-Project: Ignition-
by Airship Canon

Warning: Reader Discretion is Advised!
The following contains themes of... error reporting information. There may be nightmare fuel involved. Proceed with caution.

Prelude:
Rise of the Core

Earth, 1970s... Mankind faced an enemy invasion from regions in the universe far unknown, the BETA. The BETA, or Beings of Extra Terrestrial origin which are Adversaries of the human race, came in nearly infinite numbers and were horrifyingly powerful. With the threat of Laser-class BETA, sometimes referred to as Lux, beings that could produce a high-intensity beam of destructive light from their eyes, humanity lost its power of "Air Superiority" and got dragged into a brutal war that lasted for years on end. Within 30 years of this on-going struggle, casualties numbered in the billions.

As a result of the loss of aircraft due to Laser-class, a new weapon was developed in order to fight the BETA, the Tactical Surface Fighter, or TSF. Originally based on tanks, early TSFs were easily destroyed by BETA, until the former avionics industry took control of the production of TSFs, and began to treat the humanoid mecha more of as low altitude fighter-aircraft rather than tanks, and slowly, humanity began to regain ground.

In 2002, the Primary BETA hive existing on Earth was destroyed in a massive operation; one that was has since been attributed to the success of what would later be described as the first "Arms Fort", the XG-70 Susanoo IV. No clear record of the battle for the Primary hive would survive. However, some ill-proposed records continue to point to one man as a hero of the battle, suggesting that he was the man who piloted the XG-70; however, no further information can be found on the XG-70's pilot, neither before nor after the Primary Objective battle. It is as-if he or anyone else around the XG-70 didn't even exist. Only details regarding the 00-unit that died shortly after the battle exist. Some believe the information was lost, like much of the details regarding the BETA war, during the tyrannical reign of "Father" in the mid 2000s.

In the following years, BETA were hunted down, and eradicated, like what had been done to humans throughout the war. Nations from across the world sought a powerful resource extracted by the BETA- the G-elements, from which the K-307 isotope or "Kojima Particle" would be discovered. The G-elements, at that time were volatile and highly dangerous, but due to their curious nature, they began to be seen as a valuable asset, and countless lives were lost to the BETA as hive attacks became regular.

By 2023, all traces of BETA had been wiped out on Earth, in part to the development of a new type of TSF, the AC-0: the Armored Core. Based off the F-35 Lightning II frame, the AC-0 was a next-gen TSF designed to operate under all conditions exceptionally well, and it used an interchangeable frame that allowed for an immense amount of operations conditions, by freely changing its parts to suit the need of battle. The AC-0's versatility made it a horrifyingly powerful asset, and due to its nature, it was also extremely cost-effective in all areas. Soon, however, it would become the weapon of choice for a tyrannical government...

In 2036, an unknown group of rebels, that were supposedly set in place by the vice president of the US, armed with AC-0s engaged US Eishi near the southern border. The AC-0s wiped out the battalion of F-35 Lightning IIs stationed at Luke Air Force Base, Phoenix Arizona and declared themselves as emissaries of "Father". This began the Arizona conflict, a war that would bring the former superpower, the United States, to its knees. Moreover, the US was only the first nation to fall before the might of "Father". Within 12 years of the start of the Arizona Conflict, Father had cemented his reign- and Earth lie under a shattered sky.

No longer would the Eishi be seen as the heroes of the battlefield: now they are likened to ghosts, TSFs proved inferior to Cores, and Ravens, the chosen name for Eishi who pilot Cores, rather than TSFs, rule the land, exerting Father's will. Many Ravens would not continue their alliance with Father, and would instead become wandering mercenary elites, who yield complete alliance to no one, and are instead, turned by money.

Like all things, however, Father's reign would not be without conflict. A woman, known as Fran eventually started a revolt, which eventually saw Father slain at the hands of his very allies, the enigmatic Corporation, a weapons manufacturing group who only sought profit. This conflict saw the re-deployment of G-Element based weapons, in all applications save for use of a Moorcock-Lechte Drive, and a massive autonomous weapon known as L.L.L., and several others like it, including the Exxusia assault craft, which would soon become famous for being known for the revival of the 00 Human-Computer Integration project.

The aftermath of Fran's revolt soon became the clan war, where clans of Ravens gathered together in a mad grab for survivable territory. The might of the corporation loomed gravely over that battlefield, and the revived 00 project was at the heart of it. The 00 project eventually became known as the Human-Plus augmentation project, but as the conflict escalated, the cost of the Human Plus project forced it to fall to the wayside, completely forgotten. Even the Corporation could not afford the development of the project in the light of the need to field powerful and costly ACs on the battlefield, a battlefield ruled by mercenaries.

