Prologue
The defeat of Atmos' age old enemy, Cyclonia, was greeted by a short-lived celebration. If the people of Atmos thought they were free from an expanding empire with a viciously ambitious dictator at its head, they were in for a shock. With Cyclonis out of the way, the Colonel seized the opportunity to establish his own regime. With the help of the Murk Raiders, the skies of Atmos were put under strict regulation; all exports from any terra was property of their new dictator, and his plunder was to be distributed between himself and his henchmen alone. Terras themselves were sacked; houses were pillaged of valuables and weapons, and farmland was stripped of its produce. No airship was granted leave to fly unless personally authorised by the Colonel; if a ship could not produce proof of such an authorisation, the Murk Raider watchdogs would shoot it down and plunder the remains. Sky Knight squadrons were rounded up, and those who were caught and imprisoned were never heard from again. The Sky Knight Council dispersed, fleeing to safety on backwater terras. The Wastelands, even more so now, became a littered graveyard of airships, skimmers, and of people. This was where prisoners were sent, and all sentences were death. Atmos belonged to the Colonel now.
Still, the new revolutionary militia strove to fight back. An underground pocket of the few remaining Sky Knights, bands of smugglers, and a handful of Cyclonian defectors became the Colonel's primary opposition, and guerrilla warfare was their main form of attack. A scorched earth policy was undertaken. Terras burnt their fields, their houses, their towns - anything to stop the Colonel and his army from devastating their homes. Customs and traditions of terras were beaten out, and tyrannic governors were put in place to keep the population in line and cooperative. Terra Atmosia had been the first to fall. There was one terra that had not yet been conquered; Terra Rex. It was there that the revolutionaries made their base. But people everywhere were left without shelter and starving, and the efforts of smugglers to feed Atmos fell short. People were slowly dying, and the militia hadn't the strength to depose their new overlord.
The Storm Hawks, people believed, were their last hope. There was just one problem.
It had been a year since the Storm Hawks had left for the Far Side, and no one had heard from them since.