Foreiya Heavy Industries On the forefront of all things mechanical for hundreds of years, FHI was originally a robotics company who eventually turned to the arms race as humanity tried to find more efficient and creative ways to defeat itself. They created a large portion of mass produced mobile weapons, focusing less on the weapons themselves and more on the vehicles that use the weapons. Be it the land, sea, or air, fifty years ago chances are it was made by Foreiya, or based off of their designs by a third party. It was not long until Foreiya pioneered their way into the realm of humanoid bipedal weaponry. Starting small at the level of powered suits, FHI advanced their gyroscopic and counterbalancing technology to the point where larger scale units were more feasible. Clunky and awkward at first, it would not be for another twenty years until their first mass produced line of bipedal weapons, the WX "Valiant" series, would be put out on full scale development. The Valiant Series The Valiant series, average height of 12 meters, was one of the first successful bipedal weapons to be introduced to the world. Boasting an impressive array of hard points to make them extremely versatile, as well as having human-like agility, the Valiant series was extremely promising in theory. However, while they were more agile than tanks or mobile weapons platforms, the Valiant series initially had many problems. Since bipedal weapons required a lot of delicate parts, parts failures were very common, additionally the Valiant series had a lot of field difficulty with aerial targets as well as long-range artillery, both of which could engage a platoon of Valiants at range with little trouble. Because of this, funding began to fall out with Foreiya as many investors began to pull from the company's stocks. Facing an imminent problem, Foreiya responded by putting their company out on a gamble in hastening development for the WX-2 Valiant Mk.II "Knight" series. Most all of the previous problems with the original Valiants were addressed in the Valiant Mk.II series, which use an EZ-Change Conformal Part system, as well as increased shielding and armor with relatively minimal loss of mobility. With the Mk.II's debut, the Valiant line secured its place as one of the mainstream mass produced lines of bipedal weapons and Foreiya soared once again. Fall of Foreiya Sadly, the fame brought around with the Valiant Mk.II would only be short lived. In what can only be described as a tragic accident, both the Chairman Kai T. R. and Vice Chairman Berl A. S. fell victim to a faulty weapon discharge during a live field test on their upcoming WX-3 Valiant Mk.III "Paladin" series. The event shook FHI's foundation immensely as each branch tried to place the blame on the other, and the next person in line to lead the company was simply too wishy-washy to trudge through the immense hardships. Production came to a grinding halt and investors once again found themselves pulling out of FHI's company, this time for good. What followed was simply an explosion of hard feelings and bitter resentment as each of the respective heads of FHI's Divisions jumped ship to form their own small time companies with what little funding they had left. Some went on to become simple parts manufacturers, some stayed in the arms race, while others went on to further their own experimental projects in an effort to become the second FHI. However, all of these events are what lead to the end of the fall of Foreiya Heavy Industries' legacy. Daidai Energy Co. Founded by Kyoko Hasegawa, and formerly the head of FHI's Energy Development Division, Kyoko used the engineers under her ad well as her own personal knowledge to use what would have been the latest technology in energy reactors for the Paladin line to instead power entire countries on high performance, minimal waste power plants. Using this as a stepping stone, Kyoko sent Daidai Energy Co. into the the battlefield, both proverbially and literally, however her first footstep was an extremely large one. Beam Weapons Until that point, the tide of a battle was heavily influenced by beam weaponry. Ballistic weapons could be shrugged off with enough armor, and missile guidance and counter-guidance was always playing tug of war between each other to the point where dumb fire rockets started to seem more and more like a good idea. Beam weapons, however, fired more precise than ballistic while easily cutting through armor as if it was butter, and while they were limited to turret emplacements or extremely clunky prototype units, they had deadly effectiveness on the field. Lasers versus Beams Before beam technology was truly worked upon, lasers were the foreseeable future of weapon technology. However, while much stronger and faster than beams, Lasers suffered from many faults that made them ineffective weapons in a battle. To start, the maximum effective range of a laser was much, much shorter than a beam of the same caliber. Additionally, lasers required a lot more power to maintain than beam weaponry, which simply needed a small burst of energy to get the reaction going, whereas a laser needed continuous energy feed to maintain strength. Lastly, lasers were very easy to