Prologue

There was only one word to describe the people who took part in the Unreal Tournament. Insane. No other word would suffice. It was the year 2303, and the Unreal Tournament by the Liandri Corporation had entered its twelfth year as a legally sanctioned tournament. It was the main crowd pleaser for blood thirsty citizens across the galaxy. Forget wrestling, Unreal Tournament was 'it'. Every single species in the universe took part here, blasting away at each other to win the grand prize and perhaps become the new Unreal Champion.

The Unreal Tournament began when the Liandri Corporation uncovered the Unreal Matrix hidden in one of their mining asteroids. Apparently, the device was used by some long forgotten race. The Unreal Matrix had the power to digitize warriors and teleport them far away. And since the matrix stored a copy of that digitized warrior in its memory core, it also had the ability to respawn a warrior when he was killed. It was the ultimate weapon! One would have unlimited supply of soldiers to throw at the enemy this way, as Unreal Matrix would simply resurrect the soldiers who died in service. Also, every single soldier would survive his first battle, meaning that everyone would be a veteran.

But then a question nagged the researchers at Liandri Corporation. How did a race having such a terrible weapon die out suddenly? In fact, with such a deadly weapon, they could have easily become the masters of the universe by now. The Liandri Corporation found out the truth not long later.

The first fault they uncovered was when one of the test subjects decided to test out the capabilities of the Unreal Matrix. First, the subject was shot in the head with a rifle, killing him instantly. The matrix resurrected him, as good as new. However, he retained his memory, even the pain and agony of death. So the subject was a little disturbed. The researches wrote it off as a minor problem. Then, they decided to be a little more creative. They tied the subject to a rocket and launched him into space. Seconds later, the rigged rocket exploded.

Again, the matrix resurrected the man, but this time, it was not pleasant. The man respawned screaming and bloody. He reappeared in the experimentation room with his right leg missing from the knee down, and his left arm dangling by its tendons at the elbow. Seconds later, the man died of blood loss. And for some reason, the matrix hence forth refused to respawn the man. Apparently, if the matrix respawned you unnaturally, and if you die that way, the digitized you in the matrix core is deleted. And so, the Liandri Corporation lost their first test subject. All experimentation with the Unreal matrix was halted.

The Liandri next chance to test out the matrix came in the form of a volunteer soldier, Captain Graff. He was digitized and teleported alone to the moon of Kelvar V, one of the bases of the Empire Rebels, him, armor, weapons and all. He arrived safely at the destination, and proceeded to single handedly annihilate the rebel personnel there. He was killed when one of the guards crept up from behind him and blew off his cranium with a high explosive shot gun shell.

Immediately, the researchers worked to resurrect Captain Graff, and within a few minutes, Graff respawned back at the laboratory. A quick health check and he was teleported back at the rebel base. Imagine the rebels surprise to see the man they just killed come back from the dead and slaughter them. They fought back with all they had, but the fact that a dead man had returned to kill them all was wrecking havoc on the reb0el morale. Again, Graff was gunned down by machine gun fire. Again he was resurrected and sent into battle.

After the nineteenth times of dieing, Graff was again resurrected at the laboratory. He was perspiring badly and his eyes were a little wild. The Liandri should have taken precautions at that point. But they did not. They were too intent of destroying the rebels. As the health inspectors moved up to give Graff a check up, Graff finally broke. Raising up his assault rifle, he gunned down the five doctors.

Then he proceeded to hunt down the researchers in the lab, mercilessly killing them. All the while, he was grinning, as if he enjoyed the feel of blood and the screams of the dying. The guards were called in, and they tried to stop Graff. However, the constant respawning seemed to have given him supernatural powers as his body took in bullet after bullet. Only after the guards had emptied their entire magazine into Graff did he finally die. The Liandri lost five doctors, eight researchers, and fifteen guards. Five researchers and a total of eighteen more guards were severely wounded.

It was then obvious that the respawning would eventually drive a person mad. It was just as obvious how the aliens who created the Unreal Matrix died out. They respawned themselves to death.

But the Unreal Matrix was a still a very advance technology, and the Liandri could not bear from not profiting from it. Then they had an idea. The Unreal Tournament was born. Lawbreakers and volunteers would be sent here to fight it out. They would be given weapons of all sorts. Their mission would be to kill or be killed. Winners would be awarded a huge amount of cash and freedom from the tournaments. The Liandri limited the respawning of any one character to ten times per day. That meant the person who achieved ten kills or 'frags' first would be the winner. It would certainly postpone the crazed effect of too much respawning, now called the Graff Effect. Not that they cared for the safety of the contestants. All they cared was that the tournament went on.

