Light in the Darkness
A short story in the Invasion Earth universe
When they came, it was without warning. They gave no quarter, for mercy is a human trait. It was during the New Year’s Bash in New York City, formerly in New York, in the country of the United States of America. All that had changed though, long before they came.
After World War II ended in 1945, humanity had had enough of war. By an unspoken accord, it seemed like hostilities the world over ceased. For the first time in centuries, no man raised his hand against another. During this peace, mankind the world over prospered due to the diversion of war funds into research into the quality of life of every man, woman, and child. It was a Golden Age. But gold tarnishes in time. It started slowly, with the merger of Mexico, Canada, and the United States of America into a single nation. From there, the concept spread until 2030 when the last two nations merged together, agreeing to be governed by a council of the brightest minds the world had ever known.
And then they came, and the world was unprepared. They looked to the stars for First Contact, never believing it might come so swiftly and with such ruthlessness. Within a month, 50% of humanity was dead. And still an organized resistance could not be gathered, mankind instead turned to what had worked for them most recently, diplomacy and research. But the aliens could not be reasoned with, for mankind had only one thing they wanted: Sovereignty over Earth. But they could be studied. And study them, man did. Historians looked back in their texts, and eventually found plans for weapons with which to take the fight to the aliens, and factories started producing these weapons. But finally, inevitably, mankind fell.... now the scattered remnants strive to survive as best they can in isolated areas while the aliens terraform the planet to suit their needs and desires.
But all was not in vain, for man had built entire cities underwater, deep in the oceans where the aliens had not yet tread. And there were still holdouts on land as well. Australia was still a refuge for humanity, and armed well with weapons from a hidden cache. Also in China some resistance was mounted, until the terraforming there wiped out everyone.
But then, a discovery changed everything....
A Gateway opened in the middle of the town, and the people fled, screaming. They’d all seen the footage from the year previous in New York City, and they were terrified of what might be coming out of that vast emptiness. Two humans strolled out of the portal, looking calmly around themselves. They were dressed in shining black armor, looking somewhat like bipedal ants with their shiny black carapace. They wore pistols on their hips in holsters made of the same substance of their armor. “You there!”the one on the left shouted, singling a gawking young boy out of the crowd. “Take me to your leader!” The boy took them to a man, who took them to another man, to whom they told their story.
“This isn’t the only Earth, you know,” the man in black armor stated casually. “We come from Earth Nine, and our problems are much like yours. The good news is, we’re winning on our world. The bad news is, our two Earths are the only two left with humans....unless you count the slaves. We have to establish a front. We have to push them back. We have to take back our planet. We can pledge weapons to your cause, but at a price. We can pledge armor and equipment, also at a price. The price to be determined once they are purged from both our worlds. Do you agree to our terms?”
On November 21st, 2032 humanity retook Hawaii using weapons gifted them from Earth 9. This group of people immediately summoned the remaining scientists to Hawaii, who studied the new weapons and armor, and came up with their own versions of them. They formed a corporation, and called it “Advanced Scientific Pursuits”. A.S.P. These weapons were far superior to the ones from Earth 9. And so the liberation of Earth 10 began, and this is where the gameplay of Invasion Earth begins. You command up to 8 members of a squad in tactical turn-based combat in an attempt to retake was taken, and to push the aliens back through their portal or to leave them dying on soil they could not take. Designed for 2-9 players, Invasion Earth offers optional rules to either make the game more realistic, or simplified rules to make gameplay faster for shorter gaming sessions.