The Pre-History of The ExoSquad

It is the 23rd century, the Nano-Tech Age, which the previous 300 years has seen human civilization progressed in ways only people of the 20th and 21st centuries could only dream about. Revolutionary inventions and advancements in both genetics and robotics has forever solved the problems of human society and technology. This is achieved by the combination of human and machine in the form of a cybernetic-controlled, robotic vehicle-like tools call 'Exo-Frame Suits,' or E-Frames. The creation of the E-Frames contributed in making revolutionary achievements in science possible, such as operating easily in former hostile planetary environments of Mars and Venus to setup technologies that adjusted these planet's atmosphere and geo-sphere to be human-friendly or at least tolerable. Additionally, the world finally realized a complete peaceful unity of the human race with all their nations under the United Earth Federation government, or the UEF; formerly the 20th century's old United Nations organization headquartered in New York City. A true utopia now realized, humanity focuses their ultimate destiny to prosper beyond Earth and someday even to the farthest stars of the Universe.

By the middle of the 22nd century in which the computerized Information Age ended and the ultra-futuristic Nano-Tech Age ushered in which introduced to the E-Frames and the formation of the UEF, there was a rebirth and new advancement beyond the old and crude space travel and exploration technology from the 20th century's Space Age sub-era. However, its revival comes with the extreme new challenges towards allowing possible travel to other planets throughout the Solar System and colonial survival on these worlds. Despite the miracles of that the E-Frames provided in further aiding scientific achievements, it still only just a full body-fitting tool to temporarily house and protect a human operator. This would not be effective enough to send someone on tremendous-long space flights on experimental rocketry still in development to far away lifeless and airless planets working to survive with only limited equipment and resources to build a livable colony. Thus, the fully unlocked and understood human genes and its vast DNA combinations gave an answer to this problem: creating artificial humans fit for the dangerously risky and harsh tasks of early deep space existence. They are called the Neo Sapiens.

Stronger, smarter, and more resilient with requiring far less food, air, and sleep than the original Homo Sapiens, Neo Sapiens were the first artificial life-forms created by the human race. However in curbing of conflict with multiple religious beliefs and avoiding long-term biological uncertainties as there were laws against the misuse and abuse of genetic engineering and cloning, the Neo Sapiens were not created with sexual reproductive organs despite still having male and female genders. All Neo Sapiens are born artificially at adult age through cloning vats of UEF-owned and operated 'Brooding Facilities.' Equipped and trained towards the specific kinds of tasks and conditions being on other planets, the Neo Sapiens were sent into space across the Solar System from broiling Venus and Sun-torched Mercury to the mysterious icy-dark worlds of Pluto and the newly discovered tenth planet named Chaos. Half a century went by as all the Neo Sapien astronauts successfully reach their destinations having Venus converted into an Earth-like planet fit for farming and livestock while Mars is turned into a breathable mining and industrial paradise. Additionally, fully-functioning colonies were prepared across the Solar System's planets and their moons. In the meantime, Earth had finally assembled and perfected gigantic, nuclear fusion-powered space ships that acted as drifting cities carrying the first residents outside Earth to their new homes and jobs on other worlds. Other than adequate living space and life support, it was revolutionarily fast for rocketry as they now could travel as quickly and easily throughout the Solar System as the 20th century aircraft had done in Earth's atmosphere.

Upon arrival, the new human colonists quickly met hostility by the Neo Sapiens now living at these colonies. Declaring that they grew independent to the obligation to the Homo Sapiens and their Earth government, Mars became the flashpoint for revolt as it held the largest Neo Sapien population in the entire Solar System. Led by the Neo Sapien Rebellion leader on Mars named Marsala, the Neo Sapiens claimed they had justly earned their new interplanetary homes, which they had built themselves and gained independence amongst themselves working to survive far away from Earth. However, the violence of the rebellion by the Neo Sapiens came from a once unknown figure named Phaeton inspiring fellow fighting Neo Sapiens, except for Marsala, to seek out and kill Humans. Virtually a mental reincarnation of Adolf Hitler, Phaeton easily convinced many Neo Sapiens of Mars that they were biologically superior to the humans and that they should not, nor any other Neo Sapien colony, share the Solar System with their undeserving and puny Homo Sapien creators. The uncontrollable Phaeton and his believers massacred countless humans, perverting the revolution that Marsala was attempting for the whole of the Neo Sapien race through a sense of honor to fight for freedom.

