July, 2054 A.D.
The Earth was caught in a great battle between unknown alien forces.
Their weapons were terrifying and powerful between human reckoning. Our planet was overwhelmed, it's surface reduced to ash and rubble in the blink of an eye.
The Coalition Government knew the war was coming. In response, they prepared the Earthlife Colonization Project: Project Exodus. Interstellar arks were launched from all across the planet, from every major city on Earth. Bravely, we leapt from our cradle, our home for the last four and a half billion years.
Most didn't make it out of the atmosphere. Only a small handful managed to escape. Among them was our ship, the White Whale.
After leaving Earth behind, we spent two years wandering in space, searching. We thought of ourselves as the lucky ones, the pioneers who would settle a new world.
But our past caught up with us. Literally.
The aliens attacked unrelentingly, and, if not for the efforts of a lone hero, we would not have managed to survive.
Our ship still took heavy damage. We lost control. With our flight systems down, the White Whale was pulled by the gravitational field of a nearby planet, it's hull shattering and breaking into pieces as we plummeted towards the surface.
Since then, two months have passed.
From inside a stasis pod, a man awakens, however so slowly.
A flashlight shines on his red hair, blue eyes and fair skin. He is well built, not to the point of a bodybuilder, but still carrying a strong body.
"Hey there. Looks like you're still in one piece" The person who freed him says.
Trying to get out of the pod, the man immediately falls knees first into the ground, rain on his back.
"Careful. Your senses will need time to reactivate." The person with the flashlight, who he can now see is a tall woman with white hair and mostly red armor, although with plenty of blue and purple, warns him. He gets up, and she says. "Your pod is the only one around that landed intact. Good thing I found you. My name is Elma. Wanna tell me yours?"
Carefully, not quite sure how, he answers. "... I... Don't remember it."
"Uh. You're British." She remarks, at a low enough voice that wasn't quite expected to be heard. "You can't even remember your own name? Must be the stasis hangover. That's not good. Try again and focus, please."
This time, the name pops in his mind. "Cross. My name is Cross."
"That's good. Remember anything else?" Cross shakes his head, and Elma answers. "It'll come. In the meanwhile, I'll explain things to you the best I can. How are your limbs. Can you move?"
Cross stretched a bit, before answering. "Yes. I think I am fine."
"Alright. Let's take it slowly while you get the stasis out of your system. First things first, you'll need a weapon." Elma hands over a knife and an assault rifle to Cross. He could tell they're kind of cheap stuff, but still useful for self-defense. "All right, let's get going."
They walk for a bit, the rain still falling on them, as Elma explains him the situation: How the White Whale, the ship that escaped Earth, a destroyed homeworld he had no memory of, released it's lifepods over the planet as it crashed. Some of the local wildlife interrupted their talk, but it was quickly dealt with. Cross felt having some ease with his weapons, even if without any real memory, but the strength and efficiency Elma had when fighting couldn't help but amaze and scare him a bit.
As they start going up a bit, Elma notices. "The rain is starting to let up. Just in time for sunrise. Follow me, I promise you're gonna love this."
Standing by her side at a cliff's edge, the rain had truly let up, letting Cross take in the breathtaking view in front of him.
The sun kissed every last inch of the planet, and the view was quickly, but momentarily, interrupted by a large, dinosaur-like creature, walking in front of them, and, as it went away others appeared into the world.
The entire planet was bursting with life, that roamed across it's fields, flew through it's skies, effortlessly ignoring gravity. It's bright hills, sparkling waters and strong mountains all were filled with beauty, and Cross could only think one thing.
He wanted to see every last inch of it.
"Pretty wild, huh?" Elma said, finally breaking the silence. "All the creatures in this planet are indigenous, as far as we can tell. We need to learn to play nice with these guys if we are going to coexist together."
Looking back to the view in front of them, she continued. "We call this planet Mira. You won't find it in any starchart. But it's our new home."
After a quick stop in a basecamp, which, according to Elma, were being spread all over Mira, to help the people exploring it. Making use of the place to rest, Cross switched into some light armor that his savior got him. And, that being done, they went off to the Habitat Unit, the plan being to get to it by the end of day, which was apparently quite possible, given the day had just begun.
They had took the high road, for the sake of safety. Apparently, they could survive the huge fall from the cliff to the beach under it, which made Cross' mind lightly experience what he'd later know to be a headache, trying to understand HOW exactly. Either, way, they took the high road, which only had a handful of hostiles in it.
Although the world he was on kept surprising him, the survivor focused for a moment to ask Elma a question. "Why are you helping me so much?"
