Thousands of years ago, an unnatural phenomenon happened on Earth. Through a tear in space and time, a gate connecting two planets opened, and an alien life form entered our planet.
Thankfully for Earth, the gate wasn't stable and closed after the first creature passed through because, compared to animals of our world, this thing didn't evolve naturally but turned into a monster designed to kill through experiments, a living biological weapon.
One might find cave paintings depicting this beast in a museum. One can only imagine the fear our ancestors felt when they saw the alien monster with six pointy-tipped legs, four spear-like arms, a mouth that resembles one of a mantis with a thousand razor-sharp teeth, and a shell that can deflect all the weapons used on it.
Perhaps the only reason early humans managed to survive the first encounter was something bigger got to it first.
But those creatures, which we call Crimson, kept coming. We don't know who sends them to our planet or why they want to conquer it, but we know something about them. Crimsons are biologically improved creatures designed to attack and destroy planets by an unknown source.
They are vastly vary in size. Some Crimson are smaller than a fly, while some tower the skyscrapers.
Crimsons come to our world through red vortex-like portals that their name comes from, and until someone destroys the gate, a terrifying amount of monsters of every size and type rush to our planet in hopes of finding prey to devour.
The oldest known records say the first large portal opened in Eastern Asia around four thousand years ago. The tribes around now China were the first ones to fight against them. Ancient tribes united to defeat the invaders, which they called the Red Ones.
To leave a warning for future generations, they carved pictures on massive stones for future leaders to know about these dangerous creatures.
But it wasn't only the ancient Chinese. From records of Assyrians to hieroglyphics of Ancient Egyptians and even to tribe legends of Africa, we know all of the ancient world tasted their wrath.
Yet the winner of the lottery was Europe. The first large-scale invasion happened in Southern Europe. The force of forty thousand crimsons of many different sizes clashed with the armies of the Roman Empire. It was a bloody battle coming from the records, as the Roman army, five times bigger in numbers, managed to defeat the invasion by losing more than half of its force.
Then this kept happening throughout history, Mongols, Aztecs, Byzantines, Ottomans, Holy Romans, British, count every large civilization you learned about in history class. Everyone fought against them at one point.
But as years went by, the frequency of their attacks increased, From sending small forces every couple of centuries to vortexes happening almost every half a century, and today, every week.
Thankfully, they don't only bring death and destruction. A strange gas called anti-oxygen also entered our world with them. This exotic element looks like oxygen, safe to breathe, but has powers to bend reality, and it shaped the Earth. It created floating islands, reverse falls, mutated animals, and made legendary beasts, and finally, it gave humanity powers beyond natural. Sometimes, if we are lucky, we find scraps of alien technology from other worlds they devoured in their corpses.
So we come to the modern world, things are a bit different now. Crimson attacks are something normal in our daily lives. All major cities have entire armies on watch, waiting for a portal to appear, and since we have missiles now, we can directly target the portal and destroy it.
However, that is only possible if we are fortunate, sometimes, the first salvo is not enough, and things get messy. The most famous example of letting a portal stay open for too long is the destruction of the Korean peninsula. Two superpowers ignoring the main threat for their power play caused humanity to lose so much.
So, to ensure this never happens again, a man, one stronger than the heroes from ancient legends, stepped forward to the world stage, united the great powers, and created a defensive pact in which every country got tasked to protect their sphere of influence. It is what we call the United Defence Council, or UDC for short.
Ten cities were designated to be important headquarters of this organization. Beijing, Rio, Washington, Berlin, Istanbul, Kinshasa, Sydney, New Delhi, Cape Town, and Moscow. And twenty more cities that hold large UDC fortresses called Keypoints.
Today, the earth stands united, but this unity is fragile, and perhaps the real threat is not the enemy at our doors, but rather the one within.
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Glossary starts here
Factions:
United Defence Council: Created by the Chancellor post-Korean War, its main purpose is to keep world powers in check and be the first force to respond against all invasion attempts. But UDC is not only a muscle, as it serves as common ground for global politics.
The political division of UDC consists of a council with one member from all countries, this council can gather for various reasons. Global High Court, an entity that enforces global law, and stands at the top of the Hierarchy
The armed forces of UDC are divided into two parts, agents and the army.
Agents are individuals with recognizable powers, who are selected for more specialized operations, where skillful individuals are required. These agents are mostly recruited from academies, and during their jobs, they provide various services.
Agents are not all independent and must apply the laws of the country they are positioned in.
The country they reside in can also ask for their help, which, unless a good reason is stated, the given duties must be fulfilled.
The army is different. It contains a large quantity of soldiers stationed all around the world, armed with heavy equipment. Unlike agents, where individuality is important, the army is stricter, and one's ability is usually in the second plan all are expected to use standard issue equipment, varying from manned battlesuits, and armored vehicles, to building-size Mecha suits.
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Crusaders:
Not to be mixed with Crusaders of the Middle Ages, their main goal is to fight against the Crimson threat all around the globe.
Crusaders are the world's second strongest non-country entity in terms of military strength, but they are not limited to that, as the six families who rule them also engage in various businesses across the globe, from manufacturing, trading, and logistics to arms trade, and military service. Since their banishment from Europe, they spread across the world, and have good relationships with almost all countries.
Amongst the six families, there is one ruling family and five vassals. The main family resides in Malta, where one of the six main manors that serve as headquarters resides.
For Crusaders, there are two ways: The way of the knight, and the way of the soldier. Unlike UDC where individuality and standardization are both present in two distinct groups, Crusaders want individuality first.
The only difference between a knight and a soldier is if The Monolith of Arthur, a giant structure made from Starmetal responds to them and blesses them with a weapon.
Crusaders numbers are higher than expected, as it's estimated they can have up to 200.000 personnel on the ground.