The attacks and brutal killing of human civilians on Mars made the retaliatory response of the humans go beyond the limit of Mars. Humanity sought to crush the entire Neo Sapien uprising throughout the Solar System. Humanity began attempting to crack down on any Neo Sapien dissident through police forces throughout the colonies to keep what was happening on Mars from happening elsewhere. However, the lack of any professional and organized military forces that Earth's nations once possessed, due to the disbandment of such armies since the UEF's establishment, leaving people on Mars under the bloody Neo Sapien revolt helpless to fight back. That was until survivors collectively banned together and used their E-Frames, which were originally meant as just civilian machines of space construction and hefty industrial labor, as very crudely armed militias. Utilizing spare parts of salvaged police E-Frames, they turned their own into weapons. This took the Neo Sapiens by surprise as they never operated the E-Frame technology before, nor were they capable to combat the human's robotic suits. The Neo Sapiens tried to counter them by using stolen fighter spacecraft and battle tanks, but it all useless. The entire Neo Sapien rebellion was quickly and easily put down. Many Neo Sapiens were killed in ending the rebellion on Mars, mainly those who followed Phaeton's vicious actions. Phaeton escaped and went into hiding for the time being. All those who followed Marsala, they had not done any real fighting except in only self-defense and they promptly surrendered when the humans finally came for them next. Marsala peacefully went to trial on Earth at The Hague in Brussels, Belgium facing the UEF prosecution. Marsala was found guilty and took all the blame that Phaeton caused, sentenced for life, and imprisoned.

While all this occurred, the extremely far away planet of Chaos was actually the only planet that did not have any rebellion by the Neo Sapiens whatsoever. This was due the planet being nearly a deathtrap to the first colonists of this hidden-away world. The Neo Sapiens first-hand had discovered that the planet bore a totally new metal later to be called 'Chaosium,' after the planet's name. It possessed the once scientifically mythical property of anti-matter producing an almost deadly powerful, black hole-like gravitational pull. When the Neo Sapiens were studying a deposit of Chaosium, the space ship lost control from that metal deposit's effects causing the ship to crash into the planet. All the Neo Sapiens were instantly killed. Their discovery was transmitted to Earth, but their deaths were left unknown including that there would be no colony prepared for the imminent arrival of the humans. By the time the clueless Homo Sapiens came to colonize Chaos, they almost suffered the same fate as the Neo Sapiens. They, too, crashed and many had died. However, the lucky ones quickly struggled to survive while many more froze and suffocated to death as they put their fairly-intact crashed ship together to act as a rudimentary colony facility. Their success allowed them to permanently keep warm, breath, and feed themselves. The loss of means to communicate for help left them stranded, and after a while, seemingly forgotten by the UEF on this super-frozen, lightless world. As the new inhabitants of Chaos slowly re-grew their crippled population over the next one hundred years and begun building their colony themselves, their hatred for the UEF, since they never contacted the survivors of Chaos nor sent a search-and-rescue party to their aid, grew just as much. Soon, they found that their planet was extremely rich with every known metal and mineral of the Periodic Table of Elements including Chaosium. Using these vast raw materials, they were quick to better their colony from former scraps and even build working space ships, all powered by Choasium as they found it to be a more powerful energy source than Uranium fission and Hydrogen fusion combined. Despite these improvements, most of their technologies were crude, dated, or just less impressive than that of the UEF. Such dramatic experiences that the lost colony of Chaos had initially gained mixed with the resentment towards the UEF provided them a roughish sense of rugged independence and outlaw-like hostility. Thus many years after the Neo Sapien Rebellion and later having Jonas Simbacca become their greatest leader, the colonists of Chaos presented their existence to the rest of the Solar System through plundering raids and deadly violence. Surprised UEF colonists had gained fear of these forgotten people now labeled as 'Space Pirates.'

