With War Comes Chaos

Overrun with refugees, and unprepared for the rigors of independence, the idealistic country is still suffering through birth pains. So far, its industries and motivated people have kept it afloat, striving to lay a stable ground work for future generations. Within the Nova Defense Force, citizens from all walks of life, and even a cadre of unlikely outsiders, are prepared to put their lives on the line for their home. Volunteers-turned soldiers, mobile weapon pilots, computer specialists, Grand Cross defectors, and even a few ex-pirates are all that stand against two incredible battling armies at their doorstep. The population's fierce dedication to peace, however, might just be overshadowed by these outsiders.

The United Alliance of Nations is one threat facing Ark Nova. The former Earth Sphere government has grown truly desperate in its fight to return order to both the Earth and space. Under the command of Field Marshal Sheridan, the Alliance Armed Forces have all but abandoned their home planet, leaving it an embattled mass of turbulent nations and terrified people. Surviving Grand Cross and Alliance soldiers draw new borders in daily grudge matches that are tearing apart cities and slaughtering thousands. To its credit, the Alliance has maintained its control over Europe and Asia, though its forces in Africa and South America have failed to drive out the Grand Cross occupation. As for North America, the once great bastion of civilization has become a barren wasteland where survival is the only game.

Space has become the new realm of the Alliance, with its security placed well ahead of Earth's. Easier to hold, and still untouched by many of war's devastating horrors, the once-neglected Arks are now viewed as civilization's last hope. Whoever controls them, stands ready to retake the Earth and gain dominance over the entire Sphere. To this end, the Alliance has gone to great lengths to eliminate all of its obstacles. Its most drastic actions came to light with a phony conference on the moon, where leaders of the Grand Cross and Ark Nova were both invited to talk peace. What they found instead was a shocking series of assassination attempts, topped off by a nuclear attack that destroyed the entire lunar facility. The Alliance hoped to eradicate its opposition in one move, and though they were partially successful, the survivors have lived to give a damning account of the old government's corruption. Trust in it is gone, and war has become the only alternative.

For the Grand Cross, however, war no longer seems to hold any meaning. Weakened severely by its own civil war, the splintered organization and its fight for colonial freedom exist only in a facade. The Alliance's lunar nuclear attack has killed both the military leaders of the "true" GC and the dissident "Nobles" faction. As a result, the organization has no fallen under the complete control of the Tresdemo Foundation. The corporate entity has quickly purged all of the remaining troublemakers from their ranks, assigning them to the hopeless fighting on Earth or through more direct "accidents."

Still, despite their faltering state, the group's support has not diminished. More than ever, the Foundation has continued promoting the GC as THE savior of the space colonies, and the people believe in it. Puppet officers and bribed officials have become the heroes of the Arks, keeping recruitment levels high and morale even stronger. Through an astounding barrage of propaganda and information doctoring, the Foundation has convinced the Grand Cross' supporters that they stand on the only true and just path; they will prevail.

Behind the scenes, the Foundation's Pantheon is slowly introducing its own agenda. Like Sheridan and his Alliance supporters, Tresdemo Director Barak Arwin and his cohorts want nothing short of total control of the Earth Sphere. Their methods, however, are far more perverse. Using such super-sciences as the Paragon computer system, they have started to set the first building blocks for a new "utopia." For the Foundation, Paradise is defined by human evolution through technology. The Paragon system, using the sealed "soul" of a Newtype, is the first step on the road to turning the mind into a programmable computer. Such a concept is boasted to be the ultimate opponent of ignorance, offering an infinite level of instantly shared thought and understanding... and an end to free will. Just as the mind could be programmed with new skills and learning that benefit, so could it be manipulated to accept anything the Foundation wills. With their insidious ideals cloaked within promises of  intellectual perfection, the Pantheon continues to close in on their selfish goal of modern day godhood.

CG artwork by Hajime Katoki & Sanada