counter, as anyone with a shield and some mirror coating could deflect a powerful enough laser to the point where shots could be reflected back to the attacker or his squad mates. Lasers, however, were not completely useless, as the precision of a laser weapon made them excellent point-defense and anti-missile countermeasures. Laser turrets are most commonly placed on fortified bases or battleships. Anti-Beam Field What Daidai Energy Co. had created was a device that simply leveled the playing field for beam weaponry. An Anti-Beam Field begins to diffuse a beam the moment it enters the field, in most cases heavily reducing the severity of any given beam attack and in some cases completely negating the attack in the first place. However, these fields were extremely energy inefficient, with a full all-directional field needing to be mounted off of something that can sustain a heavy energy flow. Anti-Beam Shields The quick and easy solution to giving anti-beam measures to smaller units was to create a unit that only created a field when it was needed, where it was needed. As such, Anti-Beam Shields were made, which were small (Using the Valiant series as reference, as the Mk.IIs were still in heavy use) projectors mounted on the forearm that created a cone of AB Field over a short distance. While slightly difficult to use at full effectiveness, especially in a full fledged battle, AB Shields were easy to maintain and definitely better than nothing. Additionally, while they did not offer the protection of a full-fledged shield, they were much less obstructive, if also that much more expensive. Project Serene Air Deciding to give her hand at full-scale mechanical production once again, Kyoko and Daidai Co. decide to create an offshore production plant to act as a testing ground for their creation, XF-00 "Serene Air". Production is abruptly halted though, as Daidai Co.'s revenue isn't enough to sustain the project. Persistently hanging onto the idea, Kyoko began to call out old associates as well as previous heads of FHI divisions to see if anyone was willing to lend her a financial hand. Most all of them refused, however several companies did decide to help, with some stipulations. Absolute Energy Rediffusor The latest in anti-beam technology by Daidai Energy Co., the AER is a modified AB Field that not only dissipates energy from beams, but also reabsorbs it to charge a battery that can be used to supplement power to the main reactor or act as a backup energy source if something goes horribly wrong. The discovery of the AER was accidental, and nearly took out Daidai's president Kyoko in a tragic explosion due to energy feedback while testing out ways to make a stronger AB Field. After observing the data, Daidai engineers began working on what would eventually become the AER. Kampfwald Robotics Former Head of FHI Robotics Division, Oswald Ehrlich now leads primarily medical-oriented robotics company who specializes in prosthetics due to the accident that took out half of his body and his daughter. While on the verge of coming up with a small-scale medical system that would let people use artificial limbs as easily as real ones, Oswald was at a loss as his initial prototype was far too large and bulky for it to be manufactured for people. At the projected size, he wasn't even able to effectively do testing on the prototype. However, when Daidai Co. approached Oswald for funding, he was ecstatic. While Kampfwald didn't have the money to outright build a large frame, they did have enough free resources to assist Daidai in their project, and all Oswald had to do was scale up his prototype a little to accommodate. eMotion Mental iMaging System (M^3 System) A man to machine interface system that was originally intended for use in prosthetics. The system reads emotion and intention via a specialized helmet and electrodes that are applied to the back of the neck prior to startup. The original prototype had problems with users who were in states of anger, as it would cause unpredictable and violent outbursts within the machine itself. This problem has long since been dealt with and manual release safeties have been placed to disengage the system to make sure the pilot does not do anything that would put them at extreme risk. Dyson Aerodynamics The final support to finish the Serene Air was from Dyson Aerodynamics, the head of whom used to be in a relationship with Kyoko Hasegawa. While Daidai Co. did not officially send a request to Dyson Aerodynamics, once Ron Dyson caught wind that Kyoko was in need of funding, he quickly supplied what he could in the latest propulsion engines to help reduce costs, as well as a little funding to see the project through. While Daidai Co. initially refused the offer, Ron was quite insistent and even went as far as helping to personally see to the construction of the Serene Air. 42nd Annual International Robotics Festival The first production model of the Serene Air, appropriately colored to sky blue and white tones, was shown at the 42nd Annual Robotics Festival. Using mostly dummy weapons like paintballs, the Serene Air was able to outshine every unit on the field in an impressive show of agility. With the M^3 System, even a