The contestants knew well about the Graff Effect, but who could resist the temptations of so much money? Volunteers had to sign up for a minimum of three years in the tournaments in order to join. Unless of course, they emerged as the grand champions then they would be set free from the tournament. And because only one team a year could become the grand champion, most of the contestants were indeed veterans. So most of the contestants were more than a little insane. But for the Liandri Corporation, that was good. It meant more publicity. And as the fans of Unreal Tournament increased, so did the income...

Here follows a history leading up to the present time:

2215 New Earth Government formed to battle Skaarj Empire. 2

216 During the '7 Day Siege' the Skaarj surround Earth. In a bold move, NEG commandos destroy the Skaarj mother ship, causing the Skaarj to retreat in disarray.

2219 Following the Human/Skaarj war, many of Earth's cities lay in ruins. When the New Earth Government attempted to assert its authority over these areas, they were confronted by many rebel groups, often covertly financed by the great corporations, which had established bases in the destroyed cities.

2241 "Strider Wars" are won by sacrificing a planetary colony. The colony is disguised to look like a major control center and as it is attacked, is detonated, destroying the planet and the invading Strider forces. The architect of this victory, a young female officer with power beyond her years leaves the military, unable to reconcile her feelings over the incident. Records indicate she joined the Terran Colonial Authority as intelligence officer aboard a Marshal's patrol vessel.

2251 Leaked classified data files indicate that an incident occurred on the outer rim of human space. Ancient artifacts are found, initiating inter- corporation warfare and the reemergence of the Skaarj, eager to claim whatever power the artifacts held. Although most details are still highly classified, it seems that a TCA Marshal was involved in destroying the artifacts and preventing the awakening of an ancient power that could have spelled disaster.

2260 In one of the most daring acts of the mostly covert Corporation Wars, Izanagi Corporation's research facility on Lamdon 3 was raided and destroyed by a strike force from the Axon Research Corporation, despite the protection offered by the elite NEG ThunderCrash force. Axon was able to not only destroy the facility, but also retrieve the advanced plasma ion tank under development there.

2267 In the Green's World Rebellion, three thousand miners revolt against harsh working conditions.

2276 Stolen "Nexus" prototype missiles are recovered by the NEG military in a daring raid on a Hellion convoy on the surface of Taron. This missile type was later used in multiple incidents of colonial suppression.

2283 The infamous AI uprising on LBX-7683 (metallic asteroid in the Erican cluster) resulted in a massive loss of human life. Rebelling against their oppressive and abusive human creators, robotic workers and battle droids took control in a bloody mutiny and claimed their home as their own sovereign world. The previous owners of LBX-7683 decided to regain their profitable mine, and so the Liandri Corporation sent in a small tactical squad set to strike at the very heart of the new robot world. The squad succeeded in penetrating the core of the robots' prime facility, where they destroyed the central AI generators, thus preventing the machines from replicating themselves. Having proved their combat skill to the human victors, a group of the sentient machines were inserted into a stasis matrix and were later reprogrammed for corporate purposes. The leader of the robot force, Xan Kriegor resists multiple memory wipes but eventually succumbs to reprogramming.

2291 'Consensual murder' is legalized, opening the way for a previously underground event - the "Tournament" to go mainstream. Mining companies had long been running small leagues and matches to channel aggression. Liandri Mining Corporation begins to tri-cast the fights. Xan Kriegor is the first champion of the Liandri Tournament, which quickly becomes viewed as the defacto human space championship. Xan was already legendary because of his success in the long-running (but not legally sanctioned) tournaments on the mining worlds. He leads the Liandri Corporation sponsored team - "The Corrupt".

2293 Malcolm - a human - unseats Xan, and becomes one of the "Great" champions of the Tournament. A huge media figure, Malcolm is hailed as the biggest star in human history and is worshipped as a god. His success nets great rewards for his sponsoring corporation, attracting the attention of jealous rivals both in the arenas of the Tournament and in the corridors of power a galaxy away. Xan is returned to the Liandri Corporation for upgrades.

2302 The gene-boosted monster - Gorge - defeats Malcolm in a brutal contest and is named champion of the Tournament. The aging Sniper Rifle (a relic of centuries past) is removed from the Tournament as is "Assault" - a team- based event that forms a part of the competition. Many fans of the Tournament complain at these changes, with some combatants refusing to participate in the new format.

2303 The most anticipated tournament ever takes place, with three former champions (Xan, Malcolm, and Gorge) each captaining a team. Vehicles are introduced to Tournament combat. The Hellions, eager to prove themselves as mercenaries for hire, enter the Tournament in hopes of securing new contracts. Xan has received upgrades and is deadlier than ever. He is also backed by a team of combat droids from LBX-7683. An updated Sniper Rifle is added to the weapon roster, along with several other weapons designed for the larger outdoor combat environments of the new Onslaught and returning Assault events.

Welcome...to the Unreal Tournament...