Mission 1: "Recon" (April 2096)
Upon first emerging from cyber-surgery after joining Task Force Saber,
the heroes were given their first mission by Colonel
Aleksov—to reconnoiter an old Gen-Tech production facility (located
in the urban wasteland of Washington D.C.) conquered
by Micro-Tech in the last corporate struggle, and to determine if it
has been captured by the Android Rebellion. The heroes
discovered the site was already being cased by armed vehicles operated
by the United Front of Man, who were certain the
facility had already fallen to the androids. The heroes raided the
facility, learning that Micro-Tech supply shuttles were still
making regular deliveries to the production plant even after it had
fallen to android rebels. They downloaded the factory’s
computer core and brought the data back to Nene to analyze, discovering
that the information was a timetable for attacks
against Gen-Tech targets (including the mysterious "D.H.E."). Pressured
by Gen-Tech executives (who somehow had learned
of Task Force Saber already), TFS Command ordered Major Deveneaux to
lead a strike team to the facility and totally
destroy it.
Mission 2: "Rescue" (several days later)
While the heroes traced the supply shuttles making deliveries to the
destroyed D.C. facility back to a secret Micro-Tech base
on a small artificial island off the coast of Florida, TFS researchers
finished analyzing a destroyed android brought back by the
heroes—learning that the rebel androids were infected with a modified
Micro-Tech virus program. Meanwhile, Nene
decrypted the first part of the captured Android Rebellion computer
core and learned of their plans to assassinate Mr.
Hideyoshi, the Gen-Tech liaison to the American government. Uncertain
why the android rebels would do this, the heroes and
Captain Smith rushed to the Gen-Tech Branch Office in D.C. to save
Hideyoshi. The heroes defeated a powerful android
assassin in Hideyoshi’s office. Before self-destructing, the beaten
android issued cryptic final words: "You cannot win. The
new species cannot be stopped. Soon the Source will return and we will
be one!" Hideyoshi denied knowing what the
android was talking about or knowing anything about the mysterious
"D.H.E." referred to in the Android Rebellion computer
data, instead arguing that the assassination attempt was actually directed
by Micro-Tech agents in revenge for the destruction
of their Seattle headquarters by Gen-Tech agents in the last corporate
war.
Mission 3: "Base Raid" (two days later)
General Kohl and Colonel Aleksov debriefed the heroes after their mission
to save Hideyoshi. Kohl was convinced that
"D.H.E." and the "Source" were red herrings designed to distract Task
Force Saber from its real mission, and he ordered the
heroes to cease any further investigation into them. The heroes went
to the secret Micro-Tech base off the coast of Florida.
Infiltrating the supply convoy, they learned that military equipment
from Micro-Tech production centers all over the continent
was being stockpiled on Island A-X2 for distribution to Android Rebellion
bases. The heroes raided the island base, stealing
more computer data before calling in Major Deveneaux and his strike
team to destroy the island. When analyzed, the data
revealed a records database of the Android Rebellion—listing how Micro-Tech
awakened the first sentient androids in 2087
after stealing "D.H.E." secrets from Gen-Tech facilities in Africa,
how the awakened androids "purified" Micro-Tech by 2091,
how Gen-Tech took over Orbital Technologies Unlimited to gain control
of a mysterious "fallen angel" OTU had encountered,
how this somehow lead to the release of the "D.H.E. virus" in 2070,
and how the awakened androids were uniting to await the
return of the "Source" in 2096.