novice pilot could move the Serene Air as their own body, which gave it a tremendous edge over more conventional control schemes. It also attracted the eyes of many others for its proposed role in prosthetics. The real show took place in a never-before heard of live-fire testing of the Serene Air. Pitting the unit against several high-caliber beam turrets, many of the spectators were at a loss at what to think, with some wondering why anyone would destroy a unit on its first launch, while others were wondering what kind of trick the Serene Air had up its sleeve. What followed merely left the crowd speechless as the Serene Air gracefully flew through the air, unimpeded by the heavy supression fire that was merely disspiated as it came in contact with the AER's radius. The military presence that was there knew that if more units were made with these capabilities, then the shape of warfare would completely change. The Invaders However the 42nd AIRF was also the date of a true tragedy. From seemingly out of nowhere, unidentified extraterrestrial ships countless in number surrounded the Earth and began to send multitudes of attack squads down through the atmosphere. For the people in the ground, they only got a brief warning to evacuate to shelters before global communications were destroyed. At the site of the 42nd AIRF, many people did not have the time to react to the barrage of energy blasts that fired straight down, causing heavy casualties on their first strike. The remaining suvivors and few injured were hurriedly rushed onto transport ships that were headed for shelters. The little military that was there, as well as the Serene Air were in charge of protecting the transports, however they were quickly overwhelmed with the sheer number of the alien force. In a last minute desperation move, the pilot of the Serene Air dove towards the center of the enemy forces and, in a brilliant flash of light, destroyed a large chunk of the enemy forces in an instant. The Serene Air and its pilot were nowhere to be found. Disbandment and Dispersal Oswald, Ron, and Kyoko knew that they were lucky to have survived the attack of the 42nd AIRF, however from there they only argued and fought as to whose fault it was that the Serene Air was lost. With more pressing matters at hand, the three separated their efforts and returned to their respective craft. With the world at war with an unknown threat, energy, medical, and propulsion were in high demand. However humanity was fighting a losing battle. Soon, entire countries were soon claimed and borders and politics became meaningless. The world was sectioned off into Green Zones, Yellow Zones, and Red Zones, with green being safely habitable, yellow being war-torn areas, and red being areas where the aliens had began to set up base. The Lion Princess It has been eight years since that fateful day that humanity was humbled by the sudden onslaught from the alien force. However, one girl still remembers the fateful day when a brave pilot sacrificed himself to save her and her mother. Katalyn Gemria, a former princess turned queen, had long forsaken her ruined homeland and turned her and a tightly knit band of loyal followers into an independent military entity focused on repelling the alien threat from what little Green Zones there are. Because of this, she has earned the nickname of "The Lion Princess", with her forces known as the Lion Pack, due to the royal emblem placed don the shoulders of her forces. While her troops use now-outdated Valiant Mk.II Soldier units, they utilize guerrilla tactics focusing on mobility and hit and run, skirmishing with an enemy enough to do damage while escaping with minimal casualties. While this is effective against other humans, the alien force is far too numerous and unpredictable for the attacks to be effective. Realizing that her efforts were valuable, but only temporary solutions, Katalyn knew she needed a larger arsenal if she was to make any significant dent to the enemy forces. Remembering back to the brave fight of that single test pilot from many years ago, Katalyn sends a small contingent of her people to go find the minds behind the Serene Air, determined to create a place for humanity to live in peace once again. Project Endless Sky With the three heads of Project Serene Air back together again, Katalyn expected great and immediate results from the, however all she found was a case of three bickering adults who would refuse to work together. It was not until Katalyn’s primary military adviser, a stern faced man who had lost an eye from previous battles, put a rather aggressive word in with the three that they got to work. Wondering what he had said the three to make them so compliant, the man known as Admiral Gates just replied with “Simple military know-how.” Despite their differences, the three worked together with a synergy that is rarely seen in design teams. Under a new banner against the alient threat, the project was called Endless Sky as a symbol of the freedom that humanity once had. Using the knowledge from the tragedy that was the Serene Air, the Endless Sky features more failsafes to prevent the unit as well as the pilot from overexerting themselves. Counteroffensive