Setting
The year is 2445. Earth has been desolated in a 20-year war with the alien Neitha. Survivors cling to shattered cities—the last remnants of Earth’s once sprawling civilisation. Within this barren wasteland, human factions vow to wage an endless war with the Neitha, even though time is now against them. The oceans are drying up and much of the landscape has fossilised due to the immense weaponry used by Neithan warships. Earth is dying, and in just 300 years, life will cease to be.
Desiring to harvest Earth of its raw materials, the Neitha grant humanity asylum, with the ultimate objective of breaking humanity’s will to fight. Humanity will be forced into an exodus to the stars where they will live among new worlds, other races and strange cultures. It is a new beginning for humanity, as much as it is the end. It is in this backdrop that Keenan and Ayla remain at competing ends. Keenan still holds onto hope, and a bind to Earth that is not easily severed. Ayla, meanwhile, knows that humanity’s future is now with the stars.
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Keenan Alder
You will never see my face, but mark my words, I see you from the shadows. If you’re one of them—a bounty hunter or proxy soldier employed by the Neitha, then you are my enemy. My mother and father died because of your war. Like many alongside them. They died so the Neitha could bring their prosperity. I will never forgive, nor will I ever forget.
As the story’s protagonist, Keenan is a young man probably in his mid-20s. He stands at over 6ft tall and sports a scruffy mop of light brown hair and frosty blue eyes. For most of his life, he has only ever known war with the Neitha. He remembers slivers of the other world before they came, before the Neitha declared Earth part of their galaxy-spanning empire. Keenan met Ayla four years ago in a scrap heap while searching for a means of existence. They’ve shared a special bond and love for each other ever since.
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Ayla
I hate the Neitha, of course I do! Some days it’s everything I know. It’s all I’ve known. But I cannot live the rest of my life for hatred, no matter the enemy. I am tired of war. I am sick of trying to scrap for existence. The Neitha have promised peace, and for the most, it might actually be true. I just hope Keenan can see it the same way… He has changed these last few years. He’s become hardened, more absorbed. I hope by leaving this place we can both find what we set out to find within ourselves. Within each other.
Ayla is known predominately for her tangle of red hair. Her youthful features are pale despite the sun overhead, and she has a gentle nature, but years of resisting the Neitha have ground her down. Her love of poetry has helped give her hope, sparking a sense of childlike wonder in the universe. It is with this hope that she strives forward, no matter the cost.
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Frakes Theson
This scum who still think themselves as martyrs will pay for all the brothers and sisters I’ve lost. The Neitha may have offered asylum, but as far as I care, the bounty on people like Keenan Alder’s head remains.
As an antagonist, Frakes (call sign: Sladek) is just one of many humans who sided with the Neitha, taking on the role of a bounty hunter. He has a dog, an old companion, called Vosto, and he travels the barren plains of Earth, seeking to capture or eradicate those who still cling to the old ways.
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The Neitha
The Neitha are an alien conglomerate spanning lightyears of galaxies. They are the invisible elite at society’s core. You will never see them unless they deign to make their presence known, and then you will regret they had. Their favoured order of rule is to divide and conquer, pitting Earth’s divided nations against one another. After devastating Earth’s military and large population centres with their dread-ships, the Neitha have employed tens of thousands of human proxy soldiers and bounty hunters in their service to clean up the last pockets of resistance across Earth’s dying surface. After offering humanity another beginning, they plan to harvest Earth of its remaining resources. Earth holds rare materials integral to the survival of the Neitha, and it is for this reason they’ve invaded. But to continue their hold on the galaxy, they have to show they live by set of values and rules, and so they grant humanity mercy in the form of a new beginning to prosper in the galaxy, only not on Earth. Humanity must give up its home world for the stars, but humanity’s rebellious streak will have unintended consequences.