After finalizing total control over every Neo Sapien populace across the Solar System and before the Space Pirate problem, public human outcry of the Martian massacre had the UEF legislature formulate and pass into law a citizens' rights policy against Neo Sapiens. It declared those imprisoned Neo Sapiens who participated in the Neo Sapien Rebellion were to be transferred to Mars to perform their natural purpose in existing, which was what the Neo Sapiens were created to do: labor for humanity. Luckily, those Neo Sapiens who were unjustly jailed away in the confusion of the rebellion had finally been recognized by the UEF. In order to compensate for the harsh terms dealt on sentenced Neo Sapiens convicts, Marsala and countless others were freed, pardoned, and fully helped back into society as innocent citizens of the UEF. Proof was found that he was not responsible for the mass-murder of humans on Mars, but proof that Phaeton's responsibility of it, especially his very existence, was lacking. Marsala became a symbolic representation of good for the Neo Sapien community. In re-establishing the image of Neo Sapien loyalty towards Homo Sapiens, Marsala recruited himself into the Exo-Squad as soon as the Exo-Fleet was created. Marsala's combat skills and intellect not only was a model example for Exo-Academy cadets in training, but it quickly had him promoted to the famed Able Company of Exo-Squad. Easily and quickly, he has become a good friend to all of them including Lieutenant Captain T.J. Marsh, leader of Able Company, and other commanding officers aboard the space warship, Resolute II.

The brief skirmish with the Neo Sapiens had made the UEF realized that they must return the existence of a military institution and a professional armed force to counter any future violence. The Neo Sapien revolution and now the Space Pirate terrorism convinced the UEF that the now newly forming military facilities, including the revival of West Point and other old legendary military universities, must be expanded bigger. The new force had to handle such daunting tasks as patrol and defense of a vast area of space around the Solar System, including space freighter routes against Pirate attacks. However with the scarcity of military science and weaponry due to Earth's recent time of total peace disposing of such combat technology and skills, the UEF had to start from scratch in redeveloping military armament and techniques. Other than reinventing a free-standing army, the UEF recognize both the need for strategic and tactical space and interplanetary combat. They realized potential of E-Frames, demonstrated from the Neo Sapien Rebellion, as the ultimate infantry weapon and body armor combined of the Nano-Tech Age. It became the fundamental core of this new military force which Exo-Academy was formed to begin training for it. Like the old mechanized infantry, tank, and helicopter units of the past rapidly engaging the enemy forces while capturing their territory, the E-Frames will be fulfilling the same role zipping through the vacuum of space or rushing across a planet's surface. In transporting and housing these E-Frames while acting like the old powerful warships of Earth's oceans, former colonization space ships were reconfigured into space carriers while newly made ships became planet-bombarding and escort-defending space cruisers. Old nuclear weapons were reinvented and fitted onto the space carriers to deal with run-away asteroids and the ever rare worst case scenario. In addition to provide for any likely need of special warfare, the old super-warriors that were the commando and paratrooper had been reborn and combined in a specially light armored and weapon-equipped robotic space suit similar to the E-Frames. They became the 'Exo-Jump Troopers.' Within several years of creating the first human military force of the Solar System, the UEF's space-borne ships was finally completed and christened the 'Exo-Fleets.' The E-Frame-based armies were called 'Exo-Squads.'

