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Concept and notes for Relic, a ZK mini-campaign.




Relic



By KingRaptor (L.J. Lim)

*Note*: After some discussion, we have decided to discontinue Relic in favor of a different story closer to the original concepts. This page will remain here for posterity.

Concept


Relic is a planned short story-driven, linear mini-campaign for Zero-K, spanning 8 or so missions. The intent is to provide some basic SP content for the game (until the full campaign can be designed and implemented), while introducing new players both to the lore and the general gameplay of ZK.

Plot


Yeah, this is pretty cookie cutter generic space opera stuff, but it works and I don’t see anyone else coming up with anything better (or anything at all). -KR

After the Last War (the sum of the conflicts between the various human and machine powers^1^), humanity is seemingly extinct. The robot survivors, legacy of the brutal conflicts, are left to eke out a living in a charred galaxy. The great factions that united the galaxy are gone, their civilizations fractured into countless small feudal quasi-states run by machine warlords, forming and breaking alliances day by day in order to expand their influence.

Akegata (“Aki”), a wandering exploratory bot, chances upon a cache of relics from before the Last War while searching the fringes of the galaxy. One such relic, the !MacGuffin^2^, turns out to be very valuable indeed. So much that upon discovering it, Aki is immediately beset by a band of pirates.

Defeating the pirates and securing the cache, Aki embarks on a return trip to the galactic core. On the way, she encounters Merremia (“Merry”), a bot performing organic preservation. The two of them are suddenly beset by a new band of raiders, led by a comm named Persegus. Aki just barely manages to extract herself and Merry from the ambush, though not before Merry’s body is destroyed, forcing a transfer of her computer core into Aki’s body.

Despite their best efforts, the raiders continue to pursue them until the sudden arrival of another armed group causes them to back off. The leader of the new arrivals identifies himself as Saffron, a member of the Commonwealth Ascendant. The CA bills itself as a united group aiming to spread peace and prosperity (“uplift” the people, hence the name) throughout the galaxy.

Saffron informs Aki that the raiders were operatives of Delphi, a secret organization attempting to monopolize prewar artifacts and technology for its own use, and offers Aki and Merry sanctuary from the machines attacking them, as well as a position within the organization, in exchange for letting the Ascendant take responsibility for safeguarding the !MacGuffin. Swayed by tales of Delphi’s ruthlessness and destructiveness, they accept.

The Ascendant dispatch Akegata to perform a number of missions against Delphi, which she performs with a great deal of success. However, on one mission, Aki is ordered to defeat the Delphi stationed at a settlement on a planet named Isaac’s Pyre^3^. Just as she overcomes the enemy’s defenses, the planet is attacked by a large number of chickens. Aki is ordered to withdraw and leave the civilians of Isaac’s Pyre to the chickens. At Merry's behest, she refuses, and successfully defends the settlement against the chickens.

After the mission, Akegata confronts Saffron, who apologizes but denies any foreknowledge of the chicken attack. The Ascendant leadership is silent on the matter, but goes on to assign Aki to spearhead a new offensive, this time to take a major Delphi facility on the planet Milton^4^, storing a large number of prewar artifacts.

The attack initially succeeds, but Persegus suddenly appears leading a large force and traps Aki in a pincer. However, the tables are turned again when a large Ascendant force arrives from the other direction and quickly breaks through to the research base. Aki takes the opportunity to defeat Persegus in combat.

The Ascendant secure the artifacts… and extract, leaving Aki and Merry stranded with a wounded and angry Delphi garrison, and more reinforcements coming. They are barely able to survive until Saffron intervenes, rescuing them.

Saffron reveals the truth about the Commonwealth Ascendant: that they differ from Delphi far more in methods than in goals. Although he initially went along with it, he could no longer do so in good conscience after Issac’s Pyre – actually a plot to punish the inhabitants for their refusal to accept a secret treaty that would give the Ascendant hegemony over the planet.