Mission 4: "Net Confrontation" (a few days later)
The heroes accompanied Nene onto the Grid ("hyper-net") to strike at
the Rebellion central data core. Although ordered by
Kohl to ignore "D.H.E." and "Source" distractions, an unsure Colonel
Aleksov secretly told the heroes to follow the best
evidence. Infiltrating a Grid data-path traced by the heroes from the
communications station on the Florida base, they located
the Rebellion core and found an army of powerful AI entities projecting
a "data bubble" directly to the heart of a top-secret
Gen-Tech computer network. Nene and the heroes slipped into the bubble
ahead of the android AI army, reaching the
Gen-Tech database’s Controlling AI first. Hideyoshi was already there
in shadow form. The heroes defeated his shadow and
began to interrogate the Controlling AI, but Hideyoshi began to decompile
the system remotely before the android AI army
could attack. Before the AI was decompiled, the heroes learned that
"D.H.E." is Directive Hyper-Evolution, a top-secret
Gen-Tech project dating back to the incident with a mysterious "fallen
angel" and the subsequent Great Impacts. The AI also
implied that Gen-Tech provoked the First Corporate War in 2051 in order
to gain control of UPS holdings in central Africa,
using these sites for D.H.E. research. Upon returning from the Grid,
the heroes confronted General Kohl with the information
they had learned. "I know," he replied. "D.H.E. is the real reason
Task Force Saber was created. The Android Rebellion was
not an accident. It was a result of a Gen-Tech program gone awry—a
program based on technology acquired from an
extraterrestrial contact in 2070. Dr. Miller learned this while still
a Micro-Tech researcher, using (or misusing) D.H.E. secrets
stolen from the Gen-Tech bases in Africa. His team created cyber-technology,
which he brought to NATO when he began to
fear that Micro-Tech was being overrun by its own androids. You must
not discuss this with anyone—the world is not yet
ready for the truth. Report to Colonel Aleksov for a new assignment.
Dismissed."
Mission 5: "Betrayal" (early June 2096)
Android attacks on human cities have been increasing since April, although
their main strategic goal seemed to be seizing a
network of highly defensible bases. The Multinational Corporate Advisory
Committee forced the UN to order NATO to assist
the corporations in fighting the androids. NATO revealed the existence
of Task Force Saber to the corporations (but not its
purpose), putting it on constant battle alert to fight android attacks
alongside corporate security forces. The heroes have been
re-assigned to a strike team, fighting androids in battles all over
North America. Many androids have been captured in the past
month, all of them already "awakened" by the D.H.E. "virus", but there
is no way to tell which are part of the Rebellion and
which are from Micro-Tech. The heroes were sent with their strike team
to attack a Micro-Tech command base discovered
by Gen-Tech reconnaissance. Hideyoshi was revealed as the mission controller,
and he ordered the Gen-Tech unit to
abandon the TFS strike team in the android base. The team was cut-off
from communicating with TFS HQ by the treachery
of communications officer Lt. Mark Kimm ("Green Light"), who revealed
himself as a Gen-Tech mole from the beginning.
The heroes had to fight their way out and get back to the "Barn" to
expose the traitor to TFS Command, while still dealing
with Micro-Tech forces poised to attack a Gen-Tech site hidden in the
jungles of central Africa.
Mission 6: "Lost World" (the next week)
Re-assigned from the strike team back into a field team, the heroes
were ordered to investigate the secret Gen-Tech site in
Africa which the Micro-Tech base was preparing to attack. They found
a lost village, a recreation of one of the small
communities that have mysteriously vanished from rural Russia over
the past two decades. The villagers were pawns in the
Gen-Tech M7 project, conditioned to follow Gen-Tech commands. Facing
viciously mutated villagers, the heroes found the
hidden control room and discovered the horrible truth—that the site
was a side project spawned from D.H.E. over the years,
with the goal of generating "alternative conceptions" of humanity after
full D.H.E. is achieved.
Mission 7: "The Enemy of My Enemy" (end of June 2096)
Micro-Tech androids contacted Task Force Saber and proposed forming
a one-time joint mission against the Gen-Tech
operation being launched from Africa—an operation to unleash an army
of M7 mutants in the United States. Micro-Tech
stated that it was no longer cooperating with the Android Rebellion,
which had retreated to a heavily defended base in the far
north of Canada. Micro-Tech, unable to create androids who could pass
as mutants and sneak aboard the military transport,
offered to give the M7 retro-virus they captured to the heroes—transforming
them into M7 mutants so they could sneak
aboard. Micro-Tech also claimed to have the anti-virus, but they would
not promise it would work. Captain Smith was forced
to reveal himself an android, since he too could not be affected by
the retro-virus. Infiltrating the launch base on the coast of
Africa, the mutated heroes discovered Hideyoshi was aboard the transport
in command of the operation. They boarded the
transport, confronted Hideyoshi, and sabotaged the transport ship,
escaping from the vessel before its destruction.