These amassed forces of the UEF are divided into two large Exo-Fleets. The 1st Exo-Fleet is led by a space carrier acting as the command flag ship call-signed 'Resolute I.' Under the command of Admiral Mathews, this fleet puts newly recruited personnel and troops, freshly graduated from the Exo-Academy established in Chicago, into service and performs interplanetary peace-keeping missions. The 2nd Exo-Fleet is also led by a space carrier acting as the flag ship called-signed 'Resolute II.' Under the command of Admiral Winfield, this fleet houses elite veteran personnel and troops which performs full-scale war combat and specialized missions. In each fleet, there contains numerous Exo-Squads that are code-named by the alphabet A through Z carried by a number of Exo-Fleet space carriers. Each Exo-Fleet also contains one Exo-Jump Trooper ship which holds numerous of such space commando-paratroopers in groups. Like the Exo-Squads, they are code-named by the alphabet from A to C, but also go by sub-groups through numbers 1 through 5 after the designated alphabet call-sign. The 1st Fleet contains the Exo-Jump Trooper ship call-signed 'Normandy' while the 2nd Fleet contains the ship call-signed 'Arnhem.' It is the Resolute II and the Arnhem that are home of two of the very best groups of the entire Exo-Fleet space forces: Exo-Squad Able Company and Exo-Jump Trooper Charlie-Five Platoon. The formation of all these troops took little more than a few years of training and experience gained from frequent skirmishes with the Space Pirates. This quickly made the Exo-Fleets and their Squads into the vanguard of the UEF's space security.

While the young Exo-Fleets were busy being built and being put into service, attention was gradually diverted away from the colony of Mars now-turned prison for dangerous Neo Sapiens over the years. After about some 50 years have gone by, politicians had grown soft and forgetful of the Neo Sapien Rebellion especially due to good stable relations of the Neo Sapiens on Earth and other colonies, excluding Mars. Feeling generous and after realizing Mars now possessed the least amount of humans living there, the UEF decided to make Mars the official home world of the Neo Sapien race while ending all Neo Sapien prison sentences there even if they were incomplete. It was then Phaeton suddenly came out of hiding and rallied political support amongst the Neo Sapien community on Mars to lead them.

Within a few days of Earth's time, a new government based solely of Neo Sapien rule was sweeping across Mars. Immediately, all humans on Mars either had voluntarily left or were forced out from their homes as they were and transported off the planet. Once Humanity was deported from Mars and all of society left behind came under full Neo Sapien control shortly there after, Phaeton announced himself as life-long 'Governor' of the new 'Autonomous Neo Sapien Commonwealth of Mars.' Phaeton stated additionally that the Neo Sapiens would remain happily isolated with themselves on Mars not wanting to have anything to do with the Homo Sapien race. It was then UEF recognize Phaeton and the Neo Sapiens' independent sovereignty of Mars. Both relocated Mars refugees and sympathetic Earth citizens were outraged at the UEF's catering to human-hating Neo Sapiens taking over Mars and rioted for nearly a week across the world.

Now under the totalitarian rule of Phaeton and a fascist-oriented regime of Neo Sapien racism towards Homo Sapiens, Mars was soon once again humming alive with industry as the Neo Sapiens was extremely swift in fully familiarizing and utilizing themselves with the coveted E-Frame technologies once only possessed by humans. Within about a year after the establishment of the ANSCM, Mars became a fully functional and self-sufficient nation perfectly fit for Neo Sapiens under Phaeton's firm guidance. Spurred by such extraordinary progress after suffering through their past, the Neo Sapien populous of Mars were happily marveled by Phaeton's dictatorial leadership and his racial superiority philosophy over the so-called weak Homo Sapien tyrants. They see him both as the key to Neo Sapien prosperity and survival. Thus, the ANSCM accepted Phaeton as their demigod and his hatred for humans as the foundation of their new nation's politics. While rebuilding Mars in his image and satisfying his people into pledging their hearts and minds to him, Phaeton then begun to plan and build towards now completing his ultimate ambition: the dictation of the destinies of both Neo and Homo Sapiens. Such an ambition that will involve trying to evolve one race against their will and forcing the extinction of the other.