"You're a civilian, and, even if amnesiac, we need all help we can get." She said, a bit matter-of-factly, but not in a way that sounded harsh of cold. "And I'll always fight for mankind's survival. It's people, it's history... It's all amazing. I help you for the love I have for mankind, and all the promise they carry."
Cross understood Elma's words. Surely, something so incredible as she seemed to describe was worth saving, after all. Something about it felt a bit off, distant, to him... But he supposed he was a bit off himself.
He then noticed the Habitat Unit was, really, just ahead of them by now, and, sure enough, Elma said. "Looks a lot bigger up close, doesn't it? And this was just the Habitat Unit. The White Whale was one hell of a ship. Until it came crashing down, at least." She breathed in and out before adding "We are at the West Gate. It's closed now for security reasons. But a repurposed freight elevator will get us in... side."
Her voice trailed off as a howl came by. One of Mira's creatures watched over them nearby, with two others of it's kind closing on by the sides. "Grexes, huh? And they're riled." Elma spoke, before taking off her Dual Swords, and urging Cross to do the same. "We can't leave them roaming here. They're too close to the gate. We're gonna have to take them down."
He took his Knife out and readied his battle stance. He had no memory, nothing holding him to some family or the amazing "Earth" Elma told him about. But fighting?
Fighting was coming naturally.
Cross' song and dance with the beast was going well, he believed. The armor, although not that heavy, helped parry some of his opponents swipes and blows. However, dodging was still much better.
And, so, as the Grex he was fighting clawed at him, Cross rolled to the side, and switched to his assault rifle. The Flame Grenade he shot blew up in his opponent's face, but said opponent remained alive, if now with a mean burn. This wasn't good. Elma was holding off two of them by herself, he should pick up the pace.
His enemy tackled forward, and he only barely dodged. A claw came in his direction, and he thanked Elma from the dept of his heart for the armor, as it made the claw hurt a lot, instead of tearing his armor off. He blow threw him backwards, and he quickly answered by emptying his weapon into the Grex. Some hit the burn, which made the creature howl in anger, desperately rubbing his face on the dirt in a vain attempt to soothe the pain.
That was an opportunity that Cross wouldn't lose.
Running ahead with all of his speed, he closed the distance before the Grex could react, and pistol whipped him with the rifle. The attack toppled the enemy, leaving their underbelly open. The name of the finishing technique flashed on Cross' mind.
Slit Edge.
The fight was finally over, the beast's belly cut open.
The man took a moment to breathe and rest, before remembering his companion. Panickedly, he turned around and shouted. "Elma-!"
"Way ahead of you."
Elma stood no less calm and ready than she was before the battle. It was as if she never got in the battle in first place. The two Grexes, which were just as strong as the one facing him, stood on the ground, with almost surgical precision on the wounds.
Cross was a natural fighter. But Elma was very much a force of nature.
"I finished them a minute ago. You had things under control, so I decided to stand by and see a bit more of your fighting. Don't worry, I had my hand on my guns all the time, in case anything happened." She explained. "It's a shame we had to settle near so much wildlife. Luckily, some species aren't so hostile, but they're not friendly, either. There is a fine line between self-defense, and provoking a fight, you see. In this planet, we need to walk that line."
He nodded in understanding. Unnecessary fighting could only lead to trouble, for both sides inhabiting the planet.
Turning to the gate, Elma said. "Alright then. Let's head in."
Cross entered the elevator, and then the stairs next to it, following Elma to their destiny. As they walked through a hallway, some anticipation started rising in his chest, as the city started coming into view.
"Well, here we are. Not too shabby, huh?" His savior said, before adding. "For a giant beached spaceship, anyway."
He somehow managed to keep paying attention to what she was saying, even though he was taking in every street, every house, everything he could see from the place he was in. "But, like it or not, this place is our new home." Elma let go off the railing she was holding into, and turned to the newest resident of the city. "We took the name from the city it was modeled after back on Earth."
"We call it Neo Los Angeles. Welcome to NLA."
"And so it was that another survivor came to join our band of refugees."
"Together, we resolved to forge a new way of life here on Mira, come what may."
"New LA was our beautiful lie to ourselves... Truth is, we were adrift, heading into the unknown. Our native home was gone, swallowed in a shroud of light, and our future was uncertain: we had no idea what fate lay in store for us."
"Only that we had to keep living in order to see it."
Author Notes: Hello there, and welcome to my new project! This is one I've been looking forward to do for a while, so I hope you'll like it! The beginning of the game is quite rail-roaded, but I'll get more fun, I promise.
Hope you liked! Please, leave a review if you want to, and I'll see you soon!