Mission 8: "The Arrival" (July 4, 2096)
The Android Rebellion polar base in Canada had begun transmitting a
constant signal into space. General Kohl revealed that
NATO intercepted the message from the "fallen angel" in 2070, but it
was not finally deciphered until 2095. The Rebellion had
apparently also finally deciphered the message and was now broadcasting
a landing invitation to the "Source" in the
computerized language. The heroes were sent to break into the base,
find an unsecured computer terminal, and enter the
system’s Gridspace to sabotage the communications network broadcasting
the message. In the end, however, they were too
late. They witnessed the return of the first "fallen angel"—a small
alien scout starship.
Mission 9: "Assimilation" (February 2097)
Alien scouts have paved the way for the landing of alien warriors, quickly
merging with the Android Rebellion and forming a
single collective hive-mind. Task Force Saber has been revealed to
the general public, and the heroes have been fighting the
invading aliens unsuccessfully. Many weaker corporations (like WorldComm,
UPS, and regional corporations too small to sit
on the Multinational Corporate Advisory Committee) have been completely
destroyed by alien attacks. Gen-Tech, desperate
to complete the D.H.E. project, revealed to Task Force Saber that an
alien satellite in orbit was the link for the collective
hive-mind. The heroes were sent into space to board the satellite,
capture alien technology, and destroy it. They discovered
that the cybernetic aliens are merely the servants of a syndicate of
AI beings based on the alien mother-ship and linked
together in Gridspace through the satellite network accompanying their
fleet.
Mission 10: "Choices" (March 2097)
What remained of Micro-Tech was assimilated by the aliens shortly after
the attack on their satellite. Gen-Tech demanded
the technology recovered from the destroyed satellite, needing it to
unleash full Directive Hyper-Evolution. Desperate to stop
Gen-Tech from completing D.H.E. (which they had learned about from
spies they had planted in the Gen-Tech ranks), the
United Front of Man launched an all-out assault on the "Barn" in order
to destroy the captured alien technology. Kohl and
Miller slipped from the base aboard a military vehicle. Captain Smith
demanded the heroes make a choice—either to stay in
the "Barn" and fight alongside Nene and Deveneaux, or to help him prevent
Kohl and Miller from reaching Gen-Tech HQ and
turning over the technology necessary for the completion of D.H.E.
Nene and Deveneaux were killed as the "Barn" fell to the
attackers. Smith and the heroes chased down Kohl and Miller’s vehicle,
confronting them for control of the technology. Kohl
argued that completing D.H.E. was the only hope humanity would have
to survive against the aliens. Smith was determined to
destroy the technology and prevent humans from ever again playing God.
The heroes were forced once again to choose sides,
the stakes being nothing less than the future of humanity. Although
Dr. Miller surrendered to the heroes, either Kohl or Smith
would have to die—the schism between creator and creation was too great.
Mission 11: "Final Curtain" (a few days later)
Task Force Saber HQ has been destroyed. Gen-Tech’s attempts to bring
about final D.H.E. also failed. The heroes
possessed only one tool with which to resist—the alien communication
technology from the satellite. Dr. Miller was able to
power it up for a short period of time, allowing the heroes to enter
alien Gridspace. The heroes directly confronted the alien
"living computer" entities in their electronic domain. Unable to fight
their incredible power, the heroes negotiated with
them—engaging in an intellectual debate to convince them they did not
need to conquer earth and destroy its organic life
forms. The Aleerin leaders decided to leave earth, taking all awakened
androids with them. Together, they would find a new
planet to settle as their own non-organic civilization.