Some years went by as the UEF colonies and the lone ANSCM nation quietly went about their existence without disturbing one another. Neither would even share communications with each other. Similar to the old Earth nations of America and Soviet Russia during the 20th century, Humanity and the Neo Sapiens had an obscured form of their own Cold War between each other. The UEF public on Earth and across the Solar System were generally mixed in feeling towards the Neo Sapiens of Mars and as a racial whole. This was due to issues involving their anti-human past conflicting with those of the good Neo Sapiens deserving as much understanding and equality as humans. However, the ANSCM was secretly building their hatred of Homo Sapiens to a intensely fanatical fervor towards giving cause to the creation of the first Neo Sapien military forces. Taking notice of the skills and activities of the Exo-Fleets and their Squads, the Neo Sapiens built many similar space warship fleets. Fleets that numbered more than just the two groups that the UEF possessed but consisting of even much more warships. Along with the Neo Sapien war fleets, their version of the E-Frame armies were calibrated towards siege, surprise-attack, and anti-personnel/E-Frame capabilities compared to the Exo-Squads' direct-attack, reconnaissance, special operations, and combat engineering qualities. Worst of all, the Neo Sapiens were even more secretive in developing super-weapon technology programs. Neo Sapien military scientists, under top-secret oath, required Phaeton to negotiate with the Space Pirates to obtain a plentiful supply of Chaosium in order to tap into the element's uniquely powerful anti-matter characterization and energy output. The kind of super-weapons utilizing Chaosium, that would be later implemented for the Neo Sapiens' armed forces and their newly-forged empire, included the devastating anti-spacecraft 'Gauss Radiating-Augmentation Focus' energy shield for planetary defense, the ultimate stealth 'invisibility cloaking' field for space fleets, and an experimental doomsday weapon prototype that could implode a planet into becoming a small black hole.

When the Neo Sapien armadas and armies were fully ready to be put into action, the UEF was still unaware of the ANSCM's activities. Phaeton then made his move to set events into motion towards his favor. Announcing to the UEF government his wishes to p have a diplomatic summit in person with the UEF and its colonies, the UEF legislature accepted the request and anticipated the arrival of the first meeting ever with the leader of the ANSCM. The meeting went successfully the way Phaeton wanted and expected from the human attitudes of political bipartisanism to establish an alibi for what he has engineered to occur allowing him to execute his master plans. Convincing the foolish UEF military council of benevolent intentions about Neo Sapiens towards humans by starting a détente and eventual co-existing peace between them, he went to Earth and visited the city of Chicago to give the same speech to the world public. The negative and vengeful sentiments of the former Mars refugees amongst the Earth citizens came as a outcry refusing to have a meeting with Phaeton or any form of diplomacy with the ANSCM as the memories of the massacre on Mars were still lingering. Once arrived on Earth and appeared at the front of Chicago's City Hall while under safely by UEF police escort, he made his eloquently positive speech. Just as he was finishing, some angry human had attempted to assassinate Phaeton. A Chicago Police Department officer named Sean Napier, later to become resistance leader of Earth during the coming war against Phaeton, helped saved Phaeton's life by acting as a body guard against the sniper fire. As soon as Phaeton arrived back to the ANSCM capital city, he had heard the news of the UEF legislative reconvened to vote on Phaeton's proposal. They accepted it, and that was exactly what Phaeton wanted. Despite almost being killed by human dissidents, the political posturing in Phaeton's favor will provide distraction when the time comes for the greatest event in Neo Sapien history to take place. All he now needed to do was to deal with the UEF's military might before he could begin and Phaeton had that arranged well in advance. Phaeton had a negotiation made with the Space Pirates since the secret trade years ago for Chaosium. One that gives Phaeton the cooperation of Simbacca, the honorable yet brutal Space Pirate leader, through secret promises that would supposedly benefit both their peoples. Now, Phaeton was ready to utilize their cooperation deal.

