reached the rank of Field Marshal, Corbin is his General, and Carla Wyndt-Essex has received the prestigious Ring of Saturn for her bravery.

The EDF Lead Engineer Major Eisenstein and his team have begun development on a new flying craft to work alongside the Hadean TIE and Scion Bee craft. This craft will later become central to the storyline.



On a routine scouting mission on Spartacus, a young Lieutenant (as yet unnamed) receives a distress call from the nearby sealed-off Miasma StarPortal. Rushing to investigate, he discovers a Blue Hawks Sabre, and a pilot with it who claims to have no recollection of the past three months. She is taken to a nearby EDF base and placed in recovery. She is later identified as Major Wyndt-Essex, who disappeared on a mission on Miasma shortly before the planet's destruction. Nobody has any explanation for how she may have survived.

Before much can be learnt from the Major the base is attacked by Hadean forces. The Hadean Crown claims no affiliation with the attackers, and they are soon found to be members of the Hadean Imperialist Movement, who have been opposed to Thanatos' rule since his rise to power. They nearly overwhelm the base, but are forced back just in time, with heavy casualties on both sides.

A search for their base of operations ensues, which turns up cold, though many smaller bases turn up along the way, each of which are attacked and destroyed.

The EDF are contacted by an extremely frightened Hadean officer, who reports that their main base on Spartacus has been overrun by rebel Hadean forces. They have taken control of the MegaGun and are prepared to fire it at the Hades if their demands are not agreed to. The EDF are asked to assault the base and destroy it. During the assault, many more lives are lost, including that of General Corbin. However, the assault was successful and the Hadean Imperialists have been neutralised.



Disturbing news is received after the assault. A high-security research base on Eris, where Major Eisenstein's technicians and engineers were working on the Dragonfly Fighter, was completely obliterated by an unknown attacker whilst the EDF were concentrated at the Spartacus base. Lieutenant ***** is sent to investigate, and discovers something extremely disturbing at the site. The indications are that this attack was from a superweapon of Cerberi origin, far more powerful than any Hadean megagun. An investigation as to how the location of the base was discovered is launched.

The Dragonfly Project is brought forward and before long thousands of the craft are being produced and are put into action patrolling the skies around EDF bases and various sites of significance to the Cerberi.

The investigation into the base's destruction turns up an astonishing result thanks to an anonymous tip-off. General Hardin's desk was found to have a Cerberi communicator in it. Hardin is immediately arrested and sentenced to death by superheated plasma injection, but manages to escape detention and flee with the loyal White Fox squadron, of which Lieutenant ***** is a member. They are pursued across the galaxy by EDF forces, all the time searching for clues to who the mole could actually be, and where this Cerberi superweapon could be.



More to come, cause I really can't be arsed to type any more and I know you don't like big chunks of text

Criticism, comments etc. much appreciated

[Rocket]

The storyline sounds interesting, can't wait to see your mod in action. 

[bigbadbogie]

This sounds like a perfect story for the CP... if you aren't already doing it in your mod of course.

[Warfreak]

Heh, drawing on the First CP I see... Looks VERY interesting. (Can't wait to see a dogfight with the DragonFly Fighter)

[TheJamsh]

I really like this. It definately continues on from FE very well, the opposing the Thanatos' rule etc.

Its a VERY good storyline. its well thought out and its perfect for a CP.

[Mr X]

One quick question,

being as you've already started it, wont that make it a bit hard to modify to suit the whole community?

[Fulmen]

Very interesting storyline you have there.

However, some things worry me.

First of all, it seems sort of strange to make Hardin a field marshal, considering that apparently the EDF was ruled by a council of generals, and that the highest rank in the old ISDF, and main its predecessor's, the NSDF's, was that of a general (e.g. General Braddock and General Collins respectively).

EDIT: Don't forget General Karnov, the leader of the CCA. The Chinese equivalent of the space armies probably had a General or similar equivalent leading them too (I don't remember for sure).

Secondly, why make Corber die (it's Corber, not Corbin, btw)? Never in BZ1 or BZ2 or any of their mods has a general lead an assault on a heavily defended enemy base. So I don't see how that could happen.

Thirdly, immediately sentencing someone as prestigious as General Hardin to death just because a Cerberi chip in his desk (which would also be thoroughly investigated - this isn't the 19th century) doesn't seem very EDF like at all.

Fourthly and finally, didn't General Thanatos abdicate all his Royal titles etc? From the image I've got, doing that in the Hadean society would definitely be permanent. No way he'd be the new Emperor. Though perhaps he'd be a respected general in the Hadean Empire? Perhaps a military dictatorship ruled by him or maybe he somehow convinced his father to quit hostilities with the Hadean Rebels, re-incorporate them into the Empire and change his ways and views of the humans and Scions, instead focusing on destroying the Cerberi. Of course, there could still be room for the new pro-anti-human & Scion rebels even in this possible outcome. I don't remember if the fate of General Thanatos was covered in the Hadean campaign of FE. If it was, then my last two sentences would probably be irrelevant.

Some questions: I always imagined Corber would choose to stay with the EDF. He was more like that IMO, and it'd also be a good change since the "canon" ending accepted by FE is the Scion ending in BZ2, not the ISDF one. So will this storyline presume that Corber stayed with the EDF and destroyed the Nexus etc. on Earth, but the Hadeans under General Thanatos still managed to destroy the Cerberi on New Core?

Also, it's been years since I did the FE campaigns thoroughly, so I don't remember quite everything. Was it so that the insane New Core computer was ejected into space once again, or did the Hadeans manage to destroy it? If it got destroyed, then the Cerberi should pretty much be in total chaos or lie dormant, since they were originally mad gone New Core bots. And without the crazy gone Super Computer (Mother God) there'd be no-one to give them orders.

