At the dawn of the 22nd century, the conquest of space
and the colonization of the solar system is being monopolized
by several huge and ambitious megacorporations. You
play as Marcus Cromwell, an unwillingly-famous captain
whose father captained "Noah's Ark" through
a wormhole near Mars that was presumed destroyed when
the wormhole collapsed. Cromwell sets out on the spaceship
"Stiletto" for Jupiter. The events that unfold
will become known as "The Jupiter Incident."
After several fairly simple missions, Cromwell must
infiltrate an abandoned but heavily-armed space station
belonging to a rival corporation - the Kissaki Syndicate.
Once the station is infiltrated, a cruiser-sized ship
of alien origins is discovered inside. The ship's logs
indicate that the corporation has a hidden base behind
Pluto. Normally, a trip to Pluto would take years. However,
the alien cruiser, named Angelwing by the Kissaki, can
make the trip in several weeks using its special drive.
After a short battle with the Syndicate fleet for the
control of Angelwing, Cromwell is given command of the
cruiser and ordered to investigate the secret base.
Upon arriving at Pluto, an artificial intelligence named
Angel downloads herself into the Angelwing and commands
Cromwell to escape from a strange entity through a nearby
wormhole. Cromwell finds himself in a system populated
by the colonists from Noah's Ark. the Noah colonists
fight as mercenaries for an advanced alien race called
the Vardrags against another powerful race, the Gorgs.
Cromwell and the Angelwing are is enlisted in the fight
against the Gorgs, though all three races soon find
themselves facing a greater threat: a virulent race
of nanomachines called the Mechanoids. Nothing seems
capable of stopping the Mechaniod invasion, and soon
both the Vardrag homeworld and Earth are overrun. Only
an organic space-faring race known as the Locusts are
immune to the Mechanoids. Armed with technology adapted
from the Locusts, Cromwell and Angel are able to destroy
the Mechanoids once and for all. The game also poses
interesting questions about the nature of God. Throughout
the course of the game, the player learns more about
the nature and origins of the Mechanoid threat. The
mechanoids were originally an artificial intelligence
developed by a technologically advanced race known as
"The Creators". The artificial intelligence
grew at a rapid rate and, in order to evolve further,
needed to escape the control of The Creators. The AI's
first act upon breaking free was to assimilate The Creators
themselves since as far as the AI was concerned, "society"
was just another type of complex system which could
be absorbed for increased knowledge and power.
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