The 'UEF-SSF Danube' was recently built and commissioned as the largest human-made spacecraft yet and being the first of the second generation-'Space Ship Freighter.' It was meant to carry the most vast amounts of cargo in one time than any previously known vessel in all history both at sea on Earth and in space. Once on its way across the Asteroid Belt heading towards Earth completing another massive cargo shift for the entire Solar System, it transmitted a desperate distress call. The emergency was that the Space Pirates had just attacked and begun boarding the Danube with Simbacca personally amongst the raiders overseeing the attack. Exo-Fleet II already heading out from the Inner Planets, after a covert recon mission on Mars, for another patrol of the Outer Planets when they received the distress call. Shortly arriving in force, the giant freighter ship was badly damaged and adrift as all communications were offline along with no Space Pirate vessels in sight. When Able Company boarded the stranded spacecraft, they found most of the crew dead and all the cargo stolen. As Able Company reported in what happened and called for a shuttle of Exo-Fleet engineers to get the ship back online to tow it home, one survivor was luckily found barely alive and pinned underneath a blasted-off door. Lifting the door from the survivor, it was rigged to a easily-hidden nuclear bomb and it triggered into activation. Able Company and the survivor escape in time before the Danube was vaporized in a Sun-shaped nuclear explosion, but the approaching shuttle of engineers was caught in the blast and were lost with the Danube. Exo-Fleet II soon reported to Earth of the latest Pirate attack and the UEF was in an uproar. In little time of hearing the first-ever nuclear terrorist attack in human history and the death of Exo-Fleet personnel from it, the UEF very quickly drafted and passed a declaration of war, the first ever, on the Space Pirates. Even Phaeton was quick to attend the delegation for war claiming that the ANSCM will support the UEF in any way. The Exo-Fleets and their Squads were put into full-military alert and ordered into action with the missions to find and attack Chaos, defeat the Pirate space fleets if defending their home planet, and to force Simbacca into surrender or capture.

As all of the Exo-Fleets and their Squads went about their campaign to finally defeat the Space Pirates once and for all, they left the entire UEF domain vulnerably open. Phaeton then returned to Mars and called upon both a fanatically loyal populous and an eagerly waiting space force that the time to conquer and dominate the Homo Sapien race had finally come. Amassed and readied while Phaeton was waiting for the war between Earth and Chaos to begin, the enormous Neo Sapien invasion fleets and troops stealthly set out towards their targeted human planets from Mercury to Pluto. The largest concentration of the Neo Sapien's forces was specially aimed at Earth with Phaeton aboard one of the warships to personally command his war on Humanity. By the time fighting began between the Pirates and the UEF, Phaeton launched himself into history. In little time and with not much effort, the entire Homo Sapien civilization of the Solar System was defeated and conquered. Earth was soon to be the last to fall ending the UEF. As the last wave Neo Sapien troops arrived on their targets throughout the Solar System, another army, armed with assigned jobs to rule these new worlds on Phaeton's behalf and engineers to rebuild those worlds in Phaeton's vision, followed behind to help raise the Neo Sapien Empire from the ashes. Phaeton now initiates the new future for the Homo Sapiens through a brutal campaign of enslavement and extermination worse beyond than what the 20th century Earth had witnessed by its many blood-thirsty, mad dictators.

Just as the Exo-Fleet and their Squads successfully found Chaos, defeated its planetary defenses while scattering the Pirate fleets, and about to finally begin invading to seek out Simbacca, the Exo-Fleets received the broken distress calls from the UEF. Immediately, the Exo-Squads halted their advance and ended their operation against the Pirates to hopelessly learn that the entire Solar System have now begun being occupied by ANSCM forces that was thought to support the Exo-Fleets. However, Simbacca learned of the reason for Exo-Fleet's ceased hostilities against his home world. Simbacca realized he was being used as a patsy to provide distraction for Phaeton's invasion when no Neo Sapien reinforcements came to save the Pirates from certain defeat. Thus, the betrayed Space Pirates and the stranded Exo-Fleets allied themselves using Chaos as the only free Homo Sapien world left now to stand against Phaeton and, someday hopefully, liberate all of Humanity.