P.S. It's obviously Wyndt-Essex who's the mole.

[bigbadbogie]

Fourthly and finally, didn't General Thanatos abdicate all his Royal titles etc? From the image I've got, doing that in the Hadean society would definitely be permanent.

He was forgiven by his father and made the Emperor according to some mission debriefs.

[Nielk1]

BOTH the ends of the split in FE happen with or without you. The idea is you pick which to go with.

[TheJamsh]

Corber also went with Thanatos' in one of the stories ends, and married his daughter, and became the ambassador for Hadean-Human relations.

i do agree on the strange rank being a bit... well wrong by BZ2 standards. Hardin should really remain a general, although Corber could probably step up a level.

There's nothing to do with the scion core computer in FE, but pre-FE timeline. Its the cerberi mother god and schultz who escape in FE.

[Fulmen]

Okay, so we'll presume Corber stayed with the EDF and didn't become the Hadean-Human ambassador and whatever.

So the Mother God and Schultz escaped at the end of the New Core campaign? Also, I've been under the image that the Cerberi originated from the New Core computer, which went mad due to Braddock's post-humous nuking of the planet, and ejected to space. Later becoming the "Mother God" and apparently returning to the now ruined New Core. Basically the first Cerberi were crazy gone Core bots, AFAIK. While apparently the Hadeans thought their top Sci-Wizards created the Cerberi, where as (from what I understand) they actually didn't. They might've found them, but not created them. Please correct me if I'm wrong, however.

Oh and I use the term New Core to seperate the transformed Dark Planet from the original Core, which apparently became stable again (maybe temporarily, however?), although according to Bz2 it was dying and that's why the Scions were forced to find a new home.

EDIT: Thanks for refreshening me about the fate of General Thanatos, bidbadboogie. Though I don't see why the old Emperor would just give up his titles. Maybe he was getting old, lol.

[Zero Angel]

Actually, the title of Field Marshal, or General of the Army (for the US army). Are ranks above general that are awarded only to exceptional individuals, and usually used only during war time. So it can make sense.

General of the Army (GA) is a five-star general officer and is the highest possible rank in the United States Army. A special grade of General of the Armies, which ranks above General of the Army, does exist but has only been conferred twice in the history of the Army. A General of the Army ranks immediately above a general and is equivalent to a Fleet Admiral and a General of the Air Force; there is no established equivalent five-star rank in the other four uniformed services. Often referred as a "five-star general", the rank of General of the Army is reserved for war-time use only and is not currently active in the U.S. military.

Field Marshal is the highest military rank of the United Kingdom, a five-star rank. It ranks immediately above the rank of General and is the British Army equivalent to an Admiral of the Fleet and Marshal of the Royal Air Force...

...Current practice is that no Field Marshals are to be routinely appointed in peacetime, the last being Field Marshal The Rt Hon. Lord Inge KG GCB PC DL, although Members of the Royal Family and certain other very senior officers are still eligible to be appointed (none has, however, been appointed since the general suspension of promotions to the rank). The rank of Field Marshal is the only rank in the British Army where the individual never officially retires, as the rank is conferred for life.[2]

[Fulmen]

I know all that, Zero Angel. But the BZ universe is a special case. Seemingly the highest rank in any of the Earth-based space armies is that of a [five star] general or direct equivalent.

[TheJamsh]

The origin of the cerberi from core has been assumed, but the core computer itself is missing still.

New Core was stable after the scion campaign in stock, but before FE, Braddock nuked it, and it was basically *Ammo*ed. The scion's were virtually wiped out, but enough lived on, and journeyed around in the ARK II, which led them to the Hadeans. The Scions have been living on Mire since i believe.

There is no new-core campaign at the end of FE. Core IS gone, you are fighting on what is left of it, because thats where the Cerberi have holed up, and are creating ships by holding hadean ones and re-generating them. The Cerberi mother god escapes with Schultz from the destroyed 'new core' (you unawarely hover right past it actually) when you take out the cerberi power scource.

BOTH events in FE take place, there is no storyline split as Nielk1 said, it just depends which one you go for. Either way, Thanatos goes off to fight on new core to rid them of the cerberi, while the vengeance task force travel to earth to prevent the imperial hadeans (loyal to the emporer, NOT thanatos), awaking the nexus, which they do, and then you take it out.

The core computer itself (the scion one) is not related to the FE campaign in anyway shape or form. Serenesis mod's storyline made by youres truly explains the true origins of the cerberi mother god, the core computer and how everything ties in together, practically explains the existence of the scions and bio-metal on earth in the first place, so its pretty deep.

But in relation to this story, i think we are going with the whole 'they returned to earth and killed the nexus', so Corber never got chance to accept Thanatos' offer. Either way, there are a lot of loose ends at the end of FE, which you can tie up in your storyline just like i have.

The old hadean emporer stepped down to Thanatos out of honour. I'm not overly sure he forgave Thanatos, but because of Thanatos' insane victory over the Cerberi, and the fact that the EDF defeated the emporers force on Earth made him stand down. Again, further news on the Hadean empire can be written by your mod. it seems me and AHadley went for the same idea, where the race splits, because of opposition the Thanatos' rule.

i LOVE writing things away like this

[Nielk1]

The Cerberi view humanity as the enemy because they were nuked. They were likely already on the dark planet before it became new core. They may have even been why when the Dark Planet was terraformed it did not come with it's own computer core.

I have a much more complicated set up behind the nature of the Dark Planet, Core, and Core like planets.