Kabboom
very explody
HOSTILE CONTACT
Nobody really said a thing on New Year's Eve. 2057 passed without much celebration or hopefulness. No, it's not because humanity was suddenly hit by some kind of brain-rotting virus that quickly enslaved us all. And it's not because we've also passed onto some higher form of consciousness where celebration of new years is trivial. Nah, get that shit outta here. Nobody celebrated 2057 because of 2056. Because of the Vornem.
These aliens bombed New Olympus, our largest and most advanced colony on Mars. This Star Empire of theirs was in an intergalactic cold war with another government, the Interspecies Confederacy, who we were in kahoots with. Now, as you all know, the Confederacy is a bunch of member states of different races, and because we've been friends but haven't been made into an official member state yet, it means the Vornems can attack us without provoking all out war, bla bla, been there done that. Long story short, some aliens are gonna head out, arrive in the Solar system, and attempt to kick our asses off the face of existence before the Confeds can back us up in any meaningful way.
Hopefully, with Sword Battalion, and the rest of the boys, that won't happen. The Coalition Of Nations of Earth (CONE) has unanimously agreed to pump funding into its defenses and military forces, as the human race prepares to go to war. Whatever resentments we have with each other will have to wait - kill the Vornems first, then we can go back to killing ourselves, that kind of stuff. With a few skirmishes here and there already taking place in our Solar system, there is no doubt that a Vornem force is already near.
Happy New Year, people. Let's get to work.
ARC 1: That's No Moon
A perimeter station on the Saturn ring cluster, named SDS-445, has gone dark. A contingent of Interplanetary Military troops have been sent to investigate the station, but they've gone dark as well. Furthermore, signature scans of SDS-445 continue to reveal anomalies in energy readings, but long range visual recon of the site from other perimeter stations yield no results.
A Sword Battalion unit has been chosen to investigate this perimeter station. Command suggests the Vornem may have already gotten to the place, but there is no concrete proof of this yet. Your dropship lurches into position, and you see the asteroids coursing around the ship as it moves towards the station. A monotone voice echoes from the onboard radio, "90 seconds, get ready. Once you're on-target, Vulcan 1 will hang back and standby. Pilot out."