Unfortunately the Ascendant are close behind them, attacking with an overwhelming force. Saffron sacrifices himself in a delaying action to allow Aki and Merry to escape. Afterwards, Merry confesses that from the time they joined the Ascendant until Milton, she was acting as an informant for the Ascendant’s leadership. It was actually a software bug planted in her code during this period that allowed the Ascendant to track the three of them down; fortunately, they are able to disable it before they can be found again.

Meanwhile, Delphi, having been marshaling its forces in preparation for an attempt to seize the !MacGuffin, launch an all-out assault on the Commonwealth Ascendant. As the conflict spills over into more and more star systems, Akegata makes the decision to grab the relic and escape from this sector of the galaxy with it^5^.

Using a Delphi incursion close to the Ascendant homeworld as cover, Aki and Merry attempt a smash-and-grab raid to recover the !MacGuffin. The situation is complicated by the Delphinites attempting to do the same, and a time limit that threatens to ruin the mission^6^, but they eventually succeed and escape the planet, travelling off to a new part of the galaxy together…

# Tie into PlanetWars and the story for the main campaign.
# Placeholder name. Possibilities for the nature of the object include:
# Biblical reference (Abraham offering his son up for sacrifice to God). Could be changed.
# Paradise Lost, natch.
# Motives could vary. Aki (and by extension, the player) could consider the relic too powerful/dangerous/valuable to be left in the hands of these two factions, and they cannot be allowed to use it for their own ends. Conversely, on the other end of the scale, the relic is clearly very valuable… why not take it for yourself? Of course, there are other possible motivations in between.
# Possibly a self-destruct mechanism on the base, allowing for multiple endings. Being defeated by the Ascendant or allowing Delphi to seize the device would be the bad endings, letting the MacGuffin be blown up would be the neutral ending, and winning the mission and seizing the relic would be the good ending.

Characters


Akegata ("Aki")


The protagonist character. A freelance exploration AI working on the galactic rim with an old but well-equipped commander-type platform (Strike type, but possibly changable as the campaign progresses).

Used to operating alone, far from contact with others (and her platform is equipped accordingly). Motivated primarily by self-interest, at least initially. A woman of few words, she initially has difficulty getting along with the much more sociable Merry.

Name origin_: Akegata_ means "dawn" in Japanese.

Merremia ("Merry")


An organic preservation AI performing conservation work out on the frontier when she gets caught up in Aki's misadventures. Her own (non-combat) platform gets destroyed and she ends up riding in Aki's body as a sidekick of sorts.

Rather archetypical personality: very friendly; a bit ditzy/airheaded; a nature lover; strong empathy for others. Meant to be the kind of girl the audience finds simultaneously endearing and insufferable.

Name origin_: Merremia_ is a genus of flowers belonging to the morning glory family.

Persegus


A professional hunter/assassin type working for Delphi. Uses a commander platform (Recon type) built for speed and precise lethality. Thinks only of the mission, the hunt.

Name origin_: Adapted from perseguidor_ (Gaelician for "tracker").

Saffron


A commander of the Commonwealth Ascendant. Uses a commander platform (Strike or Support type) with a balanced configuration. A calm, level-headed guy who's an idealist at heart.

_Name origin_: The well-known spice. Several connotations are possible, e.g. the saffron robes of Buddhist monks.

Other characters


The head honchos of both Delphi and the Commonwealth should show up. Maybe you get to kill them both in the last mission, thereby decapitating their organizations. Comms: Strike and Battle, respectively.

Gameplay


Missions will likely be in the Starcraft 2 style, designed to familiarize the player with the capabilities and proper use of a few units each mission. Time limits of some sort will generally be encouraged, to prevent endless “porc till overwhelming force then win” gameplay so prevalent in RTS campaigns.

The player will use whatever tech is available as the mission dictates. In line with their doctrine and philosophy, Delphi use primarily cloakbots and hovers with the occasional spider, while the Commonwealth Ascendant focus on veh/tank with some jumpers and shieldbots.

Mission concepts


# Frontier Ambush
# Merremia and Persegus
# Enter the Ascendant
# Fighting Delphi
# Isaac's Pyre
# Paradise Lost
# No Pasarán!
# Tactical Approach
# Finale

Issues



Things needed