By 2044, the Corporation as it was known in the clan wars had fallen, and several other companies had risen- seeing a return of sovereign nations and at last, it seemed, there was a semblance of peace... However, corporate greed soon over took humanity as humans tried to claim the stars, leading to the deployment of powerful orbital weapons, known as Assault Cells were deployed in massive numbers over the Earth, and the path to space became blocked for mankind. With survivable territory on Earth a premium, war once again became inevitable and large-scale conflicts between nations were commonplace.

Things would change with the discovery K-307, or the Kojima Particle, named for the scientist who wrought the isotope from the G-elements, would bring about the most radical of changes for humanity. Kojima Particles were a miracle source of energy, and had amazing physical properties, including a weak gravitic manipulation- a property of the now excessively rare G-Elements, and a core for the Susanoo, but were thousands of times more reactive, and deadly than loose G-Elements. Kojima's most notable quality outside of its obvious use as an energy source, however, was the way it reacts to motion. In certain densities, when a current is ran thru it, it activates a peculiar quality of the Kojima Particle- when the particles collide with each other in this state, they become semi-solid, slowing incoming objects like a piece of steel would.

It was then, that the great companies Rayleonard and Akavit brought about a powerful use for the Kojima Particle, the Fourth Generation Armored Core: the NEXT. Rayleonard's 00-3/AALIYAH was the first of the new class of Armored Core to be deployed on to the battlefield, and it utilized the full array of new equipment- including the Allegorical Manipulation System, or AMS, a new highly advanced control system, built as a result of the once-again resurgent 00 Human-Plus, Human-Computer Integration Project, a relic from the early 2000s. However, in addition to the increased speed and maneuverability of the NEXT, its greatest asset is Primal Armor, a powerful shield created using Kojima Particles and their ability to become semi-solid.

In 2107, Rayleonard and its corporate allies declared war upon the nations of the world, with 26 NEXTs as their hidden ace. This war, which would become known as the National Dismantlement War, only lasted a month and a half- and it brought the world once ruled by the Ravens to its knees. Thus ended an era, and brought upon the time of the Lynx, and ultimately, the Pax.

The Pax or Pax Economica was a brutal time for humanity- a totalitarian rule by the corporations who had brought about the end of Nationality for good where people were forced to live as slaves in colonies, with the threat of at any moment becoming victim to a company's greed. It was commonplace to destroy the colonies of rival companies, so colonies often found themselves needing to arm themselves by hiring Lynx, which created and endless cycle of debt to the ruling corporations. It is during the Pax that a young woman in Anatolia named Fiona Jarnefeldt found a mysterious Raven survivor of the National Dismantlement War. The man who she found would eventually be known as both hero and villain, as soon his actions would lead to another war, the Lynx war.

During the Lynx War, it was said that Anatolia's Mercenary struck down the heads of two companies himself- striking lethal blows to the Bernard and Felix Foundation and Rayleonard, as well as killing several of the Originals, the Lynx who had fought in the National Dismantlement war. A large number of lives were lost in this swift, but brutal war. However, its greatest issue would be the large amounts of Kojima Particle Pollution spread on the Earth's surface. On the poisoned Earth, humanity dwindled as countless perished from Kojima poisoning.

By time it was 2117, the world's population had once again dwindled, with millions of people now living in the skies, due to massive amounts of Kojima Particle Pollution on the surface. Only in the Cradles, which floated peacefully 7000 meters above the surface, was the air clean and safe to breathe. It was then that a woman by the name of Kasumi Sumika would have her name written in the history books. The woman who found a man who became known only the name of his NEXT, Strayed, a Lynx who would go on to become the harbinger of the Closed Plan- a secret operation set forth during the Pax to allow man to reach for the stars, as a member of the terrorist organization, ORCA.

Strayed was feared, and simultaneously revered as a skilled Lynx: an Arms Fort killer, capable of turning mankind's most powerful weapons into nothing more than slag, but he like so many other heroes seemed to have just disappeared from reality. With Anatolia's famed Raven believed dead, many of the Lynx that held power slain, perhaps even by the hand of Strayed, and Strayed himself gone, the powers held completely shifted.

In the years following the felling of the Cradles and the Assault Cells, the radical changes brought to the table by Strayed would play out, as once former allies, the Interior Union and Omer Science Technology turned on one-another. The Interior-Omer war would be the largest war on Earth since the Lynx war, but neither side held a Lynx capable of ending the conflict, while GA America steadily gained power.

With the Cradles that once held humankind in the sky since destroyed, and Assault Cells that prevented anything from entering or leaving the atmosphere gone as well, while many lives end daily due to Kojima exposure, or as a result of the Interior-Omer war, it would seem as if Humanity would yet again wane. However, instead, as people began to cope with living on Earth's polluted surface, the opposite held true. Indeed the sacrifices were great, but humanity would soon rise to prosperity, reaching ever outward... However, what had kept people caged, had also held their enemies out... and by time the rise of the Lynx had occurred no one could remember the horrors that lead there.